Paint It Black

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After yesterday's long excursion, we decided to have a lazy, local day today. I've been intending to walk to the canal nearby: it's only about 3 blocks behind this building, in a direction we've not explored yet, but I was thinking I might then turn left and follow the canal about 2km down to the coast. I'm not sure if it's a beach or a port or what kind of waterfront there is down there, but it shouldn't be too far to walk and find out. So out loud, today's plan was to see the canal, but in my head I was also thinking, "and maybe walk to the sea."

We had a nice leisurely get-up, with breakfast and coffee and a bit of reading and then some research for tomorrow, and meanwhile Stephen started doing some painting, for the design of the logo for his e-book. However, he ran into a problem. He'd brought some paints with him from home - gone out and bought them specially - and only just realised this morning that he forgot to get any black. That is one of the colours intended for the logo, but when he was ready to use it, he noticed for the first time that there weren't none there. So we did some more research, for art supply shops in the area. Most were in Chiba city itself, but one popped up in Inage, the area a few blocks away where we've been to a couple of historic houses. It was a bit far to walk, but Stephen needed the black, so it was worth going by taxi. So we set off to a main road in the hope of finding an available taxi. One did go past as we were heading out, but he ignored our signals. We got to the intersection of a couple of main roads, and split up so we could see in all directions at once, but we gave up after 5 or 10 minutes. It's just not an area for taxis to cruise. There are too few pedestrians and nowhere specific for people to come from, just streets and streets of apartment blocks. But at the station, there is always a chance for people to need a taxi, so there is a proper taxi rank. So, to the station we walked, four blocks in the opposite direction of where we wanted to go.

The art supplies shop was some way away in the end, and uphill, and it was quite a winding route that the driver's GPS sent us, but he got there, and we found the shop. They had acrylic paints, but black? Uh, no. It was just like Vietnam:"That thing you want? That's what we're out of." As Stephen pondered the options - another kind of paint? a box of 12 colours? go and try somewhere else? forget it? - one of the staff came out from the back room and said she'd found some - three little tubes of black acrylic. Oh thank you! Not like Vietnam after all, then. Anyway, Stephen bought the paint, and we set out to look around the neighbourhood. It was a nice little set of corner shops: this stationery shop, a hardware shop, hair salon, a tiny little train station; it seemed exactly right for a delightfully quirky little coffee shop. But unfortunately, it didn't have one, quirky or otherwise. Lunch, then? It was a bit early, but we could be persuaded... No? No food yet? Closed down? Okay.

Looking at the train station information, the line that went though there went to Kemigawa Station, which had to be in the general vicinity of our place, so we waited a few minutes for that train, and took it for two stops. From Kemigawa Station, we could see a cemetery, and as we left, we saw the steps up to a shrine or temple, so we had a quick look at that too. Then we used Google Maps to make sure we were heading the right way home. It was simple enough, just not very direct because we had to go a fair way sideways to get to a place where pedestrians could cross a major expressway. It was a nice walk - these streets were all individual houses, some new, many old, with a few old-fashioned shops that became even fewer as we went along. Again like Vietnam, there was no footpath, but at least there wasn't much traffic either. Finally we got to the pedestrian overpass, about a kilometre from the shrine, and we still hadn't found anywhere to get lunch. So instead of going straight home, we had to go back sideways again, to a convenience store we knew was nearby, to get some packaged food.

Actually, it was quite a nice lunch in the end. I could show you a picture if you like, because this must be a pretty boring day to read about. Plenty of salad, chicken fritter, potato croquettes; Stephen had cutlets on rice with egg, and a salad. Looking at the uploaded picture, it looks a bit ugly, but that's the sesame dressing on top. The salad was fresh and crisp, truly.

Watched some YouTube, read a book, went to sleep.

This evening, we tossed around some different ideas about what to do and where to eat, but it felt quite good being a low-spending day, so our plan became: take that walk to the canal, turn around and come back and keep walking. This morning's taxi had taken us along a road nearby but as yet unexplored, because it looked so unpromising: yet more apartment blocks, albeit a bit more upmarket perhaps, having slightly more interesting architectural designs and colours. But the taxi went past a supermarket and I thought I saw a restaurant too.

Even the three blocks to the canal showed us something interesting: a stop for a bus that would take us to the station, and a supermarket. Until now we only knew the supermarket at the station, or the Lawson convenience store a block and a half away, but that really only sells snacks. Got to the canal, looked at it, oriented ourselves with the rest of the district, turned around and walked back the way we'd come. And then some more walking and we were in new territory. It wasn't far before we saw the other new supermarket, which must be the 24-hour one that Giang mentioned before we came but hadn't cared enough about to look for. But just by the supermarket was a row of shops including 3 eateries! Finally, somewhere for the locals to eat. They probably had a total of 20 tables for the thousands of people hereabouts, but it was something.

But none of these were the restaurant I had seen from the taxi, so we continued on down the road. A couple more blocks, and we came to a T-intersection, from which I recognised the shop I'd seen this morning. Definitely a food shop. Sadly, when we got up close it was a takeaway. No tables. Great. Thanks. But not to worry, now we had a Plan B! We retraced our steps and in about 5 minutes were back wondering which of the three restaurants to go to. One was a cafe that did burgers (My concern: They'd be all arty and weird and not what I imagined and therefore disappointing); one was sushi (no real problem there, just a bit boring) and the other had a variety of rice and noodle dishes made of wax in the window, but they were very old and dusty and off-putting. But that was the one we both plumped for.

And it was delightful. There were two lone businessmen in there, and a family. It was clearly a local institution. Looking around at the decor, I guessed that it was about 40 years old, and nothing had changed in that time except the prices. As we were looking at the menu for words I could read, the proprietor carried out a plate of curry and rice for one of the businessmen, and Stephen decided immediately to have that. I went for the tempura on rice. It was of course delicious. At the end, we were the last ones to leave (no one else came in because she closed at 7.30!) and I had quite a chat with the proprietor. She and her husband had in fact been operating the business for 43 years; there used to be about 6 noodle shops in the area but they were now the last ones left; they make their own noodles from scratch, getting the flour in to make soba and udon every day, mixing by hand and cutting by machine. An elementary school class came in last year to see how noodles were made, because you don't see that much any more. We lamented the lack of restaurants and the rise of the fast food chains. She can't be far off retiring. The cook may have been their son or maybe he was just an employee, but it probably won't be long until there are no more noodle shops in the area.

And then we came home, watched some YouTube, read and wrote this and went to bed. Sorry for such a dull day, but it was really nice seeing more of the local district, especially some of it that wasn't just apartment blocks, and had some historical flavour to it.

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Photos

Shrine near Kemigawa Stn
Not sure of the name, but I don't think it's Kemigawa Shrine

Lunch from Lawson
Convenience store takeaways

Dinner at Noodle Shop
Tempura prawns on rice, curry and rice

Noodle shop, interior
with Mrs Noodle Shop at the till.