Walking around Kannai area from Yokohama Station
The first place I arrived at after leaving my house before 9:00 a.m. was Kannai Station. In recent years, Kanto Gakuin University has opened a campus in the area, and the area is showing further development. After getting off at Kannai Station, I headed for the sea, passing by the prefectural government office, Yokohama Stadium, Silk Hall, and the customs office.
It took about 10 minutes to reach Yamashita Park. There was a beautiful public restroom at the entrance, so I stopped there. A café overlooking the ocean was preparing to open.
There are trees in the park, and the shade of the trees heals people. A senior citizen was holding what looked like a saber. I could see senior citizens enjoying tai chi with something like a saber. A thought crossed my mind. ～I wondered if I would participate in such a gathering when I become a senior citizen.
As a conclusion, I don’t think I would be able to do this kind of thing (tai chi with everyone).
The reason is that it is impossible for me to make the effort to get together at such a late hour in the morning (like 10:00 a.m.). And it is stressful to talk about trivial everyday things (hot, cold, neighbors, etc.). To top it all off, it is extremely stressful to share time together in a relaxed manner (-. -I was very stressed to share time together.
This was the event that confirmed to me once again that I was not suited for community activities after I graduated from the company.
I remembered that I had a short-term bed-making job at a hotel next to the Marine Tower during the year-end and New Year holidays when I was a student. I pulled out from a corner of my memory that some rooms had pillow money in them.
It was still early at 10:00 a.m., but the sun was getting a little stronger. The sea breeze was soothing to my body, and I left Yamashita Park and moved back toward Yokohama Stadium.
We walk alongside foreigners and others taking commemorative photos in the Chinatown arcade. We see a kickboard rental in a small space on the sidewalk. A guy with a kickboard in front of me makes a left turn at an intersection. I think a maximum speed of 20 km/h is good. It would be better if all cars drove at this speed, but it would be better if the maximum speed was reduced except at high speeds. Personally, I think it would be better if the maximum speed were reduced except at high speeds.
After arriving at Kannai Station, we left Sakuragicho for another time and moved on to Yokohama Station. On the way to Yokohama Station, quite a few people get on and off the train.
When I arrived at Yokohama Station, I got off at the West Exit and headed for Yokohama Bibule (I later realized that Bibule is a shopping mall). (I noticed later that Bibule is now part of the Aeon Group. No wonder there are pop-ups advertising AEON cards in the store.)
I used to come to Bibule often until I was a student. Not only for shopping, but there was a live music club on the upper floor (not anymore), and I visited there many times. I went to see some minor artists perform live, but there were times when there were no more than 10 people in the audience. The artist I will never forget is Toyoyuki Tanaka, the bass player of SQUARE, the forerunner of the Japanese fusion group “T-SQUARE” (from Yokohama, Japan, you can check his current status on Face Book). (You can check his current status on his Face Book.) After he left the band, he formed the band FIELD OF DREAMS? (I can’t find it in my search…) It was in the early days of the band.
The guitarist of the band was Yutake Ohashi who left PEARL led by Naomi Tamura. I was able to learn through this search that he was active in the fusion group after that, but I also confirmed that he passed away suddenly in April 2023 at the age of 55. At that time, I remember him on stage playing chopper (slap) unison play on the guitar with BASS Tanaka, R.I.P.A.S.S.
Remembering the Yokohama Bibule live house brought up many memories. I also went to see a band called Grand Prix led by Nobuo Yamada when I was just starting out (the band has since disbanded), and the guitarist was Southpaw Minami, who was in Takako Shirai’s band. A search shows that Takako Shirai is still active, and her 40th anniversary concert will be held in 2022, and she is still active in her 60s. Her hit song “Chance” is still being sung today.
I saw a few foreign tourists here and there in the park. It seems to be a morning walk course for senior citizens. The Hikawa Maru sits in the park and is a part of the scenery of the park.
It is a place that brings back many memories for me.
After window shopping at Vivre, I entered DOSPARRA nearby. This was my first visit during Golden Week, and the store is well-known among gamers and pc enthusiasts. I also saw a few seniors who are older than me. I checked the prices and status of gaming mice, cables and PDs. I was surprised to see 120w until recently! The cables are also displayed with the corresponding 240w.
Please refer to my past articles on why I am interested in gaming equipment even though I don’t play games. (Link at the bottom).
But still, the crowd was huge. It’s hot, but there are quite a few people out on the streets.
I suddenly decided to go to the building where the company I worked for when I graduated was located.
When I arrived at the 8.9-story building that rises beside the Metropolitan Expressway, I found a white building with the same appearance as before. The name of the building used to be Tsuruya-cho **, but the owner seems to have changed and the name is now Iwasaki **, and I felt the passage of time.
My hazy memories of going to the elevator hall on the first floor and going to a restaurant in the basement for a drink after work with my seniors began to come flooding back to me. The company itself is now liquidated, and the mainly black experiences I had as a new graduate in an organization that no longer exists are a precious treasure?
Eating fried rice and other dishes for supper at ramen stores around that company (even after supper, they were always open by phone until 8 or 9 o’clock). (I remember going to a nearby bar with my classmates (it was a pretty expensive place and my classmates seemed to be cutting cards all over the place. (I remember it was quite an expensive place, and my classmates seemed to be cutting all the cards.) I was a senior employee of the company. I remember that one of my seniors at the company was addicted to a foreigner’s bar and was busy paying his salaray money or something like that. I also remember that the senior employee of the company was addicted to foreigner’s restaurants and was busy paying his sala-kin or something like that. It seemed to be a standard practice at that workplace to relieve work stress at night by going to bars. I watched them with a cold eye. I think I am not missing the point when I say that I had to leave the workplace because I had differences with the people there in terms of their views on work and how to deal with money.
