We have a new construction site in the neighbourhood. Once upon a time, way before I moved here, there was a hotel just north of my apartment block. Since it had been demolished, there were discussions on what to build on that empty space instead. For many years, the neighbourhood associations have fought against a pachinko parlour, apparently one of the main contestants for a building permit.
The fight is over, and, glad to say, the neighbourhood associations have won it: Instead of the gambling hall, there will be an extension of the shopping centre, situated right next to the spot. The extension will add about 50% of floor space to the shopping centre, which is already enormous now. I am wondering what kind of shops will come there, and if there will be new ones or just the current ones enlarged. Probably a bit of both. Also, there is another shopping centre two blocks away, which belongs to the same chain – maybe they are planning to get rid of that one, since it is very old already.
Anyway, construction has already started last month, and according to the schedule I have received (since I live in an area affected by the noise, this seems to be mandatory), they want to be done with construction by the end of July. I am curious if this will work out, but if they say so…
In the picture above you see the current state of the construction. There will be a one floor deep basement, and they are now getting rid of the concrete remains of the hotel’s basement, and drill a few holes of their own. What I noticed when going shopping in the evenings (the big brown building on the left is the current shopping centre), is that the frogs are gone. A few weeks ago still, there were frogs in the ponds built inside the old basement to the left, and they were happily croaking away. Now, everything is quiet, and looking at the picture, you can see no more water anywhere on the grounds. It seems the Japanese don’t care much about things like this, they probably just filled in the old basement and let the frogs fend for themselves. This would be unimaginable in modern Europe. I hope some of the frogs survived…