The far west of Tokyo is a world away from the bright lights and busy streets the city is famous for. It’s mountainous and green for starters, plus it’s also home to bar owners in their 90s, wonderfully atmospheric old train tunnels and long since abandoned cable cars.
However, that’s not the whole story, as seek out the area’s villages, and it feels altogether different again. Small pockets of civilisation that seem utterly isolated despite being located in one of the world’s most populated cities. And yet isolated they are in many ways, with little in the way of facilities, and none of the things people generally take for granted such as public transportation and supermarkets. Hence the need for a mobile shop.
A service that’s presumably a lifeline for the predominately elderly locals, and as such the owner had his orders already written down and was slowly bagging them up from his astonishingly well-stocked truck — it also opens up on the other side where the fridge is.
All in all a sight that was as interesting as it was surprising.
Harry says
Cool. His service is so much more personal than the big chains here. Did you shop? 😉
Lee says
It is. Sure he knows most of his customers just like a local shopkeeper would. But nah, I didn’t buy anything!
Linda Lombardi says
I was thinking – all those bar owners and candy store people in their 90s are so wonderful but always make me sad because I know they’re inevitably going away soon. I wish you would do a series of bar and shop owners who you think might someday be bar and shop owners in their 90s. It would be nice to imagine a future where other people will still have that pleasure, you know?
Lee says
That’s a very good point. A future I’m certainly hoping for too. Trouble is, it’s very hard to predict which places will still be going strong years from now. Plus in all honesty — barring the odd exception of course — people and places without all those years behind them are nowhere near as interesting…
Linda Lombardi says
I trust you to find the odd exceptions 🙂
Lee says
Haha, I shall certainly do my best!
cdilla says
That area is a wonderful complex mix of nature, old small buildings, and decaying infrastucture. I had a good wander around it on streetview a while back after one of your previous photographs of a car.
I like the lived-in normalness of this scene. Long may it be a way of life that survives.
Back in the 60’s in suburban Yorkshire we had weekly mobile shops for fruit and veg, meat, and fish. We got processed meats (tongue, haslet, and if we were lucky, ham) and tinned good from the newsagent. And of course the local off license to get our soda syphon refilled.
Pretty much the only vans doing the rounds where I live now, suburban Wiltshire, are a rag and bone van (with colourful a “any old iron” commentary you can hear all across the county) and an icecream van – which sadly does not play the right tune (The right tune -> https://tinyurl.com/y796dwge – played coincidentally on a van that originally plied the streets where I lived as a kid).
Anyway, vertainly another side of Tokyo life I really enjoy seeing your photographic record of.
Lee says
Good to hear you got so much out of it, and it brought back memories.
Yeah, it really is a fascinating area. Never ceases to amaze me — no matter how many times I go — that it is still Tokyo.
I guess the deliveries will continue, but in the future it’ll likely be companies such as Amazon doing them, rather than someone like the fella in the photo. More convenient, but far less personal. Bit like corner shops and supermarkets I suppose.
When I was back in Britain over the summer I was pleased to see ice cream vans still out and about. Not seen a rag and bone man for a very long time though!
Rob says
Love that second pic. The small street, the truck, the old buildings, the mountains and trees in the background. Love the ‘everyday’ nature of those pics!
Lee says
Thank you. Yeah, a lovely everyday moment. Well, for those people who live out there it is anyway, but one that was a real treat for me to see.