A presence I haven't felt since...

Talk about unexpected walks down memory lane. The other night I wandered out to Tokyo, mainly to kill time and maybe buy a new video game. On the way to Akihabara, tho, I accidentally missed the Kita Senju stop, so as I get in to Nippori I decide that I might try heading in to Shinjuku. Yes, I go there from time to time, but rarely at night these days. And checking google maps for Mexican food, I found a little restaurant near the West Exit, so I headed there.

What I found was a place I hadn't seen in years. A place I thought was gone.

When I first got to Japan, almost exactly 13 years ago, I stayed at the Keio Hotel for a seminar. It was mainly a get to know you thing, so I barely remember it at all, but the night after that has been burned into my mind forever.

Besides spending time at an interesting pay up front night club, eating Chinese at a dive restaurant and being told I don't look very American, the 3rd most memorable part of that evening was the night market.

Wandering around the West side of Shinjuku (right by the restaurant I found on the map), I found a warren of tiny electronics shops selling everything I could imagine. It was crazy, very random and not at all what I'd expected to find in Japan. Hawkers sold cellphones like you'd expect them to push crap at a flea market, or like they still sell fish in Ameyoko.

I loved it. It was a part of the energy of the city that I'd been looking for without ever realizing it. And those first few nights, and finding other places like that, were what turned Japan from being a vacation spot into the home I'd always wanted.

A few years later I went back to find the night market and had been dismayed to see it was gone. Or so I thought. The real problem was my sense of direction and knowledge of the area.

OK so even now the area itself is a bit more mundane - no one bellowing about cellphones (since now there's no reason to because everyone buys theirs on 2 year contracts), but it's still here.

These last 2 pics? Nothing spectacular, just a pic I took of the Mode Gakuen building and a nice little dead-end street not 2 blocks from the market area.