next door

This is a compilation of entries which I've been writing down for the past month...

About 2 weeks before our vacation at about two in the afternoon--(peak Kat's nap time), I heard a loud crashing sound. I rushed out onto my lanai to find these guys putting up these poles.

I think they are either going to tear down the building or paint the outside. Though I have a feeling that they are going to tear down the building because most of the apartments in the building are vacant.

I'm not quite sure about the house to the left of the building, but they have the same poles going around their house too....

The next morning at 10 sharp, I figured out that they are tearing the place down because I could hear breaking glass. They put up these heavy tarp to tone down the sound and also to help keep dust and stuff from flying about.

Now I realize that they are going to tear down this apartment building and the two houses next to it. It is hard to see in this photo, but there are two new houses at the end of the red tiled roofs--these were built about two years ago.

We came back from our vacation to find this....with the building gone in front of our lanai, I think I need to get new curtains since the ones we have up are thin and it feels like everyone can see into our apartment (they probably can!).

Talk about dusty!

And I'm sad because they pulled out the trees that were in front of the houses.

See the cute little dump truck in the photo above with the blue scoop-like machine? They fill this up several times a day to haul off the debris. I also noticed that a woman drives this dump truck, which is totally rare in Japan.

I was amazed that they have the debris kind of sorted out--metal in one area, wood in another area and cement in another. (When they haul it off, only cement is in the truck or only wood is.)

Today, the scooper started to dig up the foundations, boy! did it rattle our apartment. (As it was peak nap time, I thought it was Godzilla walking about..boom..boom. Our building shook that much--Scary actually.)

These guys are so prompt! They start at 8:00 am...no sleeping in for you night-shift workers, they do have a mid-morning break and break for lunch at 12 noon. Then during my nap time they are at it....and end promptly at 5:00 pm.

After a month, they have finally finished clearing the lot...I'm gonna miss the building in front, I used to use the red roof-like awning to tell whether it was raining outside or not. And I used to use the reflection from the windows to see which apartment in our building were having their early morning fights. The kids in the neighborhood are quite excited about this open space of land, I've already seen a few of them taking batting practice. I just hope that whatever they are going to use this land for, it isn't for another high-rise.

Speaking of demolitions, this building in the heart of Osaka, near Namba station has housed the Kabuki performances for the past 50 years. (I think we went to see Kabuki performed here when I was studying in Japan, way back when.) Anyway, the management company wants to move the performances and get rid of this building. But among the concrete high rises, this building is quite unique and keeps a Japanese-y flavor of Japan. Many architectural activists are trying to have this building listed as a historical site in order to prevent the building from being torn down. Hopefully, they will succeed, it is sad to see such a great piece of architecture go to waste.