8. Soro

Post office at bottom of my hill. Red Mailbox in front and ATM machine on side.

Last week I jumped ahead a bit with my Seaworld trip so this week I will go back and talk a little more about my surroundings near my house. I lived in the town of Kamogawa, in Chiba prefecture. Within Kamogawa, I lived in the countryside area of Soro. My neighborhood was called Nakacho, which originally I thought was my street, but nope, they do not have street addresses like we do. So to give you an example here was my address in JAPAN: 

556 Nakacho
Kamogawa-shi (city)
Chiba-ken (prefecture)
JAPAN --- - ---- (my postal code)

Soro was beautiful! It was mountainous, lush green, and sprinkled with vibrant colors of spring flowers and palms. There were many rice fields ("tambos"), vegetable gardens and flowers fields aplenty! My little neighborhood was quaint and had its own personal charm, complete with local post- office, market, bicycle shop, community center, petrol station, restaurants, and elementary schools. It was nice to be able to get to know everyone in a smaller community too. And if you are wondering, no, most that I got to know, did not speak English fluently, but thanks to body language, gestures, and my handy dictionary ("jisyo") we were able to share many wonderful memories.

The Soro post office ("yubin kyo ku") was also a bank and thanks to the wonderful concept of automatic withdrawal, is where my utilities were paid each month...very cool. This is also where I would get my international money orders, send postcards, and from where I sent all 33 of my boxes home (poor guys). But the only thing I had to get used to was the fact that the post office was closed on weekends and for many holidays, usually that fell on Mondays. Post offices are always clearly marked with their symbol, what appears to most to be a red "T" with an additional line above it.

The market, called Sakuma, is where I would pick a few food items but was primarily the place where I had my many rolls of film developed ( enough to fill 20+ large photo albums!). I bought my used bicycle at the Suzuki shop and later resold it there. Unfortunately, my knees just could not handle the bicycling, so I walked much more, which was even healthier...just took longer. I spent many wonderful afternoons at the community center taking my free classes in Japanese cooking and calligraphy. Oh, how I wished I would have had more classes. More on those "talents" later. 

Sakuma Market, note vending machine in front

The petrol station, JOMO, was a very important place for me because they were the ones who supplied me with my kerosene for my heaters in the winter! Everyone would have these large red, plastic gas containers alongside their homes, filled with kerosene reserves. Now, what was really nice is that I could call, and using what little Japanese I had acquired, I could order kerosene. Now, here is the really neat part...they delivered! A small tank truck pulled up my very steep driveway, to fill up my kerosene containers. 

JOMO kerosene delivery!

We had a couple of really yummy restaurants (see, you were just waiting for me to get to the food section right?) in town. One was a tempura and soba shop. For those that do not know, tempura is the deep-fried batter meals, that contain tempura shrimp or fish and veggies, usually served on either a bowl of white rice or in a bowl of warm soba noodles (tempura soba). Soba is buckwheat noodles, light brown in color, and terrific on a cold day. The restaurant was traditional in setting with tatami floors, that you walked upon in only stocking feet. The tables were low to the floor and the walls were often covered in the paper shoji designs.

Another local restaurant, and quite unique, was Alhambra, a Spanish place. As I remember, the chef had once studied art in Spain and was so taken by the charm of the people and the food, that he opened his own Spanish restaurant, right in the heart of Kamogawa. The place was decorated so lively in hues of Spanish blues and the food, impeccable!

View from my driveway down to tambos, and out toward mountains

As for my immediate surroundings, the outdoors were the most peaceful I have ever experienced, save for a walk along the coast of Tioman Island in Malaysia. Having my tin-roofed house nestled in the mountain slope, I was fortunate to have a bamboo ("take") forest behind my kitchen, a pine and pond garden beside my home, three neighboring rice fields ( "tambo"), and the most spectacular starry nights imaginable. I had the best of both natural worlds as far as I was concerned, by living in the mountainous countryside with water nearby. The Pacific Ocean was only four miles away; and although I did not drive while in Japan, many a day I took a local bus or walked the short, scenic route to the beach in town.

Hard to top that life and I can truly say that I genuinely miss those peaceful, quiet evenings, finding my way home by the light of a full moon or by seeing the magnificent red-hued sunsets as they dropped behind the mountains.

Roadside view of tiered tambos and palms against the mountain

Cloudy mountain sunset over a tambo

Next : #9- The ever-changing floral seasons of Kamogawa
(this is one you really want to see in color on the website...so don't miss it)

(to be continued...)

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