Just outside the ticket gate of Ginza subway station in central Tokyo, there's a curry restaurant that I like. I have been the customer there since my university days. It is not a fanciful place. Just an ordinary establishment, where the curry and rice is served quickly, as you order them at the counter and wait.
I used to go to the Kabuki theater and nearby cinemas often as a student. When you are alone and hungry, you would like to get done with the ritual of filling your stomach quickly, without any fuss. At such occasions, the curry place would be a prime choice, where the whole process of ordering, eating, and then leaving would fall into a jazzy pace.
In and out of Tokyo, I have several places like the Ginza curry restaurant, my solitary meal destinations. I used to go quite often to a yakisoba restaurant in Ueno station, which is close to my old university. The yakisoba place was just beside the stairs, and you would buy tickets before ordering. As you waited for the culinary delight to arrive, watching the cooks using large forks and tongs, your expectations would grow. As I remember the place, noises and smells and the whole atmosphere come back so vividly.
Sadly, the Ueno restaurant is no longer with us, after the huge renovation the station went through several years ago. There is
now a Hard Rock cafe near the ancient yakisoba restaurant place.
3 comments:
It just so happens that I probably go to the same Ginza curry place alone on a bi-weekly basis, and pretty much share a similar sentiment. Vancouver, and now Ginza... Life is so strange and so unreal. While I would never be a complete "believer" so as to expect large "miracles" to occur with everyone's lives knowing much that exists and happens in our world, I do believe through experience and knowledge that there is some level of intent on the part of the big G to play "small tricks" to enable small "coincidences" to take place every so often with everyone's lives, consequently allowing me to take the position of a "pragmatist" and an "optimist-wannabe".
SK
Dear:Mr.Mogi
Your qualia journal is like a jazz today.
Your memory when you were a university student,
and I feel to see pictures of you in Showa era.
I think your rhythm is like a jazz sometime.
Yes, I know it too.
There is a good smell of curry coming from the shop, so when I transfered to the Marunouchi-line at the Ginza station a long time ago, I just found it as well.
I have not yet dropped by there, it's a shame, isn't it?
Once I need to look in that shop to find Dr. Mogi. hahaha
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