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The 2027 Beans Shop, Episode 7: <Izu Kogen>

2024年6月25日 16:23

The Nissan Dayz passed through Atami and arrived in Ito.

"Let's have lunch around here," I said. There used to be many restaurants I frequented in the shopping street in front of Ito Station. I wasn't sure if they were still there, but I figured a few would be. We parked the car in a pay-by-the-hour lot and started walking down the shopping street, but it no longer had the bustle of the old days.

All over Japan, shops and shopping streets are disappearing, and towns are becoming quiet.

I know Ito well among the hot spring towns. When my children were small, we often came here as a family, and we would visit several times a year on trips to Izu that continued on to Shimoda. After the children grew up, I often traveled here alone.

I remembered a relatively large tonkatsu restaurant a little off the shopping street that was delicious, so I went to check, and fortunately, it was open.

We went into the shop together and ordered tonkatsu set meals. When you come to a town like this, looking for Italian or French food usually leads to failure. Tonkatsu shops, Japanese soba shops, or local Chinese restaurants are better. There are quite a few delicious places.

After we finished eating, I wanted some coffee, so we continued down the shopping street and entered a coffee shop on the second floor of a building on that street. This place was relatively decent as a cafe. In the past, there was a coffee shop with a large sign in the alley ahead; the shop was spacious, the coffee was good, and I often read newspapers or books there.

Staying at a hot spring inn and spending a relaxing time at a local coffee shop is a wonderful thing. Although I don't come to Izu much anymore, I used to come here many times a year. Nowadays, I sometimes do that in Kusatsu. I soak for a long time in a public bath called 'Otaki no Yu' in Kusatsu, drink a yogurt drink in the large lounge after coming out, read a book, and on the way back, I stop at a cafe with a nice atmosphere that has been there for a long time to drink coffee and eat toast while continuing to read my book.

It sounds a bit like the story Mr. Tanigawa told about Chiang Rai, but people have always created quiet, irreplaceable moments like that. That's why I understood Mr. Tanigawa's story very well when I heard it in the car today. And coffee is a very important drink in such places.

"Well then, let's go to Izu Kogen and look at the first property," I said. "Understood, I will head straight to the property. I've looked into it, so I think I can find it, but since we haven't called a real estate agent today, we won't be able to do an interior viewing. It's a place called Jogasaki Coast."

"Understood. I've been to Jogasaki Coast a few times myself. It's the place with the suspension bridge, right?"

The car headed straight for the property at Jogasaki Coast, and after a while, the scenery changed completely, leading us to a villa area where luxury villas stood on top of cliffs overlooking the sea. The car stopped in front of one of the villas. It was quite a large villa. Mr. Tanigawa, who was seeing a property for the first time, seemed surprised. "It's quite large. And impressive."

"If you go down from here, there's a fish restaurant called 'Bora-Naya'. I came here once with some friends a long time ago."

After the two of us carefully examined the area around the building and looked at several other villas from the outside, Mr. Tanigawa said, "The image is somehow different. You can see the sea, but it's a sheer cliff, and I feel the atmosphere is too high-class. I don't feel any sense of human presence."

The second property was in West Izu, which we planned to see tomorrow, so I made a suggestion.

"Then let's try looking at a local real estate agent."

"Yes."

"There is a place called Mount Omuro, which is the center of another villa area in Izu Kogen, but there are many villas around there, and I think the atmosphere is a bit different."

With that, we looked for a real estate agent while driving toward Mount Omuro. We found one with a large sign along the road. We parked the car in the lot and went into the store.

A male staff member said, "Please, have a seat," and we sat down on a leather sofa set. A girl brought us tea. It also came with rice crackers wrapped in cellophane for souvenirs. The male staff member handed us his business card. This person seemed to be the president. The president looked like a raccoon dog. He looked like a raccoon dog tired of life.

Mr. Tanigawa explained, "We are thinking of running a mini-hotel with a cafe. Do you have any properties like that?"

"We have various ones, and the prices vary, so how many tsubo are you looking for?"

Mr. Tanigawa replied, "Three or four guest rooms. Plus a slightly larger cafe, and we also need a staff room for us to live in, so I think we need around 50 tsubo."

"Understood. Please wait a moment."

He said, and began sorting through files. About 10 minutes later, he returned.

"Among the properties we have now, these are the ones closest to your requirements. This one, this one, and this one. Three properties."

He said, placing the files on the table.

"Would you like to see the properties in person? If you would like to see them, I will have this young lady guide you now. I have a prior engagement, so I cannot go out."

"Then we will go see the properties," Mr. Tanigawa said, and the girl immediately found the keys to the properties and headed to the car. The car was a Mercedes-Benz. It was probably the president's Mercedes, but he might use it for work. The two of us sat in the back seat of the Mercedes and were somewhat silent.

"A Mercedes, huh," I thought. "As expected of a real estate agent. It must be profitable," I muttered without making a sound.

The first property was a single-story house. It was said to have been a pension. Following the entrance, there was a front desk, a living room, and a dining room, which were reasonably spacious. Proceeding further, there were four private room doors lined up, and beyond that was a room for staff.

"It's quite lovely, isn't it?" I said to Mr. Tanigawa. Mr. Tanigawa replied, "Hmm," but that "hmm" clearly expressed that it was somehow not quite right.

If we tore down the initial front desk, living room, and dining room, it seemed possible to create a cafe of reasonable size, but Mr. Tanigawa didn't seem very enthusiastic.

The second property was a two-story building. "This was a company retreat," said the cute girl who looked like a rabbit. This one had a standard layout, with a front desk, living room, and dining room lined up on the first floor, and when you went up the wide stairs, there were six rooms. When I asked, she said the staff room was in the back of the first floor, which was quite a spacious layout.

"How is it?" I asked Mr. Tanigawa. Mr. Tanigawa gave another unenthusiastic "Hmm." He didn't like it very much.

The third property was a bit small, but it was a reasonably clean property. Mr. Tanigawa also dismissed that property with a "Hmm." Mr. Tanigawa said to the girl, "We'll think about it, and if there's a property we want, we'll contact you. May I take the contents of this file?"

Once again, the two of us rode in the back seat of the Mercedes, and when we returned to the real estate office, there was actually a customer there. We greeted the president of the real estate agency and got into the Nissan Dayz.

After getting in the car, I asked, "Shall we look a little more?" but Mr. Tanigawa said, "I'm a little tired today, so let's go to the hotel now."

Indeed, it was already past 4:30. We had left Tokyo in the morning and only looked at a few properties, but I was quite tired too.

"The girl at the real estate office earlier looked like a rabbit and was cute. I wonder if she's the president's mistress," I tried saying. Mr. Tanigawa just said, "Is that so?" and fell silent.

It's my habit to tell lame jokes when things aren't going well, but that never makes the situation better and only makes it worse, and even though I know that, I can't stop myself. It's a kind of illness of mine (laughs).

After arriving at the hotel and going to our respective rooms, we immediately took a bath. There was no large public bath here; instead, there were several "family baths" as they were called in old hot spring inns, and the system was that if you found a bath you liked that was empty, you could go in and lock the door to have it to yourself.
I had an appointment to meet Mr. Tanigawa in the dining room at 7:30. I took a long bath, returned to my room, and slept for about an hour and a half.

Episode 7 End. Continues to Episode 8.

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