TOKYO POSTAL CODE SERIES #116-1

With this issue, the setting of my exploration shifts to Arakawa City.

Located just south of Adachi City, Arakawa is one of Tokyo’s smallest wards. While Adachi ranks as the third largest among Tokyo’s 23 wards, Arakawa is the third smallest. Even its postal code is compactly gathered into a single number: 116.

Despite its small size, the atmosphere drifting through the streets felt remarkably unique, and I found myself wandering deeper and deeper into the neighborhood.

Dividing Arakawa City along Oku’s Disaster Prevention Street, this installment follows my drifting adventures through the eastern side of the ward.

When people think of eastern Arakawa, places such as Nippori’s textile wholesale district, the San’ya area around Minami-Senju, and Ishihama Shrine—the oldest shrine in Arakawa—often come to mind.

It was a strange city.

More than the conversations or expressions of the people passing by, it felt as though the arrangement of buildings, the shape of the streets, and the quiet traces of life glimpsed beyond walls and doorways were speaking about the neighborhood itself.

A broken orange traffic cone had been left in the middle of the sidewalk.

I have no idea how long it had been sitting there, but fragments still lay scattered in every direction.

Perhaps someone connected to the nearby apartment building had placed it there, though there was no way to know for certain. In the apartment’s tiny garden, two television monitors lay half-buried in weeds.

Maybe that traffic cone will never be cleaned up.

The poppies blooming beside it swayed as if agreeing.