Odakyu Enoshima Line: Tsuruma Station | Daily Life in the Shadow of Massive Consumption

Tsuruma Station is a small station where express trains do not stop.
The platform has no special scenery, and the landscape makes no particular statement. It is a station designed as a transit point. A place that exists merely as part of a daily commute.

I pass through the small ticket gate and go down the stairs.
The first thing that catches my eye is a Lawson.
The nationwide sense of security that comes with having a convenience store in front of the station. It is a format that ensures the same scenery exists no matter where you are.

Beyond the tracks, which are not elevated, there is a railroad crossing where a line of cars is stopped.
The sound of the crossing, 'ding, ding,' rings out.
This sound, at least, is nostalgic. No matter how much the city is updated, the sound of the crossing brings back memories of the Showa era just as they were.

The street in front of the station is lined with businesses that serve daily life.

A Tokyo Shoes Retail Center, a barbershop, a Turkish restaurant, a horse sashimi shop, a horumon (offal) restaurant, a clinic, a 7-Eleven, and a Nissan dealership.

The fonts on the signs are all different.
The Turkish restaurant uses decorative lettering that makes its 'Turkishness' easy to understand.
The horumon restaurant uses rounded characters that feel historic.
They are letters that seem to carry the weight of life and time itself.
The Nissan dealership logo is the new brand logo, with the thinner 'NISSAN' lettering glowing.
Even though it should be sophisticated, for some reason, my eyes are not yet used to it.

A streetscape where shops for daily life are lined up as functions.
It is less of a culture and more of an aggregate of necessity.

Beyond that, the scale suddenly changes.

An Ito-Yokado and an Aeon Mall.
Huge commercial facilities rise up as the backdrop of the town.

The walls are white. But they don't feel new.
It is a whiteness that is clean, but not updated.

An overwhelming sense of volume.
However, there is no sense of the future.
It is huge, but not cutting-edge.

This is neither Yokohama nor Tokyo.
This is Yamato City.

A landscape that looks like the term 'suburban city' has been physically manifested.

I enter the food court on the first floor of Ito-Yokado.
The smell of oil is pervasive.
The sweet, heavy, greasy air peculiar to fast food.

I buy coffee at McDonald's.
A familiar taste. More than a taste, it is the feeling of being 'guaranteed'.

It is crowded even though it is daytime.
Since it is a weekday, it is full of elderly people.
There is plenty of conversation, but the energy level is low.
It is less of a vibrancy and more of a density of people lingering.

In this massive space of consumption, time is being consumed.

The station is small.
The town is miscellaneous.
The facilities are huge.
The people are quiet.
Only consumption is energetic.

This town is not producing anything.
It is just circulating life.

But perhaps that is fine.
A place where being ordinary has become something special.
Even while surrounded by massive things, the scale of life remains unchanged.

Express trains do not stop at Tsuruma Station.
Yet, life here certainly continues to flow without stopping.

There is no flashiness.
There is no narrative.
There is no symbolism.

Even so, this town is truly alive.

In the shadow of massive consumption,
a very ordinary daily life is spinning along energetically again today.