To be continued in the next article.
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July 28, 2023 Friday morning is off to a hot start today with cicadas buzzing. The forecast high temperature is 35 degrees Celsius for some time to come.
There are reports that the Bank of Japan will allow long-term interest rates to rise above 0.5%, which seems to be pushing the yen higher. The Bank of Japan will hold a policy meeting today, and it is being watched closely to see if there will be a correction in the yield curve control (YCC). The Dow, on the other hand, seems to have ended today’s trading session without a 14th straight session.
Since I got my annual leave today, I will have 3 consecutive holidays including Saturday and Sunday starting today.
Yesterday, while searching various places on the Internet, I learned that there is a bike rental service in my neighborhood. I thought it might be a good idea during the summer to go to places that are difficult to reach by public transportation, and I also looked into helmets and other motorcycle equipment that I would need. I will report on this blog when it happens.
Now, let’s continue with last week’s outing from Yokohama to Kannai.
Here is an excerpt from the last part of last week’s article.
As if from a dim memory, I went to the elevator hall on the first floor and went to a restaurant in the basement to have a drink after work with my seniors. The company itself is now liquidated, and the mainly black experiences I had as a new graduate in an organization that no longer exists are a precious treasure?
Eating fried rice and other dishes for supper at ramen stores around that company (even after supper, they were always open by phone until 8 or 9 o’clock). (I remember going to a nearby bar with my classmates (it was a pretty expensive place and my classmates seemed to be cutting cards all over the place. (I remember it was quite an expensive place, and my classmates seemed to be cutting all the cards.) I was a senior employee of the company. I remember that one of my seniors at the company was addicted to a foreigner’s bar and was busy paying his salaray money or something like that. I also remember that my senior at that company was addicted to foreigner’s restaurants and had to pay a sala-kin or something like that. It seemed to be a standard practice at that workplace to relieve work stress at night by going to bars. I watched them with a cold eye. I think I am not missing the point when I say that I had to leave the workplace because I had differences with the people there in terms of their views on work and how to deal with money.
To be continued in the next article.
I wrote about how a return visit to the first company I used to commute to from home (which is no longer there) brought back many memories.
The time was past noon, so I decided to have a second meal. The basement of Joynas at the west exit of Yokohama Station is used as a restaurant, and most of the restaurants on both the first and second basement floors have customers lined up in line. Curry House Rio, which I used to stop by often until I was a student, is still one of the most prosperous restaurants in the basement of Joynas.
After about 10 minutes of waiting in line, I decided to go to another curry store and ordered the highly recommended “Curry with vegetables and brown rice”. All the curry dishes are served with brown rice or white rice, and everyone around me had brown rice.
After enjoying two kinds of curry with vegetables (shishito peppers and bell peppers) and brown rice, which I have not had for a long time, I moved on to Takashimaya.
There were many people here, too! I went to the cooking utensils and tableware floor on the upper floor and was surprised to see the price of the Lucreze I had bought when I was in Shinshu. I bought 4 Leclese pots and pans (22cm, 24cm, 28cm x 2), including gifts, between 2004 and 2007, and the price was amazing.
The price has doubled. It’s amazing how the yen’s depreciation and the passage of time in about 20 years or less. It may be that they are sold at regular prices in department stores, but I was still surprised. I thought again that I would take better care of the things I use at home and use them for a long time.
After leaving Takashimaya, I went to the east exit of Yokohama Station. After passing through the huge crowds, I decided to stop by Seijo Ishii in the basement. I enjoyed window-shopping and looking at honey, which I have been interested in recently.
Now I moved back to the west exit and went to Yodobashi Camera. Yodobashi Camera was originally located in the building where Mitsukoshi used to be. I spent a lot of time at Ishii Sports on the upper floor.
Although I do not hike in the mountains, I was intrigued by the functional mountaineering-related clothing and backpack storage items. I spent more than an hour looking at such functional products in the spacious store.
As you can see in the picture above, Ishii Sports encourages customers to “take pictures in the store. As you can see in the picture above, Ishii Sports encourages “in-store photography. Many stores basically do not allow photography, but I was impressed by the idea of taking pictures and uploading them to social networking sites for publicity, which makes sense in itself.
I think this is a PR method that fits the times.
Moving to the second floor, I went to the camera and earphone corner. Yodobashi has a lot of uniformed security guards. A dozen or so customers were listening to a demonstration of a real lecture on cameras.
In this age of wireless earphones, wired earphones and headphones are also available for sound enthusiasts. Some of the earphones were priced over 300,000 yen. There were also many re-cables, which are used to replace the cables of earphones. In fact, I have been neglecting my SURE earphones for several years because the cables are getting old! I was a bit shaken up about it.
Next, I went to the PC supply-related floor. The focus was on PC cables. There is a wide selection of private brand PD cables.
As a matter of course, 240W PD cables are also displayed at a reasonable price. We are forced to recognize that the era is 240W, following DOSPALA.
Although most of our shopping is done online these days, it is also quite stimulating to pick up an item at a real store and see what other customers are doing. It is also convenient because I can check the actual product at a Yodobashi real store, take my time to go home and think about it, and then order it at Yodobashi.com with free shipping.
