Yamashita-eki

Train-parking

The Setagaya Line gives you a number of sights, small-scale, agreeable, largely those of a well-heeled residential area. Back and forth Yamashita to Shimo-Takaido two especially reach out for notice.

Mid-way is Matsubara-eki. There, to the right side in the direction of Shimo-Takaido), is pinioned on to the back of a house nothing less than a train-carriage facade. Two bumpers. Driver and/or guard-window. Red and cream. Left side signal arm at rest. You look at it one train-to-another, working carriage to retired carriage. Home, the heart, is where the railway is?

The other sight (left side heading towards Shimo-Takaido) gives the promise of relaxation, the body in spiritual harmony with the spirit. Or it almost does. The name of the place wonderfully jars. Massage Factory.

BOROICHI

Twice a year, December and January, there is Setagaya Boroichi, the so-called Rag Market with origins in the sixteenth century. Kind of better-class flea market. Antiques, collectables, eats. Eight hundred or so stalls and a nearly quarter-million browsers and buyers. And situated between the Setagaya and Kamimachi stops on the Setagaya Line. Day-time throngs. Night-time lit by chains of bulbs. Old 78s. Magazines. Posters, Ceramics. Furniture. Coins. Fossils (or fake fossils). Munchies from niku manjū (buns made of pork filling) to cotton candy. Old and young foragers. Street buzz. Street cheerfulness. Relaxed market Japan – with the flash and click of photography everywhere. The Setagaya Line two-car trains are never fuller.

• 1. FROMENT D’OR. Bakery and Cafe. Cakes and bread. Drinks. As in all Japanese bakeries select choice by large hygienic tweezers. Then tray. Legend – by-the-door:

• Nous efforcons de communicer (sic) la culture alimentaire francaise en vous apportant un produit s’attachant a l’art du pain dans sa matiere et sa fabrication

• 2. YOSHINOYA. All-orange decor beef rice-bowl eatery. Massive popularity. In and out eating.

• 3. QB: ‘JUST CUT HAIR’. \1000. Three chairs, two employees, one room.