3 in 30 - 2002.01.21 Monday
This week's title should read "three in three" since I only took about three minutes to stop and shoot these snapshots. It was raining and chilly and late in the afternoon. I did not have inspiration to search out particularly unique views.
Never-the-less, here are some things that indicate what we see as the state of affairs in our neighborhood. We have been reading in the papers for months now about how bad the economy has been in Japan, in fact, about the economy of the world. The value of the yen has dropped by about a quarter compared to the US dollar.
One indication is businesses that have closed. This second floor shop was a video sales and rental shop above the Family Mart. They closed down a few years ago and this place has been vacant since then. There is another shop that recently closed down up the street, but I think the reason for that closure was retirement rather than for business reasons.
On the other hand, this ground floor shop closed a short while ago, but seems to be reopening as a ramen shop. Work has been going on for a few weeks, remodeling the interior in preparation.
While we have been here, a number of shops have closed and reopened as something else. The face of the neighborhood has changed significantly since we moved here over ten years ago. Several new apartment buildings, a new street, new shops where there was nothing. All this in the face of a down-turning economy.
One way that some people have continued to be financially stable is because of their ownership of land. There are families who have lived in the area for a long time, and have a fair amount of land ownership. One such family seems to be the family of the woman who gave Candace piano lessons for several years—the Ishikawa family.
This parking lot across the street from the Family Mart is owned by the Ishikawas. I would guess the same family. With the limited space available in Japan for anything, a parking lot is a simple way to maintain an income.
The charge for the parking lot is posted on the sign on the fence. The price I see is 10,000 yen. Right now, that's about USD $80.
There seems to be about 15 parking spots here. There is another parking lot on the other side of a path with a similar number of spaces. Roughly, that would be a yearly income of USD $ 28,000 with very little effort. Downtown Tokyo lots would earn four times that amount.