Tsukuba Monogatari: 24th post
For the longest time I thought Tsukuba was truly the incarnation of the Western, rational city, a kind of Santa Clara plunked down in the middle of the Kanto Plain. I had almost given up hope of finding anything remotely Japanese about the place. No train station. No schoolchildren in uniforms crowding the roads. Even on Sundays the place looked like the Twilight Zone, or Foster City on a weekday.
When it started getting cold, I had to go to Arakawaoki to find a hanten―those wonderful, quilted jackets―because there was not one to be found anywhere in Tsukuba. Is this really Japan? I often asked myself.
The last straw was when I went out looking for nengajo (New Year’s postcards) and found nothing but Christmas cards.
But this week, the holiday season was too much, even for Tsukuba. Suddenly it has become impossible to drive in the center of the city on a weekend. Seibu Department Store is jammed with people. O-seibo counters with beautifully boxed and wrapped end-of-year gifts are everywhere. This is more like it, Tsukuba!
“Hantens.” Courtesy of Sakka flow. Licensed under cc by NC-ND 2.0.
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