There’s this show on BS Fuji called “Builbura! Retro Building Exploration” hosted by Zen Kajihara, and I actually watch it quite a bit because they often feature retro buildings I’m familiar with. Anyway, in one episode, they introduced this really unique building in nearby Toyohashi that stands right along a canal, and it totally piqued my interest, so I decided to go check it out for myself!
Since last year, I’ve made it a personal goal to visit a new town or see a new landscape at least once a month, and the trip to Toyohashi was partly for that reason. Don’t you just get a thrill when you step off the train at a station you’ve never been to before? The first thing that caught my eye after getting off the train was this space shuttle on a ‘USA’ pedestal. Apparently, it used to be a pachinko parlor, and now it’s become quite a local landmark.
After walking a few minutes along the concourse from the station, this is the view that greeted me. There were murals of characters from the anime “Too Many Losing Heroines!” decorating the sides of each of the waterway buildings, as part of a collaboration. When I visit towns as part of my ‘explore new places’ quest, I often stumble upon cities doing anime collaborations, but I didn’t know about this one in Toyohashi (partly because I haven’t watched this anime). A quick search revealed that there’s definitely a mastermind behind it all (IT Media News).
These waterway buildings—even from the first photo in this article, you might get the impression they’re over a canal if someone told you so. But to make it even clearer, there are bridges like the one in this photo that span the Muro Irrigation Canal between the buildings. It’s quite a strange sight to see three buildings standing for 700-800 meters over a waterway.
In “Builbura!”, Zen Kajihara would go into various shops, chat with people, and show off the interiors. But since it was a Saturday afternoon when I visited, a lot of shops were closed, and some just had this vibe that made them a bit hard to step into. So, I ended up just wandering around and admiring them from the outside. I mean, that ‘hard to enter’ vibe and an ‘unique and interesting’ vibe often go hand in hand, right? When I’m strolling alone, for some reason, the psychological hurdle to walk into a shop feels a bit higher… Even though I’m sure if I just popped in, it would be fun.
Though it seemed to be closed, the fireworks shop really caught my eye. I think there was this Azumaya shop and another called Amano Shoten, and from a quick glance, they seemed to sell an amazing variety of fireworks. In Tokyo, due to safety and noise concerns, it’s hard to even set off fireworks in parks, but seeing fireworks always gets you excited, doesn’t it?
Next time, I’d love to come with a few friends and actually browse inside the shops.
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