Tour of Kokubunji

It is winter, and not much is happening in Japan. It has been cold and rainy here lately, so I am inclined to stay inside waiting out winter. Although I am from Wisconsin and should be used to cold winters, winter here is proving to be much different. It is more damp here, so when the temperatures drop, it feels a lot colder. Also, weather-proofing and central heating seem to be unheard of in these parts. My patio doors and entrance door are drafty, and my air conditioner/heater is kind of inefficient. Yeah for wool clothing and down comforters though!

For those faithful readers, I forced myself to go out and find something interesting for this week. :) These shots were from my walk to the grocery store today.

This is a school by my house. I took this picture to show the architecture over here. For a developed country with a high GDP, their commercial architecture leaves a lot to be desired. Most buildings are simple structures with a cold-war feel to them. There are millions of square meters of EIFS (Dryvit, stucco, whatever you want to call it) here. It makes for a drab urban landscape; maybe this is why they have so many neon signs and electronic billboards? Maybe the Japanese contractors get a deal on EIFS?

On the other hand, they seem to put a little more effort into their homes. This is a picture of a house in my neighborhood. Although it is boring, old EIFS, it has broken roof lines, bay windows, etc. And, it is a fairly large house (so don't believe all of the hype; they have normal-sized houses over here--they are just very close together and with no yards).

Finally, a departing shot form the grocery store today. Yup, their obsession with plastic food seems to have permeated their grocery stores. This display of plastic pasta, complete with levitating fork, was at Gourmet City. There was also a display of Ma Pao Tofu in the Chinese section.