Miscellaneous stuff

Maybe I should name this post "Greetings from no-man's-land".


If you read the TV story, (and it is still sitting on the curb) you will have seen how we can have an address in Nerima ward but not be a part of it.

Well, the plot thickens. Our neighbors at the end of the street decided to build a house on part of their property for their son to live in.  It is a nice handsome  house but in the process, the government took away a meter of their property along each street. Even though this road goes nowhere, the plan is to eventually have the street wide enough for cars to use.

The same thing happened when our house was rebuilt. We lost a meter on both the east and west sides of the property. The East side now has a road that cars can go down but our west side will never be that wide until all the houses are rebuilt ... so not in my lifetime.

In this picture, the blue net is covering garbage waiting for collection and lying in front is the community bulletin board. When the road was widened, the bulletin board was taken down from along the old fence line. The city came in and put in a curb and sewer. Of course they didn't move the electric poles so the street is no wider than it was to begin with.

The cones are there because the work has not been finished. The city was supposed to come and install the bulletin board in its new location. The neighborhood association was even given a date.

But wait ... Now the ward says it will cost too much to install that bulletin board and the residents will have to pay.

What? We have to pay because they couldn't get their act together when they repaved the street? I told my husband to tell the neighbor head to go back to the ward and tell them no way we pay for their poor planning.
(My husband was surprised at my reaction ... Japanese are so quiet and never make waves so I wonder if the message will get passed along)

Looking down the street, one can notice how much of the street is yet to be claimed by the government.

It is possible for one car to go down the street and the new house on the right hand corner has a parking space.

My house is the pink one to the right of the end wall and my bike is parked between the telephone pole and the wall on the left (next to the junked TV.

This is our street, my bike on the left.

50 years ago, this was a dirt path. I can reach out sideways and touch the walls on both sides.
There is enough space for a person on a bike to pass a walker. Two people walking with umbrellas have to shuffle past.

This is never going to be big enough for auto access ... and there is no point because there a road on the front side of all these houses. This has always been a back ally. But it is not part of Nerima-ku. If we have to wade through a pond each time it rains, that is because there are no drains and nowhere for the water to go when it runs off the roofs. But Nerima sure isn't going to fix this because it is not their problem.  So, I guess if we live in a no-man's-land, why should we pay for a bulletin board on the edge of a Nerima street?

Well, just a strange piece of information.
Now I am all packed up to hit the road for scout camp. Nikko will go with me.

And so will my other little pets,

Only around 15 days old and they are consuming mulberry leaves at a rapid rate.

I am so glad that there are mulberry trees right outside the craft area.

I have moved them to a larger basket and set it in a pan of water to protect the worms from ants.

Also I will be taking the dark batik fabric so I can begin measuring and sewing the quilt borders.

The days are getting hotter and more humid with each rain. At least I won't have to carry a sweater at camp because there is no air conditioning.

Hope you all have a good week and I'll see you when I return.