3 in 30 - 2002.03.10 Sunday
ekimae - in front of the station
A beautiful spring Sunday afternoon in Matsubara-cho and while many shops are closed in our neighborhood, people are out enjoying the fine weather. You can see the closed shops on the left with the roll-up shutters pulled down. I had thought to take a couple of snapshots of buildings advertising tenant openings, instead choosing these.
While we keep hearing there is a recession and see some of the evidence in closed shops, other shops seem to be prospering. On the right of this little street across from the Haijima station, you can see a common barber pole. On the left side of the street, there is another hair cutting establishment. There are probably six or so in the immediate neighborhood, open every day of the week, including Sundays.
We have discussed the premium put on space and the seeming lack of personal parking space. Recently, several parking facilities have changed from parking sponsored by an establishment to timed parking at a cost.
Down the hill a bit from the station, you can overlook probably the largest parking area near our station. The cost is about 100 yen for twenty minutes, or 1,200 yen for about six hours. That's about $10.00. I didn't study the rates exactly, but to park and ride the train for a day at work (12 hours or so), the cost begins to mount.
Down the hill more is a section of a parking area for bicycles. The cost is less than half that to park a car. There is an option. Just today, I noticed the brown building in the center of the picture with the sign at the top. It says that it is a business hotel. Business hotel rooms are typically not much more than a bed, a straight chair, and an all-in-one shower, stool, and sink unit. Certainly not enough room for a meeting.
This is the back side of the Tamashin savings bank. They continue to provide a few parking spaces for their customers. Very few. Most of the customers live within walking or biking distance, so they don't need a large parking garage. No drive-through windows either. Most Japanese banking is face-to-face with a clerk behind a counter.
Since the bank is not open on Sunday, they put up a little chain to indicate that it is not available for parking.
This is the bank we use for our Japanese banking. Since the interest rate is quite low—even lower than interest rates in the States these days—we only keep enough in here to meet the automatic utility bills we have.