March 26, 2025 Ephemeral Cartography
© 安岡喜晴 (JoyShine)
Today, I went to the area around Heian Jingu Shrine for an external meeting.
As I was walking on my way home, I suddenly felt that I wanted to go to that nostalgic bus depot.
Maybe, one reason for this was that today's sky was clear and beautiful, like on that nostalgic day.
As I approached the bus depot, I noticed that there was a cafe, in the direction from my memory.
I thought, that cafe might be the one I entered on that day, so I decided to enter.
When I entered the cafe, a middle-aged woman welcomed me.
In the cafe, there were bookshelves, something was different from what I remembered.
I thought perhaps the layout had changed, and I asked about that, but she replied that this cafe had been here for about 60 years.
I thought, after all, this cafe maybe, but the interior of the cafe was quite different from my memory.
I asked her again about it, but she insisted that the interior hadn't changed since then.
She also said, this cafe is the only place around here where customers can sit at the table for lunch.
Besides, there was curry rice on the menu, and what I ate on that day was definitely curry rice.
But, the scenery I was seeing didn't match my memory.
Despite feeling uneasy, I ordered a cup of coffee.
Even while sipping the coffee, I felt kinda strange, and I left the cafe.
On my way home, as I was walking along the sidewalk, I noticed a building with "COFFEE" written on it.
I looked through the window into the building, and that was quite similar to the view in my memory.
"By any chance, this place might be that cafe..." I felt a bit excited, but I remembered I turned left after I left the bus depot on that day, but this building is on the right side of the bus depot.
Probably, my memory might be wrong... I wondered, but I couldn't check because inside the cafe was dark, and it was unclear whether it was still open for business.
So, I decided to come again another day.