Culture Essay > Culter Essay > The Neighborhood I Used to Live, Demachi

A long line for Futaba 2020 1 3

Sunshine Lee's Culture Essay written in Poetry

The Neighborhood I Used to Live

I grew fond of Seoul as I was born and raised there. I also grew fond of Washington D.C. as I went there to study for 20 years. And, I grew quite fond of the neighborhood near school in Kyoto where I recently studied.

Now that I’ve graduated, whenever I go to Kyoto, even though I have only limited time left after looking around tourist attractions, I automatically want to visit the neighborhood I used to live again. It’s become a habit.

The place was unfamiliar at first.

I chose the place as it was only 10 minutes away on foot from the university, even so, it was tiny. I had heard that even though Japan is many times larger than Korea, the Japanese usually live in a small place. Even ministers live in a places as small as 60 m2. That is their modesty. Their priorities in life are different from ours.

Always remembering that I was there to study, I would come back home after the university library closed, open the window wall and arrange about twelve flowerpots on the floor according to color. That was my pleasure. I am sorry that I didn’t take any pictures of them, but I still remember their loveliness.

And there were a few perks of living in that neighborhood.

First, Demachi shopping street was right in front of my place. Demachi shopping street had fresh and affordable products, so people came from far away. There are two large supermarkets inside the shopping street, so I learned which place was cheaper for which products.

Time was precious as there was a lot of homework, so I usually ate at the school cafeteria. In the rare occasions I ate at home, I cooked brown rice and bought yuba, tofu, sushi, sashimi, cheese, fresh vegetables and fruits from a supermarket that had almost everything. They also had Korean spring greens.

One of the things I enjoyed the most was this: They sold snapper, which is regarded as haute cuisine by the Japanese, and I bought the bulky remainder from filleted snapper, with all its head and lean meat, from them at 500 yen. I bought that, added white radish and a little bit of Japanese soybean paste, and just like that, fresh, tasty snapper soup was ready. Whenever I cooked snapper soup for my friends or fellow students they were impressed with the haute cuisine. I still keep the membership for the supermarket in remembrance of those dear memories.

There was a traditional medicine clinic which did consulting on invigorating people, and a bookstore, in Demachi shopping street. There were also udon restaurants and a restaurant famous for saba sushi made of mackerel. I liked ordinary sushi and sashimi, but I didn’t like sour saba sushi. I told one of my acquaintances who was particularly fond of saba sushi about this famous place and they made a point of going to Kyoto so that they could eat at the place.

The end of the Demachi shopping street led to a row of stores. One of them was the famous Futaba. People from not only Kyoto but the whole Japan came and made a line for Futaba – it was the most popular place in my neighborhood.

Futaba of Demachi, whose mochi represents Kyoto, was founded in 1899. Its founder started the business from the hope of making mamemochi (bean rice cake) of Komatsu, Ishikawa (his homeland) take root in Kyoto. Now this specialty mochi has acquired great fame and been loved for over 100 years.

Seeing the process of making the thing with my own eyes, and waiting in an awfully long line, all add to the taste of rice paste with beans. The place was just a few steps away from my place, and I waited in a line for the place three times. It was when the line was relatively short due to heavy rain. I couldn’t cut in the line of several layers, and I didn’t have enough time because I had to study. The line makes me wonder if they wouldn’t want to open another branch – but that’s probably not going to happen.

People wait in a line for a tea house across from Futaba, too. They put a few items like sweet red-bean porridge and rice cake in a cone – the shape is good, and soft ice cream inside is very tasty.

And next to the tea house, there is a flower shop that I have always wanted to buy from. And I can see Kamomawa River from there. Kamomawa River is what I depended on the most while living in Demachi.

Whenever I was overcome with homesickness, loneliness, bitterness or the burdens of my academic load, I ran to there.

The river, which stretches for dozens of kilometers, is narrow in width. But its nature itself comforts me.

People pick Kamomawa River as the best place for a date in Kyoto. Lovers, young families with babies, and the elderly come here. The old spring flower trees on each side blossom with spring flowers in spring, and walking along the river which changes its scenery every season serves as exercise and makes me feel lighthearted.

Probably because there are so many places to see, there are not many tourists in Kamomawa River.

A river in a city is a good thing.

One day, I was walking with a peaceful view of several mountains layered like a piece of an oriental painting, and I didn’t feel like going back to Seoul even though I had to attend to a lawsuit in Seoul next day. Befitting its name – the “kamo” in Kamogawa means “duck” – ducks were hanging around in the river, and glossy ravens and kites were leisurely flying in the sky.

There was a café named “BonBon” in the riverside which sold simple food like French toast, curried rice and tea. At the beginning of the term, I studied there eating French toast after class. The café, I was told, was famous for being a filming location, and the sky, river and mountains were visible through the wide window.

On my way to school, which took about ten minutes, carrying a backpack after hastily eating breakfast, I passed a long wall of Gosho (which used to be the residence of Japan’s Imperial Family for a long time) on the left side, a hardware store whose owner was friendly to me when I bought trifles like a light bulb, and an elegant bakery from which I used to buy sweet red-bean bread every day.

A little further from there is a hair salon where a lively young man cut my hair. I trimmed my hair once a month in Seoul, and every other month in Kyoto in that hair salon.

Even now, whenever I go to Kyoto, I go to Demachi where I used to live and exchange greetings with my neighbors – owners of Aomori apple store, the teahouse with cute and tasty homemade dessert, the udon place and the sunglasses shop. They are friendly people that form a part of my life and made my life warmer. They have never been to Korea, so think of Kim Jong Un when they hear “Korea” – I am Korea to them, so looking broadly, this is Korea-Japan interchange.

Each of them forms an impression of Japan and I am sure I form an impression of Korea to them.