Neighbours

I live in a quiet neighbourhood within a fairly quiet city. There is a part of the downtown area that stays busy late into the night, but for the most part, when I walk down the streets of Iwaki after 8 or 9 o’clock, there are very few people on the road. Even Friday and Saturday nights are quiet.
My apartment is generally very quiet as well. Some of my neighbours in the building across from me moved out recently. There used to be a young couple with a small boy living there, but now there’s just a clothing rack full of dresses and a small stereo component lying on the floor. They were the few people that I would see come and go during the day, although I was never outside at the same time as them, so I never got the chance to say hello. Now, I rarely see any of my neighbours. The parking lot only ever has about 7-8 cars in it and whenever one of my teacher’s drops me off, he always asks me, “why are there never any cars in this parking lot?” One of these days I’ll have an answer for him.

I live in a corner apartment, so I only have one neighbouring unit, which I know people live in because every weekday I can hear someone coming home and punching in their door-code just before eleven o’clock. They also play a lot of video games, which I know because their living room is on the other side of my bedroom wall and I can hear them playing whenever they’re home. There’s also someone who lives below me who I saw shortly after I first arrived in Japan. He was parking his bike beside where I usually park mine – under the stairs, when I rode up behind him and said “konichiwa.” After glancing at me, he quickly jumped around the corner and went into his apartment.

I sometimes see people coming or going in their car when I’m also coming or going, but I rarely see anybody face-to-face to say ‘hi.’

The other day it rained all day only to let up in the evening when I went to grab some groceries for the next day. Walking through the streets at night is usually quite nice because it’s so quiet – kind of like when it first snows and everybody stays indoors. On the way back I noticed that the lights from all of the buildings and streetlights were reflecting off of the pavement very nicely and I could see white clouds hanging low in the sky; I had a feeling it would be a good night to take some photos. I spent about an hour walking up and down the streets of my neighbourhood and got a few good shots. There was still a light drizzle, which got on my lens, but the light reflecting off of these spots I don’t think was a total loss. A clean lens might have been ideal, but the raindrops added a bit of a cool effect.

***As usual, please click on each photo to see it in a larger/better format!***