I live in a place called Mimami Gyotoku. “Minami,” itself means south and up the road you will find Gyotoku about 10 minutes walk away.
Beginning inside this is a blurry picture of the corridor outside of my room; you can see all our shoeboxes at the end.
This room is where the washing machines are and leads on to the showers.
The showers, there are four of them yet never a queue despite there being maybe 30 people living here. There is a notice on all the doors saying, “This is a bathroom not a toilet.” Don’t get the wrong impression; these notices are not trying to prevent people from defiling the showers but instead asking them just to take their slippers off.
A Japanese washing machine.
This is the communal lounge area with lots of tables, chairs a sofa, Internet and a big TV with movies and everything. There is also a white board which makes the room look like a staff room but it comes in very useful during language exchange problems.
This window links the lounge and the kitchen; I think its only purpose is for better eavesdropping.
Everyone has there own tray to keep their food in, there are also communal fridges, freezers and a small fridge in every room.
The kitchen. Two rice cookers, a hob but no oven.
If you leave the guesthouse and look left down the road this is what you see. The left hand huge apartment building with all the fire escapes is typical of this area. In Japanese they are called “mansions,” a name which could lead to some disappointment.
This is the road leading to Gyotoku. On the left you can see the 7/11 convenience store, which is literally just ten metres from the guesthouse. This means that at any time day or night I can buy chocolate, bread, sandwiches, sushi, magazines, pay bills etc etc etc. Its amazing. Back at home if it was after 10PM I would have to get in a car and drive 3 or 4 miles before I could buy anything. Tokyo is amazing.
And this is what my guesthouse looks like from the outside. You can’t see my room as it is on the other side.
Do you think it looks quite evil? The dark and dreary plaster, the uninviting square shape dwarfed by the friendlier looking mansion towering behind. Well, that is what I think anyway, and there is a rumour that this guesthouse is haunted. If you would like to know more about the mysterious haunting of this guesthouse please press Page Down.
On the way to the station there is a pet shop with this written on its awning, it was too wide to get into one picture.
This is the entrance to the subway station.
Downtown Minami Gyotoku. The left building and darker one next door are both Pachinko places. Pachinko is vertical pinball and is extremely popular here.
More of downtown. I say downtown but its only 10 minutes walk away and not that big.
The Holy 99yen shop where I buy most of what keeps me alive.
When I was out with my camera I saw a woman WALKING A CAT. I felt that deserved capital letters. I sneakily took a picture of her and her twice legged travelling companion.
I don’t know much about the alleged haunting of this guesthouse, only what I was told by those who have lived here longer than me. She was a Japanese girl who lived on the top floor and liked a guy who was living here also but he didn’t like her so she slit her wrists and died. That’s it. See, I told you I didn’t know much, just one sentence worth.
I have never experienced anything remotely paranormal whilst living here. Karen on the second floor says that she has heard some strange things but nothing too unusual. Personally I think that such rumours can easily start and spread anywhere people frequently move in and out. There was probably an original event that got exaggerated with every retelling and so on. Like originally there was probably a Japanese girl who lived on the top floor who had really bad toothache one time so she asked the guy next door for some painkillers but he wasn’t in.
Although sometimes such rumours begin with no real event attached, they are just entirely made up by liars. I have done this myself, but that’s for another time.
