Thursday, 21 January 2010

Memories of Stones and Bridges

In Tokyo, here and there, between tall super modern ( and not that modern ) buildings, I often find strange stones that are there without any apparent reason whatsoever. These ones are where Sugamo prison used to be.

Not far from these , yet another and far more infamous stone stands where the girder / scaffold used to hang criminals, especially convicted war criminals ( like former Prime Minister Hideki Tojo ) . Engraved on the back of that very same stone an inscription is engraved "Never again" and a much longer inscription I can't recall right now . On the front of that very stone a much more simple engraving says " For Eternal Peace " . It is right next to Sunshine60, a building that was named according to a general believe that criminals were hanged every morning the sun shone . The 60 simply means the floor count . In popular modern lore , the area is rumored to be haunted .

A far more discreet stone is situated at Yoyogi Park near NHK and I sometimes sat there teasing other NHK personel on their way to NHK from Harajuku station and vice-versa .

Still these stones to me emanate a strange well-being and I often sat on them drinking sake or wine in the nights I was doing the "hashigo (step ladder)" or all night drinking. Kachidoki bridge was one of those power spots where I drank all night around Ginza and the neighborhood like the not so far docks which is now an over priced sky scrapper area, empty and lonely.

I got food from Tsukiji market a few bottles of booze and climbed to the top of the metal bridge, watched the sun come up and Tokyo becoming alive. Now Kachidoki bridge is still there but thanks to my leg and age I can not climb it nor observe Toyosu, the ex-merchant docks now turned sky scrapper ghetto, nor the doctor I used to bang that came around 8 am from St. Luke's hospital and picked me up half drunk , full of tsukiji sushi. She took me to her apartment and we always had our regular rump in the hay. Then I slept and by 3pm went to Ginza East to do some work or scouting at Magazine House or Dentsu .


Those were the days I was content as a cat must be after it ate the canary and I had quite a few canaries to eat from .

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