Isezaki-cho is a flourishing town in Yokohama. Because of the frightening image I used to have for some reason, I'd never been there. But as I was invited to join an interesting event called "Take a profound trip to Yokohama/See another side of Yokohama, the fashionable town. I decided to go along with the group of eight people for that on September 1st. It was the day before the opening of the Yokohama Triennale.

From the north entrance of JR Kannai station, we walk through the Marinade underground passage. I heard that few people use this passage even though it is a convenient passage connecting Bashamichi and Isezaki-cho. Because people become impatient when they seeing the entrance Isezaki-cho after going outside the station they don't even think about using the underground passage which would actually give them a lot of advantages such as not having to wait for the traffic light or walking across the big road. Although the Isezaki-cho shopping street is crowded with so many shoppers, there are only a few people in this underground passage. I guess that it must be very rare for those people to even go to the underground shopping area. Well, it's strange.

First of all, we see the main street of Isezaki-cho. We are welcomed by a huge gate there. Each one of the side streets and malls around here has a gate at the entrance and makes the shopping street noticeable. They are like shrine gates, and they somehow also seem like some kind of shields. Walking under the tall gate, there is a long and broad shopping street paved with bricks, which is consisted of "road" and "part of areas shops have provided to be used as road." It is a brilliant street with quite many long-established shops including Yokohama Matsuzakaya where a famous singer group called Yuzu used to sing at the storefront, and the street is still being kept as not disappointing our fashionable image of Yokohama. (Well, for now, I should just ignore the fact that there are a number of guards everywhere on the street) .

Deviating from the main street there, we enter Yoshida-cho. The point to pay attention is the tall building having stores on the first floor and residences on the second floor and above. I heard that it was built jointly by some old stores, and there are also some antiquated stores such as a dye house and shoes shop in the building. Looking at an alley of Fukutomi-cho nearby, I saw a latticed apartment house built by the Housing Corporation. As I knew by intuition that I'd be able to find something there, I started to walk briskly toward it, but I was stopped and told to keep it until later. Then we went there in the evening, and found an extremely interesting thing. The first floor was occupied with every kind of shops that seemed to be managed by Korean owners, and the whole district is filled with untidiness. There are Hangul on signboards. By listening carefully, I hear a language other than Japanese. This building itself is a typical apartment built by the House Corporation, and its courtyard is encircled completely by the apartment. It seems also a bit strange that a little park surrounded by a fence is still left there. Of course, there are people living on the upper floors of the building, and I keep wondering with my never-ending curiosity how such form of business has started, how the living condition is, and so on.

Leaving Yoshida-cho, I arrived at the foot of Miyako Bridge over the Ooka River. What caught my eye was something like terraced house that was standing as if it were clinging to the river. The second floor was filled all with restaurants. It's said that most of them were bars and pubs. At the stairs, there was a frightening notice saying Beware of snuggling pickpockets. I guess it's because that such narrow and steep stairs is quite tough for drunken men, there was also a poster saying Watch your step. Looking at the building from the behind, I can see clearly that it is forming a curve to stand along with the river. The building really looks to be growing densely by the river. It is deserted in the daytime, and almost no shop is open. I can assume that even a women's public lavatory is locked during the day, and you have to go to borrow a key if you want to use the restroom according to their system. It is very interesting to imagine that all the shops would be turning the lights on brightly to attract customers in the night. According to the history of Japan, a fair and an entertainment district were held at the foot of a bridge, and so that it can safely be said that this district here is used in the way to properly follow the history.

There is even more surprising thing along the Ooka River. That is the place to carry on the world oldest business; young women call out to men from a little shack saying "Hey, why don't you drop in." The shack is with two stories. If you want to, you can pay and then go up to the second floor with the woman; that's how it works. You are forbidden to act in a group here. So, each of our members was told to keep some distance from each other, not to stare at them, and to pretend to be walking normally. Those unconcerned women were tediously calling out to the members walking ahead of me in Japanese with a non-Japanese accent, but we all ignored them and passed the area quickly. I was a bit disappointed that it was over all too soon partly because it was in the quiet daytime. But it was a good example to show what kind of town this is. I heard that those women would also appear on the street after nine o'clock, and pull the sleeves of those men walking by.

Going across the river once again, we enter Noge. This area became famous for street performers, but this is certainly a real restaurant district. There seems to be quite many low-priced places to eat as well such as a drinking stand and a stall kind of restaurant. When I found the god Inari being worshipped on a deep alley between the restaurants, I was awaken and got quite excited. It is nothing but fantastic that such place like a pocket exists. You should never go to such little alley with a group of people. With the walking-lover at the head, three of the members who were interested paid a visit at some intervals, and we were pleased. I heard that Noge is a restaurant district where people who work in Kannai area gather every night, and there are many long-established shops. That's why there is such thing as the god Inari being worshipped in an alley. I certainly felt that there were not a lot of chain stores but little shops under private management that were attracting attention.

Then in the night, I saw about three families or so getting together to enjoy some big fireworks at a park near the Miyako Bridge. There are a variety of sex-related shops by the side. There is also a restaurant district. And, happy families are living around there. The town swallows everything. It also has dirty parts and some parts to satisfy people's desires, but it's still keeping itself as a "healthy" town where people can live. Taking that into consideration, the scenes of this town might be nothing but very natural things.

Translated by Maiko Noda