Kichijoji

A visit to a once well known area.

For what must have appeared as suspicious as a grinning fox in an empty hen house I traveled what should should have been an hour and a half one way tip to be handed an envelope thick with ¥10,000 notes by an South Asian national I had never met. Prior to the panic, I used to buy fountain pen ink, paper and occasionally pens for friends met online. This habit has led to some innocent but suspicious looking rendezvous, but this one the most.

A friend from India is a big time collector. His visa expired, he returned home and he has been trying to get a new one for about a year now. Ironic given the vast number of his compatriots who are arriving daily. His “crime” is that unlike they, he is educated. Has three degrees, one being in law.

When a famous stationery store in Tokyo announced their limited edition pens for their yearly pen fair, he asked me to reserve some for him. I am a member of their pen club and as such enjoy both early notification and a discount. We both expected he would be back in Japan by now. While I cannot accept money transferred to me without Uncle Sam satisfying his fetish for all info on everyone, my friend has non US person friends who he trusted to send the payment for his pens and then to meet me in person to hand over the cash. That was why I found myself in Kichijoji Saturday.

It was a bit of an Odyssey. I needed to change to the Chuo Line at Kanda but my first train was delayed. As we were crossing a river, the emergency breaks were applied and we came to a complete stop and remained immobile for some time. I thought to myself that this would hopefully mean that I would not have any troubles on the Chuo Line. The Chuo Line is notorious for people jumping in front of their trains to end their lives. I lived on this line in the 90s and it was a twice a week or more experience to have the line stopped as they literally picked up the pieces of a wasted life. Well, the charm did not work. Perhaps my thoughts jinxed it. Shortly before I reached Kanda station, “jishinjiko, “accident with injury”, the euphemism for jumpers, was announced as happening at another station I once lived near. I was a full hour late to the cash drop. Luckily, he lives nearby and was easily able to rearrange his schedule.

I took advantage of the trip to visit some of my old haunts. A famous old park is not far from the station, Inokashira Park. It has long been rumored that if a couple go out on the pond in a boat that they will break up. I have been on dates to the park but we never tested the theory. We broke up anyway.

Boats upon the pond in Inokashira Park. Photo by author. All rights reserved.

There used to be several artisan pottery shops along the road to the park. I was looking forward to dropping back into these. They have been replaced with coffee houses, including Starbucks, used clothing stores and other currently hip types of venues.

The old yakitori shop was right where I remembered it, though. However, in place of the Meiji era two story building that it once was, it occupied part of the bottom two floors of a residential skyscraper. The facade of the restaurant keeps much of the atmosphere, but it is a shame the old building is gone. It is possible that this was how it was 28 years ago and that my memory is off, but on this I am relatively sure it was a stand alone building when last I saw it. While not brand new, the apartment building certainly appears to be less than 30 years old.

Iseya. The lines were too long when I was looking for a place to eat. Photo by author. All right reserved.

On the other side of the tracks I found the large shopping area with its many covered streets that I recalled from my youth. A new phenomenon that I noticed a little before the panic that has spread rapidly of late was easily evident in Kichijoji. First empty areas in department stores or stores in malls and more recently, entire stand alone stores are filled with capsule vending machines.

The third such store seen in Kichijoji. Photo by author. All rights reserved.

Imagine going to a high end mall that you used to window shop in as a college student and find capsule vending machines occupying what was once your favorite whatever store. Then, to see them spread out to occupy independent stores. I saw at least three and I think four of these in Kichijoji. The photo is of the third I ran across.

Something new and surprising was the large number of pet stores in the area. At least three. Many of the stores here allow shopping with pets. It would be fun to go shopping there with her royal blackness herself, Shadow, whom I introduced to you over a year and a half ago. She would be the most fun of the 4 cats I once had, left with my former family, to take shopping.

I looked for the used kimono store I frequented when in college. The clerk was really cute and invited me to come and hang put with her. I was engaged at the time and did not take her up on the offer though I did buy things there from time to time. The area I remember the store being is being torn down.

Funny, after all but 22 years of marriage and deciding what to eat and where being fraught with trouble, being on my own I am somehow unable to decide what and where I want to eat. On my third pass through the narrow alleyways filled with eateries and grog shops, I spied not only many of my favorite foods skewered and ready for roasting, but also a craft beer menu. Hooked, I called for a drink and ordered several yakitori. I stood outside the shop in the narrow alley as revelers passed close behind. The small shop was one of several of the same operating in the immediate area. Two of the four beers I tried were on tap at one of their other locations. Few of the employees I saw of any of the restaurants here were Japanese. Those I dealt with put my ability with the local language to shame. I knew that this popular and once cheap fare, yakitori, would be expensive as it had long since become, still, I was shocked at the ¥7500 bill. Craft beer ain’t cheap.

It must also be said that along with Koenji where a group of us got together when DW Shumway was in town earlier this year, Kichijoji was every bit as alive and vibrant as I remember it from decades ago. Perhaps more so. These two areas are quite different in this respect to the places I frequent for work and daily living. Akihabara is crowded but it is almost exclusively foreign tourists buying trading cards and anime/manga related stuff. Many of the electronics stores that catered to the locals are out of business. Some, replaced with the capsule vending machines or anime figurine stores. Others, still empty. Shinjuku, half of it anyway is gone. Whole blocks torn down. None of the places near the station on that side I have patronized over the past 35 years remain. None, and they are currently empty lots, buildings still being torn down or rebuilt.

A shirt a subscriber or two might like, seen for sale in Kichijoji. Photo by author. All rights reserved.