It’s nearing the end of Golden Week. Yesterday was Children’s Day and Hirokazu and I decided to make a nostalgic visit to my former neighborhood, Honancho – the end of the Marunouchi line.

I lived in Honancho for 18 years before moving to my current neighborhood, Shinkoiwa, all the way on the other side of Tokyo almost 17 years ago.

Honancho has a lot of memories for me. After leaving Fujitsu following the conclusion of the Expo ’90 project it was my first house, rather than apartment, rental in Japan. My first dog, Tao, lived there his whole life. (See Tao 1992-2006 (movie)). When my sister visited, and my friend, Sue, visited, they both stayed there. Even though the house was old and tiny, we had parties there. Also in the neighborhood was the famous Omiya Hachimangu, a landmark Shinto Shrine, founded in 1063. I used to go there every New Year’s for hatsumode – the first shrine visit of the year.

Anyway, I decided to take a visit back to Honancho to see how things have changed, see who might still be around after all these years, walk along the Kanda River where I took Tao every day, and also visit the Omiya Hachimangu. While I didn’t walk as much as with Cathy in Boston (going to and from the Boston Common area from her place in Brookline took 21,000 steps), I did put in a good 18,000 steps yesterday.

I hope you enjoy the visit with me. It brought back lots of memories.

Arriving at Honancho Station, the end of the line on the Marunouchi Subway line.

Walking towards my former house, I passed by Tao’s last pet clinic. They took very good care of Tao near the end, even making home visits. And after he passed they helped arrange for his cremation. His urn is at my house.

I only lived about a 5 minutes walk from the station. From the main street I turned and walked down this hill. It still looked about the same as I remembered.

At the bottom of the hill I continued along this street to my old house. I guess my current neighborhood looks nicer – more spacious and green. The old neighborhood is looking a bit, well, old.

A little bit down the street I wondered – are they still there? Mirei Kawamitsu and her son Yuuki were great neighbors. They had a dog, Lon-chan, who at first was great friends with Tao. Then they became enemies and barked ferociously at each other for years. Then as they got old together they forgave past grievances and it was nice to see them become friends again.

On chance somebody was home I rang the bell and Kawamitsu-san answered! She immediately recognized me and said, “You’ve lost so much weight!” (which is a nice way to greet someone). She was looking well herself.

Her son, Yuuki, who I remember from when he was 11 years old, was now married and had a child and was living in Saitama prefecture. She showed us pictures, we became LINE contacts, and chatted for a while.

Kawamitsu-san told me that the back alley where my house was is scheduled for demolition in December and the greedy landlord is planning on building a new condo there. That surprised me because I thought it was illegal to demolish and construct new housing in that corner because of the cramped size. Also, as a side note, the landlord doesn’t even own the land. It’s part of an unusual Japanese land system where one person can own the structure and another takes out a 50+ year lease on the land. (For my house here in Shinkoiwa, we own both the land and the structure).

Anyway, turning the corner into the lane where my house was, it looked pretty much the same. Old and sort of crumbling. Way in the back, I did see that the landlord’s old house was gone and some condo was there in it’s place. My house was the white building at the end, on the right.

And this was my house! Old, tiny, but my first detached house in Tokyo and I did enjoy living there!

The house did have it’s own side-door leading to a private bicycle parking area, which was a plus. The door next to the parking area is now occupied by an elderly woman who used to live in one of the old, demolished places. She didn’t remember my name but exclaimed, “You’re Tao’s owner!” We chatted for a while (I didn’t get her photo) and she was complaining (as everybody in that corner did) about the greedy landlord and how she’ll have to find a new place to live by December.

I told her I also left because of problems with the landlord. I told her my current realtor was really nice and how rental costs are much less on my side of town. I got her phone number and promised to have my realtor give her a call in case they have something nicer for her to move to. I’m sure they must!

Leaving my old house I began along a typical Tao walk route near the Kanda River. Some of you might know that I also live near a river here. Actually a couple of them. And my previous apartment, before Honancho, that was rented for me by Fujitsu, also sat along a river. There are lots of rivers in Tokyo. Sometimes it’s called “The Venice of the Far East.”

Here I’m approaching a park. Pao used to run around inside that fenced in area, with Lon-chan and other dogs. He also used to walk with me without a leash, and he would freely run around other small parks along the route. Times have changed, I guess, and non-leashed dog rules are stricter. Tao was good about going unleashed though. He even stopped at street corners and waited for me to put the leash on if there was traffic.

Just an interesting memory while passing this house by the entry to the river walk. This house would sell kakigori, traditional Japanese shaved ice with syrup. On hot summer days I’d sometimes get some.

And we’re finally at the Kanda River.

The water seemed low, but I recalled it was seasonal. Also, the cherry blossoms are very abundant here, on both sides of the river. Even more so than in my current neighborhood.

Hirokazu thought to bring along a photo of Tao and his collar, so it felt like one more walk with Tao, for old time’s sake. And if you are wondering, I think Tao was sending good vibes to Pao yesterday. Even though it was an extremely windy and blustery day, when we finally got home, Pao looked like he was waiting calmly, greeted us with a wagging tail, hadn’t messed up anything in the house all day, didn’t even use his toilet corner, and slept peacefully all night despite the heavy winds. No door scratching or anything. Is it conceivable that Tao sent him some advice from Honancho and the Rainbow Bridge?

We continued walking along the Kanda river, past some small parks Pao used to play in, and pushed onward, heading for the Omiya Hachimangu. Here’s Hirokazu checking Google maps on his iPhone (something I didn’t have until after moving from Honancho).

Continuing along the Kanda River. This is about to where I usually walked Tao before turning around at that cross bridge up ahead.

And finally we got to the Omiya Hachimangu entrance. Note: there is a much shorter route from my house and from the station, but this was an outing.

Here’s Hirokazu at the entrance.

And me.

And Cathy, with Tao, at the same entrance when she visited in 2004! Are we all together on memory lane now?

Inside the Omiya Hachimangu grounds.

Beautiful trees and lighting. It was getting near the end of the day. There had been a festival earlier for Children’s Day, but they were taking things down now.

Getting closer to the shrine. The flying carp are a symbol for Children’s Day in Japan.

At the entrance to the inner shrine there were instructions on how to walk through this entrance and circle twice to the left and twice to the right to come in again. It supposedly helps ward off bad things, like covid.

Getting closer to the inner shrine.

Inside there was a closing ceremony going on.

And the carp flying to send us off back home. As mentioned above, Pao was waiting calmly (a big surprise) – perhaps he really did get a message from Tao not to be afraid of windy days?