ABSTRACT
The streets of Koganecho in the daytime were much quieter. I used to like to see the daytime scene of Koganecho where girls were having their mundane lives. When not many passersby are around they would come out from their stores and have chitchats on the street. One time I came out early on Sunday morning assuming most stores would be closed but they were already open. I saw Thai girls leaning on the counter and taking a nap in the store. At five o’clock in the evening girls in the daytime shift get off work, change their high-school uniforms to jeans and T-shirts, get on their bikes, talking cheerfully and leave, crossing the bridge. (Shikiyama, amateur photographer and community historian, personal communication, 4 March, 2012)
You know those days cell phones were not available like today. Girls used to call their loved ones back home using public paid-phones. There are some phone booths along the river. I often saw them in those booths, speaking into the phone receiver and crying … (Tamura, bar owner and a tour guide in Koganecho, personal communication, 4 March, 2012)
I used to own a little food cart along the river. I had some chairs and a bamboo screen to give customers some privacy. There were two more carts beside mine owned by non-Japanese people. It was a simple business
bodies of those who remember and recollect what it used to be. Each scenic moment also includes a photograph of the place and a short additional description of how the place used to be and/or how it has been transformed in the last decade (figures 3-7).
