August 1, 2012 : Visit to Kyoto City Hall
© 安岡喜晴 (JoyShine)
I visited Kyoto City Hall. Speaking of which, this building is near an apartment room where my grandfather and grandmother once lived.
The reason I mentioned this is that when I entered this building,
I felt a kind of atmosphere that was almost the same as the atmosphere I felt in the room where my grandfather and grandmother lived when I was little.
Come to think of it, the interior wood of this building has something similar to that of my grandparents' apartment room.
For example, the design of a door in the office is similar to the pattern I saw on the wardrobe in their room.
Then I made a hypothesis. This city office must have been built at the same time and by the same company as their apartment building.
My grandparents came to Japan in the postwar period, and the office must have been built or rebuilt in the postwar period.
Also, their apartment building was municipal and wasn't too far from the office building, and I think this fact makes my hypothesis even more reasonable.
In any case, there's no difference in the fact that I smell the same atmosphere in both places, and I think this point is quite important.
I mean, that's the traditional design of Kyoto. When I was a kid, Kyoto was full of this kind of design that I've always loved.
This atmosphere of traditional Kyoto always reminds me of what the world around me was like when I was a little boy.....
taking a bumpy ride on a trolley, I took a ride on the Eizan train with my grandmother,
on the small balcony, basking in the moonlight, and my grandmother putting me in a small plastic box to bathe,
which is still one of my fondest memories of my life so far.
We weren't rich then, but it was the happiest time in my life. Ah... those were the days.