Diamond City

If the road to the Emerald City were paved with gold then one would deduce that the road to the Diamond City would be paved with silver. Alas, this is not so for today I discovered that the fabled road to the Diamond City is lined with bronze. The chipped travel weathered bronze tracks of the JR line out of Kashihara, to be exact. Once, many moons ago, the former resident of this now chilly apartment and I decided to make a two hour trek back into the city from one of the classrooms a few stops down the line. Along the way he pointed out the Diamond City, marveled at it’s marvelous marvelitude and informed me that my life in Japan would not be complete without a visit to this land of fable and lore. Then I forgot about it. Since then I’ve passed the Diamond City about eighty times on various travels to and from classes along the rickety JR line and of each of those times I never bothered to look out the window to see it. I was probably in a train coma or pilfering through the mountain of FAXs I often have to cart back home with me. Two weeks ago, though, a simple glance up to see if I was at my home station and there it was again, The Diamond city rising up out of the darkness with blinding luminance, the beacon of commerce! Could it be that this stupendous, colossal city of things that are a girls best friend has always been but two stops away? How did I not see the diamond sparkle from my apartment? And there are more of them?

Yes, the Kashihara Diamond City is not as unique as one might think a city of diamonds is. There are 14 of these scattered across Japan, these mega-malls where one-stop shopping is the mayor and savings are his mistress. Diamond City is a good pop name, isn’t it? It builds you up for something more then there actually might be. This trend is currently seen back home in the naming of mega-plex theatres. Although, to cut some slack to Diamond City, the company has been sporting the name since the late 60s. Data released in 2006 data states that Diamond City Co. has over 4,650 shareholders and plans of expansion continue. According to Wiki: “Diamond City's corporate strategy centers around constructing, not just shopping centers, but communities. Their goal is to provide a range of services that create a unique way of life for the communities surrounding their shopping centers. Diamond City has defined, contributing to the sustainable development of local communities, to be their corporate social responsibility.” A shopping mall community? Is that the same as the hobos and runaways that call the West Edmonton Mall home?

I’m not much for large shopping malls, too many people and too much crap I don’t want, but with my days numbered here in Kashihara I figured I’d hope on the bronze road to diamonds and see what all the hoopla was about. Stepping off the train you wouldn’t feel you were close to the presence of the areas largest shopping mall. The station is unmanned and only has one track so trains have to alternate directional flow. Large dead and yellowed tufts of grass stuck out of the station fence and the general look of this place was that of great disregard. We are out of the land of pristine Kintetsu lines here. I looked towards the direction of the blazing light and headed towards it. Soon all signs pointed to Diamond City. The building was indeed very large, bigger then any mall I’ve been in before judging from the exterior. There was an entire block devoted to a five story parking lot. This place had it’s own park, although it was somewhat dilapidated. Who needs a park when you’ve got a majestic idol to commercialism before you? Stepping inside the large self-opening glass doors my first thought was of how much wasted space this all was for the sake of interesting architecture. You had five stories with what looked like miles of emptiness in between the walkways of stores. Various escalators and elevators took you upwards in designs that were very Dali-like. Yes, here was every bit the things I was expecting, the mish-mash found in these Mega-malls that I dislike. You had your brand-name coffee house, store upon store full of pricey clothing with cheesy chic names, a mega-plex movie house with overpriced crap films and overpriced crap food, food courts pimping grease, booths of worthless trinkets and cat calendars, smelly perfume and above it all loomed pumped in top-forty bubble-gum pop music. All in all, an all out assault on all of your senses. Lots of alls in that sentence.

I didn’t figure I’d stay long. My curiosity was appeased. It was a large mall like any large mall. Not much to see here. Just store upon store of cra….heyyyy now, wait a minute. Is this a large Totoro I see? I had stumbled upon something worthwhile, here. It looked to be an entire store devoted to the films of Miyazaki. Totoro was playing on a flat-screen television surrounded by dozens of varied Totoro merchandise. Further inspection into the shop revealed other merchandise for Kiki, Princess Mononoke and a the rest of those beautiful animated works by the master. The price tags assured me I’d never be dropping any dimes on, say, a large Totoro clock but it was nice to see something interesting crammed between stores shilling clothing I’d never drape over myself. I wandered a bit in the enormity of it all and wondered what a nice, green park might look like here. Maybe with a duck pond and benches for the elderly. A bright red swing set for the kids and a slide or two. Then I was actually looking for something. I needed a few more blank CDs. Since the passing of the MP3 player I have had to back up albums on disc before doing a much needed reformatting of my hard drive. This place had to have an electronics store. Leave it to me to be in need of the one thing not residing within the Diamond City. The stomach grumbled. Well, this place did have food, lots of it, and with so much to choose from I found myself roaming from court to court with my stomach informing me it was seeking something else at each stop.

Glancing upon the mall map, most written in Japanese, I saw the words COUNTRY and BUFFET. This sounded interesting. After a brief search I was on the fourth floor and in front of a restaurant designed to look like something you might find in a cheesy, Texas tourist town. Lots of wood and country related items on the wall (ropes and road signs, mostly). A small train track ran around the place above the seats and upon it chugged two small trains. The smells wafting forth were not your normal Japanese fare. Inside the display window I saw lacquered displays of pizza, onion rings, fries, meatballs, pasta, Caesar salad and more. Gathered together in this window was the largest amount of Western food I’ve seen in my time here. There were no squid-balls or anything with “yaki’ in the name. Just greasy, down-home cooking with all the trimmings. Why, there were even baked potatoes in this window. Now, being the miser that I am, I almost walked away form this bounty. The price-tag for this meal clocked in at about $13. It was all you can eat, sure, but still out of my normal dining out price-tag. But then I say the plastic ice cream displays with sprinkles and hot fudge and brownies and jello and the words UNLIMITED DESERT BAR. Sold! Inside I was greeted by a pretty waitress more then happy to try out her English on me by foregoing the usual Japanese pleasantries and breaking into the “Hello. Do you smoke?” I was seated at a wooden table on a wooden seat and given a wooden egg to place in my wooden table marker. I was to take the egg up to the cash when I was ready to pay. I guess this is environmentally friendly. Saves on paper bills. I hadn’t eaten much that day so I knew I would be spending an hour or so here bursting my waist-line. Here, in order, are the plates of buffet I consumed:

Course #1:
Two slices of thin, Japanese pizza
Four chicken dumplings
Fries
Onion rings
Three small baked potatoes

Course #2:
A bowl of curry and rice
Caesar Salad
Corn
Pasta and pork mix
A bun with margarine

Course #3:
Meatballs
Another slice of pizza
More chicken
More fries
Another bun

Desert #1:
A hot fudge Sundae with sprinkles and cornflakes and chocolate cookie pieces
A small coffee flavored dish of jello

Desert #2:
Another hot fudge Sundae with sprinkles and cornflakes and chocolate cookie pieces
A dish of fruit salad

Desert #3:
Another dish of fruit salad

And to wash it all down I had water. Drink bar was extra. I’d say I got my money’s worth out of this place. I was so packed with buffet walking was painful pressure on a man in pants that for the first time in 12 months were too tight on him. I popped a button to let the tummy breathe. This was the best meal I’d had in months and made my trip to the city of diamonds worthwhile. I’d drum up a better name for the place on the train back home. From here on in, Diamond City shall be dubbed Buffet Land! Urgh…that second sundae is coming back on me. I better lay down!