March 22, 2018
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Chofu, Fuda Tenjin Shrine
On the occasion of our anniversary, DH wanted to take a walk in Chofu where we used to live when we first got married, and again when the kids were born. It is just a few train stops from where we live now. We found that the entire public official's housing area and the six apartment buildings that were there have been torn down and replaced by four brand new buildings, mostly student dorms. The public housing and fire house that were across Tsurukawa Kaido have been razed and are being rebuilt. The police box has moved into a new place across Koshu Kaido. The world where we lived was GONE! The whole place has changed and all of our old haunts have disappeared. I guess that is what happens after 42 years.
Here is the new lay of the land.
This white building above has replaced the building in which we used to live. Below is the other side of the building. The apartment buildings were by no means new when we lived there 40 or so years ago and probably did not meet present day quake safety standards, and the complex itself had gotten pretty seedy, so it really did need to be replaced, but it feels strange that the entire area has faded into the past and disappeared.
Below is the space where all the little children used to play. There were swings and a slide, but they are gone without a trace. I suppose that since the apartment buildings have all been replaced with student dormitories that there is no longer any need for a playground.
We continued our walk around the old neighborhood. I didn't take many pictures because so much of the past had been erased and the new scenery didn't really mean anything to me. All of the little stores were gone, the potables shop, the sushi shop, the little place that we used to stop in to eat after a day in the mountains, all swallowed up into the past. We passed behind the Seiyu store and found a small shrine that I had not noticed when we lived in Chofu, but it must have been there.
The inside of the shrine was filled with little foxes and offerings to the enshrined whatever.
Large stone foxes to the right and left of the shrine.
Next stop on the route was Fuda Tenjin Shrine. The grounds were much improved over what I remembered.
There is a temple adjacent to the shrine, and we went in for a look. Below is the front gate. The cherry blossoms are starting to bloom.
These pictures below were taken after we got back to our present neighborhood. The yellow flowers are holly blossoms and they smell like lily of the valley.
DH likes Yukiyanagi (literally Snow Willow) or Thunberg's Meadowsweet , so I took a picture of it to make him happy.
