3 in 30 - 2001.06.17 Sunday
ORION advertisement
We have seen this advertisement for ORION many times over the years, but never were able to find the ORION store. I had thought that the combination of stylized block letters with the initial "O" being a bit more sketchy was a nice design. The red and white are colors of the Japanese flag, so it would seem to be a chain nationwide.
It took a long time to look at this sign in a different light. In fact, the sign has no roman characters at all. It is not legible in any western language. It does use arabic numerals.
The initial circle (reading left to right) is just that—a circle. The rest of the characters are blocky katakana. I am guessing that most readers do not have Japanese language characters installed on their machines, so here are some pictures of the characters.
 = MA
|
 = RU
|
 = FU
|
 = KU
|
MARU is a circle, so the circle logo and katakana “circle” is repetitious. The FUKU, though not spelled out in kanji is probably "happiness." The name of the company advertising is then "Circle of Happiness." I suppose that is a reasonable name for a check cashing and deposit loan company.
So long, ORION.
We forget that Matsubara-cho spans two levels on its slope down to the Tama River. This snapshot illustrates again the change in levels.
It happens that this eight spot parking lot has a visible wall with houses at the top. On the right is the familiar scaffolding and blue screen/tarp used around construction sites. At the moment, I don't recall if this was a new construction after a demolition or whether it was some remodeling or painting.
The hydrangeas are out again. These deep blue hydrangeas are around the entryway of the "Flower Lady's" house. We are embarrassed that we do not know all of our neighbors' names.
A few years ago, when the Steiners were visiting, we went down to Kamakura and toured a temple that was known for its many varieties of hydrangeas. The colors range from deep blue and purple through pinks to white. The colors depend in part on the acidity and iron content of the soil in which they grow.
You can see that also in bloom are petunias of several varieties. There is also a Christmas cactus which won't bloom until December or so.