Yup, the above is the apartment building where I lived, Maison Asami in Ichikawa City. Seventeen good years were spent in that 2K. Compared to where I've been living for the past decade now, my apartment on the 3rd floor was a tiny little place with a living room, a bedroom, a kitchen and a unit bathroom, but it was home. I had a good routine and lifestyle with a lot of supermarkets, convenience stores and restaurants within 5 to 10 minutes on foot. My station was Minami-Gyotoku on the blue Tozai Line, one of the busiest lines on the Tokyo Metro.
Listening to the pop duo Tsuki no Michikake's（月の満ちかけ）June 2021 single "Sundeita Machi de" brought some of those old memories back. 「街」can be translated as "street" or "town" but I think Tsuki no Michikake's Kazuya Imai（今井カズヤ）who wrote and composed the song probably meant the former, so "The Street Where I Used to Live". His lyrics describe a person moving on after the end of a relationship and leaving the old neighbourhood for a new neighbourhood and a new life.
I first posted about Tsuki no Michikake back in late 2022 for the title track of their self-titled album from 2018 and received some pleasant light and mellow sunny-side pop. Once again, I'm getting those vibes for "Sundeita Machi de". I can easily imagine a music-variety show performance of this one with a few dancers and their shopping bags skipping rhythmically on the residential street.
Although it wasn't due to a romantic breakup, my final departure from Maison Asami does come to mind when I handed the key over to my rental agency back in December 2011. Six weeks later, I launched "Kayo Kyoku Plus".
Nice. The only non-dorm or guesthouse that I lived in in Japan was a 1DK in Saitama. It was bigger than the place I can currently afford 20 years later in Australia! The place in Saitama cost me Y40K a month, about AUD$400 these days. I pay AUD$1400 a month for a smaller place now! I'm an hour from the city and in Japan it was only 20 minute to Shinjuku for me. Funny how the world got better and better for my parents, but worse and worse for me.
ReplyDeleteSome of your years in Tokyo must have overlapped with the years I was in Tokyo. I arrived in Japan in 2001, but I lived in Tokyo for 2002 to 2009 and then I returned to 'blue forest' Japan maybe evergreen forest is more accurate, because some of the Trees are green despite all the snow.
ReplyDeleteHi guys. Sam, you were really fortunate to have that 1DK for 40,000 yen a month. I had to pay 73,000 yen for my 2K but the good thing was that the landlord never raised even so much as a single yen in all my 17 years there. I hear you about our generation not doing as well. Brian, I was in Japan between 1994 and 2011 so we were definitely living in the same nation at the same time. I'm sure your residential costs were much less expensive up north.
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