生田!!!! You're my favorite 'live rice field'!

Yesterday I decided to go visit Ikuta, my old home. To that, I had to get on the Sotetsu line, go to Ebina, two stops away, then transfer to the Odakyu line and head up the 7-ish stops to Ikuta. Very easy in theory. I've ridden the trains a billion times; unfortunately, I almost always had my super-awesome Suica card of magically getting tickets and now I have none of those, plus my station, Sagamino, decided to post everything in Kanji. Yay. Luckily for me, there was a Pasmo card-creator and some nice random Navy guy who informed me of this when he saw me staring at the train fare map with what has to have been a wonderful *confused* face. So now I have a Pasmo!
It's like a Suica, but without the penguin mascot. Still confused? This is like a prepaid debit card for trains. Instead of buying a ticket to a specific place, I stick a bunch of money on the card, and smack it on the train gates, where it tracks where I go and deducts the money from my card. I can stick more on at almost any train station. Most people carry them in their wallets and just whack those against the gates, but mine's huge, so I need to find a smaller case or something for it.

Anyway, once I got my card, I headed over there without any problem and began my picture-taking frenzy to make up for all the pictures I didn't take a few years ago when I actually lived there. I apologize in advance, since some of this will likely only make real sense to a few of you, but that's ok with me. I just reeeeaaalllly want to show you all my old home, so I took over fifty pictures of it; that's normal, right?
The station entrance, something I saw almost every day for four months. Odakyu lines has a new logo. Isn't it spiffy?

I found the hair salon, Harmonia, where I once had my hair dyed and the hairdresser thought he broke my hair when he blow dried it and it exploded into frizz. I also walked by the local Mickey-D's, selling something called a Texas burger that looked like it may kill you automatically. Next came the walk to 5 Ship's Women's Dormitory and Golf Studios:


Don't just walk. Run, like the little green man (in the wrong direction...he's headed back to the train station on this sign. Bad little green man. Hiding in a train will likely end badly for you).

As I walked I noticed a ton of economic development. The town's really been growing. And that building they were making when we were there? Another restaurant, while the bento place (flower logo) is renovating. The graffiti you see behind the sign isn't graffiti; it's informing you that the place is under construction, as is obvious by the fact that there is no door and someone was sanding the walls:
and the flower shop is still by the bento place:

And more good news; the old vegetable-seller farmer is still around. I bought some delicious carrots which made delicious curry and will make delicious...carrots? I really don't know many carrot recipes for the girl who owns rice, soy sauce, and Toppo. I guess I could boil them? Salad, but I don't trust base vegetables...
Giraffe-san makes another appearance! I am not obsessed with it. Not at all. He sits opposite of the pathway from the station, by the way. Walking, walking.

The old Denny's is now a Jonathan's. Not that that makes me sad. Japanese Denny's are far too Japanese. And....walking...I go right, by the way. Unseen is a 7-11.
Good to know they still haven't updated that sign from the early 90's. Did I mention that 5 Ships is on the top of a long, winding hill? That wasn't fun when it was 90-some degrees out with 100% humidity. I much more enjoyed it in 40-degree weather.Hill! To the left, with the yellow roof is some form of junk shop that has never, in my memory, been open.Look! We're at the top of the hill. The office should be just ahead, then it's only a block to the dorms.
New sign. Sweet. Much classier than when I lived there. Then...What's this? I seem to recall this alleyway being smaller and featuring another steep hill. Not flat. And what are these?
These are not dorms. These are very emphatically new apartments and townhouses. There are small tricycles in fenced yards and nameplates on gates. No red gates, courtyards, or college-age girls to be seen. No security cameras or giant concrete fence. Apparently, 5 Ships turned itself just into a golf studio and sold the dorms for profit, which were then torn down. Some of the new buildings aren't fully up yet! And really? Yuppie apartments located near the middle and elementary schools? Couldn't you do better? Like a ramen shop that's not 20 minutes away or an addition to the humongous graveyard that area backs into? At least it's not a driving range...

That fully explains all the 'omg. foreigner!' looks I got, but makes me sad. I liked those dorms and now I feel homeless, even though I definitely no longer live there. After that wonderful revelation, I headed up to the local elementary school and graveyard, then to the grocery store in a vain attempt to find a specific cereal brand (bleh. Did get a 2010 dayplanner on sale, though!) and relive the walk of death up the two more different hills to get to it. And, I'll admit, so I could finally have a picture of the OK Supaa logo:
Just looking at it makes me feel better! That's right, my supermarket was called the OK Supaa, even though it's two floors and very so much more than OK. I basically spent a few hours wandering around Ikuta (hiiiii graveyard! Hiiii residential areas and freaked-out residents!) before realizing that I was starving and eating at the ramen place that even two years ago, when foreigners populated the local dorms, was a place to be stared at a lot if you weren't Japanese. Not surprisingly, I was stared at, but my tonkastu ramen was more than worth it. Why, yes; this is the wall in front of the elementary school. Yes; it is adorable. And this? This is the town as seen from the top of the graveyard. And, to end this on a sweet note, the orange grove in the park near 5 Ships' office. (heheh. Bad pun!). Yes; those are real oranges on the trees. Even I'm confused as it is still January and it does snow in this country. Whatever. Makes just about as much sense as placing an orange grove in a bamboo forest in a park in the first place. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is Ikuta. Now you all know what that place I never shut up about looks like. In detail. But, if you want, there's more pics on the facebook. I really did take a lot. Most of those aren't pictures of the street though. I saved the truly boring ones for you ^_^. Next time, your heroine takes on Sagamino in Ebina, where she now lives. Will she survive the park and the cluster of old men interested in the book she's reading? Will the Gorilla Pachinko parlor win her over with its subtle advertising?! Will she be able to navigate the grocery store?!! What is that strange map she was given??!! Find out when you tune in for EBINA: The Industrial City of Doom!