Picking up the Meiji-dori walk was a little more complicated than I had expected – its been a while since I was last following the road, and although I’d got a picture of the outside of the station it wasn’t much use to me when I was on a train trying to decide if I was in the right place to get off yet.
Arriving at Shin-Mikawashima, though, everything was familiar, I’d navigated back to the place I left off three months ago.
The railway line crosses the road at an oblique angle, just as the road is splitting into a flyover over a complex junction which seemed to be frequented by the emergency services, and the Wonderful Jesus Mission Center, presumably something of a blackspot what with the six roads meeting under the bridge in a chaotic acreage of tarmac.
There was an open-fronted building a few doors up from the junction, with some guys resting on the window-sill peering in, a boxing school, with a couple of rings and boxers training for their audience. I hurried past, I don’t like that kind of thing.
Another mission, this must be ‘the christian quarter’. This one has a misinterpretation of the crucifixion as sermon preaching to the park-dwellers across the road, angel of the north without being angelic or northern.
The centrepiece of the park, a fountain, was ignored by the locals just as much. There was a gull bathing on top of the pile of rocks, enjoying the water running past its feet. There is an unusual statue of a girl watching the fountain – shes sat with her head turned away from the road, from Jesus.
Passing through a small area of new development, a collection of tall blocks with mirrored glass reflecting each other, I find a Ferrari showroom. Who in this neighbourhood would buy an Italian motor? This is hardcore Toyota territory, theres nothing but Crowns and Soarers here, the occasional Mazda but they’re nearly extinct. I wonder if they ever had a ‘Mondeo man’ here? Do we still have them back home?
Another railway line crosses at a jaunty angle, must be the road not running straight, this part of the city is grided, but not in a way Americans can understand – they still don’t name (or number) the roads.
Suddenly everything becomes familiar again, I’ve been here before, Minowa, only I’m crossing the other way this time, I knew I’d be back.
Hidden from the road there is a little childrens playground, there’s obviously not a litigious culture here since the ground is still hard enough you could hurt yourself on it, and the concrete pandas haven’t been removed for being too dangerous.
Suburbia is setting in badly here, the blocks of flats are turning into houses, theres not much taller than three or four floors, theres starting to be wasteland, plots between houses where it isn’t worth building anything yet, in the centre of the city that doesn’t happen, its always worth building something.
The communications towers start to become the highest thing on the skyline, drawing attention with their red and white stripes.
Infrastructure. This place keeps the city running, communications beacon on one side of the road, the green balls of the gasworks on the other, freeway swooping along the opposite riverbank, connecting everything, its just passing through, but this is a soft spot, one well placed disaster could bring half the city to a halt.
I caught the attention of some of the bridge people, they don’t see many gaijin here, those they do see are hurrying to get away from the area, theres nothing for foreigners here, they were suspiscious of the pictures of the gasworks, of the freeway, of the comms hub, of their soft spot. Does anyone in Milton Keynes think like that? Are they scared that they’re a vulnerable spot, the place where the power grid, the road and rail networks converge?
Bowling is advertised with huge pins, there was one attached to a small triangular two storey building, no evidence of the alley itself.
The next railway line is perpendicular – we must have curved around to head south now. It is marked by the fabulously names ‘Kok parking’.
Hidden away in the backstreets here is a ‘centre for lifelong learning’, which seemed to be a place for old people to study, I felt most unwelcome somehow. A shame, since the architecture looked interesting.
I finished up at Omurai Station, from which I caught a local train back to Asakusa, then Akihabara. I should be figuring out which laptop to get, I’m after something small, like a Libretto, but its got to be a proper PC, not a WinCE machine. Not sure which way to go, either a sparkly new 200kyen top of the range beast, or a 20kyen portable keyboard, the 20k machines aren’t really good enough for doing anything useful, but maybe worth getting once I’ve gotten a bit more of my current project running….once I can run that on a portable machine I’ll be nearly unstoppable. Maybe.