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Japan
Times
Tokyo's Ginza district may have lost some of its
past glory but several elderly people there are
working to ensure that it remains a showcase of
bustling Tokyo.
Ginza, stretching about 600 meters east to west and
about 1.1 km north to south, was for long -- and still
is to some degree -- considered a symbol of Japan's
prosperity. A pace setter in upscale fashion boasting
top-class bars and night clubs, the district is also
home to about 4,000 restaurants.
But its streets have changed in the nearly 10 years
since the collapse of the asset-inflated bubble
economy, with some of the long-established shops
giving way to the advance of foreign stores and
fast-food chains.
Senbikiya, a high-class fruit shop that closed 18
months ago, folded partly because its expensive melons
had lost their image as a luxurious gift item.
However, some locals, including Hideko Arima,
99, are holding down the fort. She runs Gilbey, a
decades-old bar in the Ginza Corridor. On her 99th
birthday on May 15, a number of regulars came
to the watering hole to present her with bouquets.
Wearing a black blouse sprinkled with spangles, she
chatted with each customer in the converted wooden
residence, a structure dating back to before the war.
"I learned more than I would have learned in
graduate school just listening to what my customers
talked about," said Arima, who was born in
Tokyo's Asakusa district in 1902.
Arima began managing the bar in 1948, when she gave
up her life as the wife of a salary earner "to do
something."
Among her steady customers have been a number of
prominent figures, including conservative political
heavyweight Ichiro Kono, influential business leader
Shigeo Nagano and novelist Shusaku Endo.
Arima's husband died 40 years ago, and their only
son passed away 15 years ago. But she still has three
grandchildren and six great-grandchildren.
In her autobiography published several years ago,
Arima said, "My first and foremost wish is to
stay healthy and work until 'that one day comes.'
"
Ichiro Sekiguchi, 87, is the owner of the coffee
shop Cafe de l'ambre on Mikado Street.
Using a machine he designed himself, Sekiguchi
roasts coffee beans every day in his shop on the
ground floor of a small building tucked away in an
alley. He opened the shop in 1946, the year he
returned home from disbanded military service.
"(Some people say) coffee is not good for your
health but take a look at me. I have been drinking
more than 30 times as much coffee as the ordinary
coffee drinker," said Sekiguchi, a born-and-bred
Tokyoite who takes pride in the Ginza.
He said, however, that the taste of coffee has been
deteriorating since the 1960s due to the decline in
the quality of coffee beans, explaining that the
spread of instant coffee required quantity rather than
quality.
Yasuo Chiba, 62, has been baking sweet buns for 40
years at Kimuraya, Japan's first bakery, founded in
1869. Regarded as one of only a few people who can
judge the state of dough fermentation by merely
touching it, Chiba was asked to stay on after reaching
retirement age.
Takeyuki Kikukawa, 56, has spent 41 years working
at Shiseido Parlour, which got its first face lift in
four years in March. Although a plate of beef curry
costs 3,000 yen at the parlor, reservations are still
necessary because of its popularity.
"Ordinary people's yearning was to dress up,
go to Ginza and eat at the parlor," said
Kikukawa, who was hired when he was 15. "I've
learned everything from the Ginza, including how to be
properly attired and personal enrichment."
Around noon, office workers start lining up outside
New Castle, a curry-and-rice restaurant that stands
out among the tall buildings of the Ginza with its
conspicuous tin roof.
For less than 1,000 yen, the restaurant offers
customers curry and rice plus a cup of coffee.
Hiroji Miyata, 59, who now runs the restaurant that
his father-in-law opened shortly after the war, said,
"We are able to operate the restaurant for that
kind of price because ours is a small restaurant run
by family members."
The vegetable-and-fruit curry is popular with
women.
The word "ginza" has long been synonymous
with shopping districts in Japan. The district
officially took the name Ginza in 1869. There were
once 600 ginzas across the country, but the number has
dropped to about 300 as the name was replaced by other
words, including "plaza."
Newly emerging popular stores such as Uniqlo, run
by Fast Retailing Co., have recently marched into the
Ginza hawking their low-priced apparel.
"Those who do business in the Ginza are making
all-out efforts to stay alive," said Yuji
Ishimaru, 65, of the Ginza Street Association.
"Surprisingly, there are not many who are
particular about (Ginza's) history and old things.
What makes the Ginza what it is now is the outcome of
intense competition."
The Japan Times: June 8, 2001
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