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January 3, 2008 - Love Alley (Amour shôtengai)

I invite you on a small guided tour of the commercial alley in my neighborhood of Tôwa 2-chôme, near Kameari station. I must have crossed it a hundred times...
Frédéric depicted it in a beautiful short story featured in the Japan anthology (and I'm not saying that because I make an appearance in it !).

It was built around the 70's. Since then, a lot of shops have closed, replaced by others or left unattended. Therefore, the shop signs are often out of date.

In Tôkyô, buildings are replaced at a hectic pace. I've been living here for three years and already three buildings have been pulled down, including the "Fashion Cleaning" shop which Frédéric had depicted in his story.

I wanted to keep record of all this...

A rubber stamp shop. M. SUZUKI sells soft drinks, treats and chips. A rice shop.
A seikotsuin (between osteopath and chiropractor).
The liquor shop, whose owner speaks a little Chinese. One of Love Alley's two butchers.
A clothes shop for grannies, "MARUYA". A shop selling meat skewers. A soba (buckwheat noodles) restaurant.
A tofu shop. A clothes shop for kids, "MARUYA". Here lives the only shop owner who ignores me when I say hello. I gave up.
Another butcher. A tiny music store. Another rice shop.
A traditional clothes shop selling kimonos, yukatas and jinbeis. A tea shop. A delicious fish restaurant.
The flower shop, whose stalls often overflow the sidewalk in a beautiful way. A closed down shop. A clothes shop.
An izakaya restaurant we've never been to. A sekkotsuin. I don't know the difference with the above-mentioned seikotsuin, but anyway, it's in the same realm. Baby clothes.
A tiny tobacco shop run by a sleepy granny. Another tofu shop. Haberdasher's shop KIKUYA.
A cosmetics shop. A clothes shop. A dry cleaner.
A shop selling appetizers : tiny dried fish, marinated seaweed...
A shop selling geta (traditional wooden sandals). Grocery whose slogan was "Even more convenient than a combini". It is now closed down.
"Have a nice dream", says the bedding shop owner. This is where we buy our meat skewers. Shoe shop.
A hair salon for men, where Frédéric goes. Its competitor, "Beauty SUZURAN", is run by youths. They often have late-night briefings after closing time. Karaoke "BLUE". 
To find out more about Love alley, check out the Japan anthology (now in seven languages!)

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