Back in December 1972, having just taken a job with a Japan Airlines subsidiary, I moved into the company's bachelors dormitory at Miyauchi 2-chome in Kawasaki's Nakahara Ward.
Situated in an industrial area near Musashi Kosugi on the JR Nambu Line, my lodgings were pretty Spartan. The ¥3,000 monthly rent got me an unheated room in a barracks-like building that was probably typical of wood-frame edifices of the late 1950s. It was accessed by turning onto an unpaved road that formed huge puddles after it rained. I fastened my room's sliding windows by turning an elongated screw; the panes clattered audibly on windy days, and coal particles from nearby factories seeped though the cracks, coating the room with a gritty film.
It was a place that rekindled not-so-fond memories of my early childhood in Pittsburgh in the late 1940s. Fast forward to 2009, and my lifelong buddy Motoi Hayashi declares, "The driveway would have been right about here," as he first points to a map he is holding and then gestures toward a new apartment block.