Center Plaza West; the Lair of Otaku, Sannomiya, Kobe City

The 2-3 floors of Center Plaza West are known as Otaku district. It started in '80s and shops are getting too many layers year by year. I sometimes went there to buy manga comics till '90s, but hesitate to enter the stores today. There are too many informations and goods which make me dizzy.

Many bookstores are disappearing by developping of online shop, but those comic stores catch custmer's hearts with premium goods.

 There are several miniature model shops there, too.

 Unfortunately, there is no maid café nor cospray resutaurant on these floors, but one café attached to comic store serve something special food or sweets with anime characters design, but I don't know well about it.

 You can satisfy your desire for collection or catch a glimpse of strange world there.

Kōkashita(Motokō) Shopping Mall under Viaduct, Moto-machi, Kobe City

 Shopping malls under Viaducts actually are common things as you know. Today, each station has a supermarket or restaurant mall as a part of the raiway station building in Japan. Meanwhile, Motokō
was/is known well as Asian chaotic place in the central Kobe City. There were/are small shops jam-packed under the viaduct of JR, many fishy stores opened there once. This shoping mall has the roots in the black market right after WW2. Those fishy stores are disappearing year by year in various reasons, but several mysterious stores still open on the dim western tip. Land owner JR definitely wants to clean-up this area, but hard-core shopkeepers resist it.
I don't know weather it is good or bad to preserve a piece of the dark history, so I just took some photos of the lively eastern area to show here.

  Railways run above this narrow mall, and clattering over.

Suddenly mall is interrupted with light-controlled crosswalk. 

 This area is popular with the young for reason of reasonable prices. Cheap rent appeals to young ventures, too. Personaly I think it is key to revive this viaduct's area.  Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.

Nankin-machi, Chinatown in Kobe

I went to the movie theater in Motomachi today, I stopped by Nankin-machi on the way.

Nankin-machi is one of  3 old Chinatowns in Japan. It is not so big unlike Yokohama's Chinatown, this disitrict is shopping and restaurant mall rather than residental area. Actually most chinese people live in mountainside high-residental areas, Kitano-cho or Tor Road,  mingling Japanese people. Thier main high-class restaurants can be seen there, too. So Nankin-machi is slightly different from general Chinatowns, but the origin is almost same to other chinatonws in both Yokohama and Nagasaki City. Big difference is both Japanese and Chinese merchants coexist in Nankin-machi. Not a little owners are still Japanese even now. They belong to same community as "Nankin-machi" merchants.

Nankin-machi experienced tragic air raid in WW2 and Great Hanshin Earthquake in 1995 as same as other parts of central Kobe. They know charity and smile whennever else.

Too many food stands!
These food stands can be seen since after-earthquake. Kobe citizens were depressed with the disaster, Nankin-machi cheered up us with their events and food.

150 years aniversary. I think Lunar New Year is too early a bit... : ) How about your country?

Always many visitors there.  I took chai tow kway (turnip cakes) after the movie for late lunch. Yum-yum.

Nankin-machi is not so big unlikely Yokohama Chinatown, but amusing place. Yep I love it.

Hankyu Umeda Station, Osaka City #2

Hankyu Group (Hankyu Hanshin Toho Group) has large properties around the station, so they are often called "Hankyu-mura" meaning Hankyu village. There are roughly 6 or 7 huge shopping malls, hotel and theater. I don't know how many buidings they actually have. They remodel some buildings at all time, I don't have solid image for each building of my memories. Thus it can be said, Hankyu-mura has no chance to meet nostalgia.

People immediately find the department store outside the tciket gate. Whole station buiding is actually department store of Hankyu, so the passage looks like a hall of the malls.

Depeartment stores are in difficult period in Japan, many branches and local department stores close year by year. Hankyu Department Store is gorgeous and looks like enjoying their prosperoty. I don't know wheather it is true or not.

After I left the station and the department store, I was going on the old downtown area to my aunt's home. Sin-Midosiji is in a mess with heavy traffic jam as always.

Hankyu Umeda Station, Osaka City #1

I have few ceremonies of new year recently since living alone, but I regularly visit my younger aunt's family living in Osaka every new year. I usually park my car at Ikeda City or other outskirts of Osaka City and take trains to the center of Osaka, because it is quite stressfull to drive and park in the center of Osaka for outsiders.
Every Ebisu Shrines has festivals in Jan. 9 - 11, marchants rush there especially in Hanshin Area. So there are several traffic jams between Nishinomiya and Toyonaka cities. I completely forgot that event. Anyway, I darely park my car at Toyonaka City and left to Umeda, the center of Osaka by train.

Hankyu Umeda Station is one of the terminal in Osaka City, it is definitely the biggest station in the western Japan. It is also very practical stracture.

The platform is separated each limited express, without confusion. 3 colors of light are signs of destination, green is to Kyoto, orange is Takaradzuka and blue is Kobe.

New Year's Day in Banshu Kiyomizu-dera: 初詣-播州清水寺- 2019