Nishiogi

(Note: Most computers can read Japanese and Chinese characters, even if their owners can’t. If yours can’t, you can either ignore it or download the fonts. Please ask me if you have any questions…)

So I didn’t take any wild trips last weekend. And that was the right decision. But I did take a few walks. And on Sunday, I went back to Nishi Ogikubo, where I used to live when I first came to Japan.

Nishiogikubi is written 西荻窪 in Japanese. “Nishi” (西) means “west”. Now I live in Ogikubo (荻窪) which is just one stop to the east. I went and had sushi at a “kaiten zushi” (回転寿司）shop and I walked around for a while. “kaiten” (回転）means “to turn” or “to revolve” and
“zushi” means “sushi” (寿司)…and everyone knows what that is. (Update: I posted this before I left for work this morning, but since I was in a hurry, I forgot to finish what I was saying. Kaiten Zushi is a style of sushi restaurant, where you sit at a bar and they put small plates with sushi on a kind of conveyor belt that goes around the bar (like a model train). You pick up the dishes you want, and you can also order from one of the sushi chefs. When you finish, they count your plates and you pay.
I just put up a pic of the station. I only took a couple pics that day. I mostly just wanted to go walk around. It was great. Ogikubo, where I live now, is one stop closer to the center of Tokyo and it is very convenient and nice. But Nishi Ogikubo has a lot of great little restaurants and shops. It is like a small town. And many of the shopkeepers near my old apartment used to greet me and talk about the weather.

Whenever I go there, I say, “ああ、懐かしい。。。”　(”Ah, natsukashii…”), which means, (”Ah, this sure brings back memories…”)
The best thing about taking pictures is that I can show you a little bit of what my world looks like. And I can also look back and remember, too. Thanks for your stopping by.

By the way, I just recently changed to using Flickr to host my pictures. I still am trying to decide how to organize my pictures in these sets. So things will change around as I add pics and try to make them more manageable. Feel free to tell me if you have any problems or suggestions.

All of my pictures are accessible here on this site, but you can also see them on Flickr, by going here: http:/www.flickr.com/photos/abuckingham