Life in Takahagi

Been awhile since I posted anything here yeah? I suppose that's because of the absence of huge awesome events in Ibaraki lately. Since life is just kinda flowing along at this point, as the winter semester draws to a close, I thought I would try and give everyone a little picture tour of Takahagi, to show you what life is like in a small city of around 30,000 people in central Japan.

I've mentioned this before, but from my experiences in Japan before, life was always centered around the train station. It was the hub of all activity in any given area. Food, services, entertainment, everything either in the train station itself or within 50 yards of it. Takahagi is pretty different. Here's a picture of the train station in Takahagi. What can you see? Well, there are a couple vending machines, and just out of frame to the right is a drycleaners. That's about it. There used to be an Ito Yokado, a big department store chain, right next to the station, but all that's left now is an empty lot, as you can see by all the gravel by the fence. The post office and Police Box are nice and close to the station, but other than that... not a whole lot. This is the main road going out from the station. There are a few small stores on this main road, but I personally haven't had much need for new glasses or fresh fish. Sometimes they play background music over the PA by the train station. It's kind of comforting, in a video game kind of way. I probably shouldn't have started out talking about central Takahagi, because it's mostly depressing... especially when you look at streets like this, one of the cross streets off of the main drag. You can tell that this used to be a shopping area too. But now all that's left is a rusted out archway with advertisements for abandoned stores. It's creepy. One day when it's really foggy and dark out I'm gonna get a flashlight and a broken radio that only puts out static and scare the crap out of myself walking around there.

But, once you get away from the train station, things are a little better. Not that there is an abundance of things to do or places to go, but at least the slow feeling of decay leaves. Takahagi is the opposite of Tokyo, more like a small suburb in America, in that there's not much of a central area, but once you get in your car and drive towards the outskirts of where people live, you can get to some big stores. In Takahagi, we have a Hard Off, Off House, Wonder Goo, Book Off, various grocery stores, and the Super Mall, with Beisea Electronics and Cainz Home. I have no idea how they come up with these names. But luckily these stores are all semi-bike accessible.

Takahagi easily redeems itself, once you get outside of the actual uhh "downtown" area. The western part of Takahagi is all mountains. You can see some nice mountains in the background of some of the pictures. I've been up in the mountains a couple times to do some hiking and go to Kimida JHS, and it's a very tranquil area. Just thank god I don't live there, it would be 10 times more boring than life now. To the east is the beach, which is my favorite part about town. Leading up to the beach are some fields and a river that people fish on a lot. Unfortunately I think it's getting too cold to hang out there much anymore. But come spring, I know where I will be when I just want to relax. Check out the pictures, its really just a beach, but its a damn nice place to be, and I'm glad it's here.

So, this probably sounded like a lot of complaining, but Takahagi isn't all that bad. Next time I want to write more about my actual job, which I enjoy very much, sometimes. I guess the best way to describe life overall right now is that while there are still low points, I am having way more "holy crap life is good" moments than usual. I'm off to wander around a bit more on my day off. Hopefully my next entry won't take another month and a half to write.