At the beginning of the year I posted a few photographs from this incredibly old and dated shopping street, but with better light on a recent return, I managed to capture more of what makes it so special.
There used to be a comparatively modern store at one end, but now even that has gone, leaving only the still popular tofu shop, along with the green tea place that remains more like a museum piece than an actual business. Nothing at all about the latter has changed in nearly 12 months. Probably the same goes for the last 12 years as well.
Yet busy or otherwise, they are all that’s left, with their former neighbours long since shuttered up. Only their slowly fading signs remain. All of which provides a fascinating glimpse of how local life and commerce once was before supermarkets, cars and convenience stores changed the landscape forever.
YesterdaysHero says
Beautiful and sad. Great work as always.
Lee says
Thanks ever so much. And yes, a beautiful little spot, but very sad to see it slowly fading away.
Denise says
I love this. The old couple look so sweet. 🙂
Lee says
Thank you. And yeah, they really were. They must have done that little journey together so many times.
Richard says
Places like these were bustling in 1970 when I lived in Tokyo. There were huge shopping arcades in the big train stations like Shinjuku but the local neighborhoods relied on these shops for much of their daily needs. Tokyo felt like a small town in that respect.
These two stores will be gone once their owners have died. So great that you have the photos. Thanks!
Lee says
Yeah, I’ve seen photos of such places back in the day and it was amazing to see how bustling they were. Thankfully there are still older, local places that are still doing well, but certainly nothing like in the numbers there once were.
And yeah, good to have the photos. Always the chance it won’t be there next time…
Glennis says
Every time I see your photo sets documenting older corners of Japan, I want to wander down all the odd places and streets I come across there.
I lived there ‘65-72.
Lee says
It would have been a very different city back then. I can only imagine what you saw and experienced, but sadly so much of that must have long since disappeared…
Richard says
I lived there from ‘69-71. Last time I was back in late 2019 I could hardly recognize most of the places I used to hang out.
Evan says
Seeing these two shops makes me want to visit them. Frequently! And it makes me wonder about the other shops and the multitude of them Glennis and Richard mention. I imagine they were similar in essence.
I could be sad with the fact that I will never visit them, and probably nothing like them, but the glimpse you’ve provided leaves me enchanted.
Lee says
Yeah, definitely many like these will have gone over the years. Thankfully a good few still remain. For now at least, anyway.
Thanks a lot. That’s really good to hear. With so many being demolished, I try and look at it more positively these days, by simply feeling lucky that I actually got to see them.