Pat's Blog

Rejuvenating an economy caught in a severe deflationary spiral for many years must be no easy task. A couple of weeks ago, at JC’s behest, I took a walk down Tokiwagai machi for a look-see at the developments and input from the shopkeepers to kick-start businesses there and came away pleasantly surprised.

Exciting initiatives are going on and the place has improved with more people walking about and street vendors selling everything from potatoes to honey, occupying what used to be abandoned areas.





The name of this game is ‘reinventing businesses’ and that’s exactly what they’re doing and it’s great to see the spirit of Japanese inventiveness taking hold at last.
One of the open events to both welcome shoppers and show Christmas goodwill were this little group dressed in Santa suits, offering something delicious called ‘soba gome soup’





I asked this lady about this and she said it was soba, chicken and mushroom, radish, carrot, fried tofu, leaks and soy-sauce with mirin (sweet sake) and a pinch of salt. Usually I never ask questions when there’s free food handed out and this was the exception. I did ask for a second helping and she was kind enough (or felt pity enough) to offer another.

Tokiwagai machi has had it’s heyday but what’s going on there at the moment is a spirited fight back against the gloomy economy and a few savvy entrepreneurs like Nakashita san, the owner of Breezers Square who’s one of the people dreaming up new ways to reenergize the arcade. I wanted to remonstrate with the staff about the missing possessive apostrophe in the “Breezers” but the people were so nice I didn’t. Does it really matter anyway?





http://www.brsq.net

Breezers Square is hard to describe as there’s always something different going on there and its usually free. Anyone can drop in, check the place out, use the Internet, use the facilities or lounge around and just talk. There’s a list of upcoming music events, fashion shows and displays of unusual brand-made goods.

Open 11:00~21:00

Just along from Breezers (without the apostrophe,) is an FM radio station. Another initiative to draw people and the studio itself can be seen from the street. Dozens of kids were outside listening and watching and I felt a bit of a fool hanging around with them peering in and trying to look cool. Get lost, their faces clearly said …





There was a bloke there selling ‘namubrouchez’ (name brooches) which were one of the first things I remember about Japan and I haven’t seen them for years. Here he is just around the corner in another arcade a day later. The battery in my camera had run out, so I couldn’t get a picture of him on that day.





This is all positive and bodes wells for Tokiwagai and I came back after this little blog feeling a lot more upbeat about the arcade’s future.
Keep all them cards n’ letters coming in! I’ll get back to you I promise and if you’re in town take a look at the developments going on here.