I Went to Kisarazu!
Mar. 6th, 2018 04:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aibanokokuhaku On Friday, I had a singing lesson at 1PM. After it was finished, I had the afternoon/evening to myself, so I decided to take the train 40 minutes and go to Kisarazu for the first time, since Show-yan likes to claim it as Kishidan's home town. Though I can't think of any members who lives in Kisarazu. I mean, maybe Show-yan did, but he has mentioned his middle school before, and it was a bit further south, in either Kimitsu or Futtsu. I don't remember which. He has also mentioned coming up here to Chiba city to go to gigs as a teenager, so maybe I will check out the local music scene up here in my free time.
Anyway, basically this post is me sharing my photos and my feelings about Kisarazu. It was just a quick trip, maybe 3-4 hours in total, and some fans who live in the city have invited me to come back and hang out and they want to show me some nice places in town, though they say the hard part is that the nice areas are hard to access without a car. I think if the city wants to revitalize itself, it needs to make itself more pedestrian-accessible and revive the area near the station. You'll see what I mean.
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So first of all, I went out of the east exit of the station. (It is a very small station, it has only 4 platforms and two exits- east and west.) Conveniently, they do have highway buses from here to Tokyo, Shinjuku, and Yokohama stations, if you are a traveler. When I first left the station, I was greeted by this:
Cute, right? That's the mascot, a tanuki named Kisa-pon.
There wasn't much immediately near the station on that side, but I noticed a mall called Sparkle City near the West exit, so I went over there. The mall is depressing. There's not much in it. Whole floors are empty, and the few floors that have shops have tiny clothing shops run by obaasans and there's still a lot of empty space. It's not a new mall, all of the signs that say "Coming Soon" don't mean anything is actually coming soon. I took a photo of a floor that had a few small shops on one side, but the other half was like this.
I went for a walk and took various pictures, the aqualine bridge from the road, some dilapidated buildings (including a beautiful ryokan that was part of the set for the episode of Kisarazu Cat's Eye with Kishidan in it--what a shame!) and the (nearly) empty main street and sidewalk. It was Friday! Where is everyone?
I took a bus out the Mitsui Outlet Park next to see if I could get the new Kisarazu City PR pamphlet with Showyan on the cover. No luck, they didn't have it, just like the train station didn't have it. I have a fan friend who will mail me one for free, thank goodness, or I'd be irritated. The outlet mall brought in money for the city, which is good, but it was a 25 minute bus ride from the station and it was all brands from America, like Adidas?? Many of the people shopping there were Chinese. It was a strange experience. Maybe next time I will go to the Aeon mall instead.
Here are some photos from near the station area, a few things I found interesting. The spraypainted garage door on an abandoned building and the mascot statue near the West Exit.
I got hungry and googled Showyan's twitter because I know he always talks about ramen shops. I saw at least three he recommended in Kisarazu city, one of which was at the station, so I ate dinner there. Like an idiot, I ordered both a ramen (yasashii ramen, or light oil, so it has clams, veggies, and just a touch of butter instead of mounds of oily meat) and the fried rice (chahan). The owner asked if I was sure I wanted to eat both by myself. Showyan recommended the chahan in his post and I wanted more veggies so I said yes. The portions were HUGE. I was soooo full! But the food was great, and as 80's rock ballads played on the radio and I sat, the only customer there at 6pm on a Friday, I began to feel sad. I think this town has a lot of potential and a lot to offer people. I hope it a nice revival.
---
Anyway, basically this post is me sharing my photos and my feelings about Kisarazu. It was just a quick trip, maybe 3-4 hours in total, and some fans who live in the city have invited me to come back and hang out and they want to show me some nice places in town, though they say the hard part is that the nice areas are hard to access without a car. I think if the city wants to revitalize itself, it needs to make itself more pedestrian-accessible and revive the area near the station. You'll see what I mean.
----
So first of all, I went out of the east exit of the station. (It is a very small station, it has only 4 platforms and two exits- east and west.) Conveniently, they do have highway buses from here to Tokyo, Shinjuku, and Yokohama stations, if you are a traveler. When I first left the station, I was greeted by this:
Cute, right? That's the mascot, a tanuki named Kisa-pon.
There wasn't much immediately near the station on that side, but I noticed a mall called Sparkle City near the West exit, so I went over there. The mall is depressing. There's not much in it. Whole floors are empty, and the few floors that have shops have tiny clothing shops run by obaasans and there's still a lot of empty space. It's not a new mall, all of the signs that say "Coming Soon" don't mean anything is actually coming soon. I took a photo of a floor that had a few small shops on one side, but the other half was like this.
I went for a walk and took various pictures, the aqualine bridge from the road, some dilapidated buildings (including a beautiful ryokan that was part of the set for the episode of Kisarazu Cat's Eye with Kishidan in it--what a shame!) and the (nearly) empty main street and sidewalk. It was Friday! Where is everyone?
I took a bus out the Mitsui Outlet Park next to see if I could get the new Kisarazu City PR pamphlet with Showyan on the cover. No luck, they didn't have it, just like the train station didn't have it. I have a fan friend who will mail me one for free, thank goodness, or I'd be irritated. The outlet mall brought in money for the city, which is good, but it was a 25 minute bus ride from the station and it was all brands from America, like Adidas?? Many of the people shopping there were Chinese. It was a strange experience. Maybe next time I will go to the Aeon mall instead.
Here are some photos from near the station area, a few things I found interesting. The spraypainted garage door on an abandoned building and the mascot statue near the West Exit.
I got hungry and googled Showyan's twitter because I know he always talks about ramen shops. I saw at least three he recommended in Kisarazu city, one of which was at the station, so I ate dinner there. Like an idiot, I ordered both a ramen (yasashii ramen, or light oil, so it has clams, veggies, and just a touch of butter instead of mounds of oily meat) and the fried rice (chahan). The owner asked if I was sure I wanted to eat both by myself. Showyan recommended the chahan in his post and I wanted more veggies so I said yes. The portions were HUGE. I was soooo full! But the food was great, and as 80's rock ballads played on the radio and I sat, the only customer there at 6pm on a Friday, I began to feel sad. I think this town has a lot of potential and a lot to offer people. I hope it a nice revival.
---
