I had to drop by the Setagaya ward office this morning to get some tax forms. Since I took the whole day off and the weather was so beautiful I decided to walk up to visit Umegaoka (Plum Hill), where I used to live. It’s a very nice residential neighborhood on the Odakyu Line just two stations past Shimokitazawa. There isn’t much around the station in terms of action or shopping, but Umegaoka has a very tight knit community which I liked, I was friends with the vegetable guy, the denki guy, the dry cleaning girl etc. They had been renovating the station during the three and a half years I lived there and it looked like it was finally getting finished. On the other side of the station, there was a crowd gathered to protest the destruction of the old rotary.

Apparently, the tiny patch of land at the north exit of the station, called Keiyaki Hiroba, was going to be demolished starting today. A few people were inside making a protest with a loud speaker. As you can see from the pictures, there were about 30 construction workers surrounding the area, guarding it as it was being fenced off and “prepared”. I was wondering why they needed to have like 30 guys protecting it. Were they expecting some kind of riot? I mean the only people around were the Fuji TV crew who came to film it, senior citizens walking by wonder what was going on and me. I’ve seen these kinds of protest before and even though I could sympathize I wondered what the protesters expected. Were they just expressing their opinion or was there something we could do? A petition we could sign? I’m sure many people passing by thought “What a shame” but didn’t have any idea what they could do to stop the demolition from happening. Perhaps the protesters should have had a plan rather than “Let’s go and make a bunch of noise to complain and maybe we’ll get our way”. To be honest, that bit of land was always covered with cigarette butts and garbage, disgusting. Posted in the station, they had a picture of the new rotary planned which I thought looked much nicer.

(1) Don’t these people have jobs? Or did they have errands at the ward office too? See that shop with the stripped canopy? You can get the best roast chicken sandwiches there. The best in Tokyo, I swear (2) Finally, the construction workers covered all the fences with tarps and you could not see the protestors anymore. All the people began to leave.

Umegaoka is most famous for the first MidoriSushi Shop. There is always a long queue in front of the shop anytime of day. Sometimes on weekends the line will go all the way around the block. Even the take out window has a long line.

Hanegi Park is on the other side of the station. It’s famous for the Umematsuri (Plum Blossom Festival) There are over 80 plum trees in the park which sits on top of a hill (thus the name Umegaoka). Plum blossoms usually bloom in february, earlier that cherry blossoms, and the park holds a festival (umematsuri) in february where you can look at the blossoms and buy ume related foods, snacks etc. It ended yesterday but it seemed like most of the blossoms still had not bloomed. Probably because of the colder than usual weather this past few weeks.

None of the trees have leaves yet, but in the summer it is very nice and the perfect jogging park. Every morning, hundreds would gather for Radio Taiso and morning jogs. I miss that. The last picture is of a space where a public pool used to be.