The old neighbourhood
For old time's sake, on Wednesday, December 29, 2021 I returned for the first time ever to a neighborhood I used to live in in Narashinodai, Funabashi City, Chiba Prefecture in 1990-91. It’s a 3-hour trip by train from my current home - 90-minutes there, and 90-minutes back. I went twice, first on Tuesday, December 28th, but I failed to locate the address. So. I decided to try again the next day. That's 6-hours on the train in total. But the second time I succeeded in pinpointing my old street and the location of my old apartment. I would have liked to see the old apartment building, but it was gone, redeveloped as single-family homes. My blood ran cold. My memories had all been sold. Pages ripped from my memory. (My bladder was bursting, too, so I couldn't stick around for long.) The neighbourhood is a better place to live than I gave it credit for at the time. It’s okay. I understand. This ain’t no never, never land.
In addition, the place where I used to work, nearby the local train station, Kita-narashino Station, was gone. Closed. Occupied by another business. It's bittersweet.