Then & Now

I was browsing Google Maps the other day and thought of looking at the house where I grew up. It's interesting how much you forget when you haven't been somewhere in a while. Compared to where I live now in Japan it's pretty different. I took two screen captures to show the difference. Both are on the same scale.

The Old:

Aww swimming pools how I miss thee (I still haven't found one here but I'm told they exist). Grass and trees are also things only found in parks here.

The New:

City life! There's a ramen store across the street. The owner Matsui-san has my order remembered now (chaashu shio ramen and gyoza) so I just have to walk in and he makes it. Theres a meat shop up the block that sells some delicious black pork that I buy every now and then to snack on. My bank is that light blue building on the top left of the picture so if I ever need cash I can run there. Though sadly ATMs aren't open 24 hours here. They are only open when the bank is.

To be fair there used to be more trees here. That is until WWII and firebombing found its way to Japan. My city though small as it is was one of the most bombed cities in the country. It's position in the middle of the Osaka-Tokyo railway, its many factories and the Army Air corps training base made it a prime target. It also had the luck of being one of the cities the bombers would fly over on their way back from missions to Tokyo and Nagoya so it was a secondary target for many bomb runs. Thus the no trees part! Aside from parks they never bothered to replant them after the war.

Here's an after war pic to illustrate what happened to the trees:

This 1945 image shows the area around the train station in the center of the city. About a 15 min walk from where I am now.