Today I went for a walk around Matsudo, in northern Chiba. I worked here for 3 years, and tho I can't really say I love the place, it has a unique charm to it.
Matsudo is an old city, and has an odd, confused layout. That is, if by layout you mean a bunch of streets randomly draped over a mess of odd buildings. The pic above is of an old apartment/mixed business block of concrete that's now abandoned. There was a guy working a backhoe digger just on the other side in the process of tearing it down.
The layers. Walk around enough and you start to get confused which direction you're even pointing.
Another road suddenly is a bridge crossing what probably used to be a river long long ago, but is now yet another canal of stagnant water. But that doesn't stop anyone from building right up next to it.
This pic is looking across another canal. You have a two story house smashed between apartments, all uniquely designed with no repetition except for placement. This is fairly near Mabashi station.
On the way to Shin Matsudo now you have an intersection of bridges and canals. I happened to catch the Nagareyama Dentestu local train as it flew past.
Here's what it looks like with no train. Bridge, bridge, bridge, plus a higher train line in the far background, all over interlocking canals. Or is it a river system? I have no idea.
Do a 180 and you have this wodded canal/river. Zoom in to the center and you'll see what I was taking the pic of. Ick.
OK, now we're about at the end of my journey. I walked from Matsudo station to Kashiwa, a good hike of around 10km. At the end we get to this church, which yes they do have in Japan, too. Of course no one ever worries about zoning here... walk a bit further down the street and you'll hit a chain of pachinko parlors and what looked like strip clubs. I guess go to them Friday and Saturday and then hit up the church on Sunday?
Anyway, it's a good hike with a lot to see, especially between small stops in Matsudo.
All taken with my GXR + A16 unit.
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