as always, the best photo of the day gets the first position in the post. well according to my taste at least, or if it does not hurt the narrative. as you can see in the picture, it was raining. so allow me to share what happened.
after work, the housemates invited me go cycling. i have a bicycle but it has always been left out to the elements, never been used for years now. and although bicycle rental is pretty efficient here in tokyo, i was never a confident biker. so i opted out but i did ask where they planned to go; i was planning to have the same route on foot.
before i got out, another housemate informed of the rain forecast. i would have ignored the forecast on other days, but the expected precipitation was quite high. so to be on the safe side, i brought an umbrella with me.
good thing that i did! it was only after about 30 minutes, the initial drizzle started and quickly turned into heavy rain. that was quite a surprise to me, actual rain came earlier than forecasted. i gauged for a bit whether to continue with the walk or to give up completely. the initial heavy downpour became manageable, so i proceeded with the walk but changed the route to a dramatically shorter one.
that temple
this temple front became my temporary shelter. i was not thinking of writing about it at all but that historical tablet written outside was too interesting. the jokan-ji or more commonly called nagekomidera was a site where prostitutes from a nearby licensed pleasure district, called shin yoshiwara, were buried. many of whom died in a major earthquake in 1855 and were buried en masse. the pleasure district had a distinct culture and had a great impact in japanese art and entertainment, but the concept of a red light district was eventually outlawed in 1958 and shin yoshiwara was dissolved.
i really had no clue about that history before. and that was just close to home, no wonder our place always had this distinct urban yet old downtown aura. the rain kind of eased off a bit and that made me happy. with perfect knowledge that it will be back, i just wanted to have a quick tour around the area.
that bathhouse
saw this local sento or public bath house nearby, kaiei-yu (改栄湯). apparently, this was established since the 1950s and was just renovated in 2020 to have a luxurious feel to it. their site mentioned that water is extracted daily from 120 meters underground. you can check their site from here. i would have entered and enjoyed my time in there but my mind just wanted to go home at this point.
so i continued my walk for a bit, made a turn and prepared to head back. some people were caught off guard by this downpour. as i have mentioned, the forecast only showed a little rain at that time, but will pour harder in the next hour. i finally had the chance to use this tunnel under a train line, nothing special as expected.
that shopping street
after that tunnel and a major intersection, here came the rain again coming down in buckets. it became so strong that i stayed under the protective roof of this shopping street for a good 30 minutes. with a happy vibe name, the joyful minowa shopping street (ジョイフル三の輪商店街) is 465 meters long and was built in 1919. it is frequented by the locals mostly, i guess i could be considered one.
shops were closed when i came to the shopping street so it was just a matter of time and i eventually got bored. i brazed the waters once again when it let up a bit. that was just a short minute and here we are again with the downpour. just look at that alley, i guess it was clear how heavy the rain was.
(i created a black and white version of this photo and will submit that to a contest.)
that way back
by this time, my feet were soaked. no amount of water proofing could hold the water out. so i resigned to my fate, shoes wet. i'm just glad for the jacket i had on for the little protection from the cold and water. and of course my umbrella has been a great help.
i managed to get to the grocery store in the hopes of buying something to appease my sad state that day. nothing looked tasty in particular though, so i went out and this time i was heading home. i did pass by this old and historic brick wall, this was the other option i thought of for the brick photo contest. and that brought me back to where i took the first photo. this rain made the sakura petals fall off fast.
it was a very short walk indeed, and the rain stopped by time i was near home. that was such a bummer!
as always, AMPING KANUNAY!
and keep dry!
all content is by yours truly unless otherwise specified
all photos are taken with a galaxy s23 ultra
This report was published via Actifit app (Android | iOS). Check out the original version here on actifit.io
Height168.0 cm |  | Weight71.6 kg |  | Body Fat% |  |
Waistcm |  | Thighscm |  | Chestcm |  |
