Nakayama

My neighborhood shinto torii looking towards the hill I live against in Nakayama, a suburb of Yokohama.

My minyo (traditional festive dancing) teacher and myself. This is at a local minyo festival, in front of my own Nakayama train station. Happy to say, I did not drop my fan in the gusty breeze.

My minyo group. I am the tall one who has her natural hair color. These are down-to-earth women, dedicated to learning new steps and supporting the communal sense of belonging.

First, let's start with where I live. Here is my view from my apartment, out the front door. A hillside of pretty homes on an incredible slope. That is Yokohama-very hilly.

The house next door, out the front door. An older couple live there, and their adult children visit to keep the gardens pruned and orderly. The patriarch is often connected to a respirator and portable air tank on wheels. He doesn't feel well, and his mortality hangs on him like the old t-shirts he wears. That twinkle in his eye says he still enjoys his life, though. We swap garden vegetables across the low wall. I give beans and peppers and he gives shiso, persimmons, figs and the ume (pickeled plums) that are too strong for him. There is a BMW parked in their garage.

AUGUST 2006.Cranes. Lots of cranes. Day after day. Night after night. Inexorably, another patch of sky replaced by another nest of danshi, the most boring product of Japan. From the outside. Inside,they can be rather nice, almost normally modern looking. They are highly desired, and that is why there are soooo many of them. I await to see the final product. Photo coming of the public relations beauty portrait hanging on the cyclone fencing. Best moment of the Nest O'Cranes' day: the 8:20 a.m. daily cheer of the battalions of construction crews: "HuH! HuH! HuH! HuH! HuH! HuH! HuH! HuH!" And Hi-ho, Hi-ho, It's off to work we go.

My little street by my apartment is not a proper road, but more of a wide footpath, called a roji. The view includes slices of many other views, a mishmash of old homes, towering apartment buildings, overlorded by cranes producing yet more of these. Yet, the greenery brings relief from the density.

Nearby house with farming plot. June featured vibrant purple flag iris and lettuce. Since then I have seen a stand of corn, rows of taro, a soybean patch, and daikon radish. Several people are very industrious. A patch of rice around the corner has already been harvested as of October. By January, the daikon is up and out, and the red leafed cabbages are on display.

Local cemetary on the hill beside my apartment. From danshi to death, let's enjoy lining up and then lying down together. There is a certain sense of comfortable inevitability in this juxtaposition. And, it is a nice place to enjoy a little contemplation in the sunshine while listening to the cranes heave themeselves up and down, the true lords of the Daimuracho-Morningudai valley in Nakayama.

My little street by my apartment is not a proper road, but more of a wide footpath, called a roji. The view includes slices of many other views, a mishmash of old homes, towering apartment buildings, overlorded by cranes producing yet more of these. Yet, the greenery brings relief from the density.

After a long day or night of riding the rails, my Nakayama ticket wicket is "Home Sweet Home." From the little juice stand to the humble stand-up hot and cheap noodle store (closed too early), the next stop is usually a quick perusal of the grocery store and lunch box items just beyond the gate. Outside, the three-story combo train and shopping center is under constant construction as, for some weird reason, the train planners are running a link from here to Hiyoshi, thus connecting two parallel lines sweeping between Tokyo and Yokohama. I wish they would finish soon.

Yoshi Terakado, my personal "hair artist" in Nakayama. He lives nearby and his latest news is the approaching birth of his first son. A lovely guy. He works at the improbably named "Hair Make ASH", which makes him a hairmaker. There is no such thing as a "quick haircut" in Japan. Yoshi gives my hair the utmost attention, and his expert, the other half of my personal hair team, Yuki Takanashi, massages the conditioner into every little strand of my hair. This is the first photo from my NTT Docomo Motorola "Razr" keitai cell phone.

KUHS-ladder on the wall. Or, is it a strange, mechanical monster? Has someone's mecha escaped imagination? February 26, 2007.

© 2008. Comments to Patricia Yarrow
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