the nightwalker and the random discussions : August 27 2025

my housemate and i were talking about her eyesight one time and she casually mentioned that she must have astigmatism. so i asked her how she came up to that conclusion, and it was a pretty bad reasoning. bad and somehow illogical reasoning rub me the wrong way. i had to calm down before i replied that astigmatism, as what an actual patient shared, shows weird halos or starbursts when looking at lights at night. and when i took this picture above, i immediately shared to her that my camera must have astigmatism. kidding aside, she better get her eyes checked by a doctor rather than self medicate.

the weather forecast that night was an whopping 80% chance of rain from 7 to 9 pm. it will then drop down to around 50% and back up to 70% by 10 pm. it was not an ideal scenario for a nightwalk so i decided to go to the go to cosmetics shop in search for a toner. i was there for quite some time, and my housemates later came as well to buy something else. we got out and the world was bone dry. i really don't have any clue where the rain fell, but it certainly was not over here. to my frustration, i decided to have a shorter nightwalk armed with an umbrella. my housemate came with me when i mentioned that i will be collecting train station stamps along the way.

nippori station (日暮里駅)

the first stop was this station closer to home. since it was close, there was no urgency to get the stamp as i thought. i fell to the old adage regarding the failure to appreciate what is closer.

our discussion reached the point where she shared about her japanese classes the other day. she shared that on the first day, the teacher asked them to introduce themselves which she did in english. the teacher then said to do it in japanese of which she immediately searched the net for things to say. i told her that she should have just said what she could remember, the teacher could evaluate her knowledge level and it could also be a learning experience if the teacher does correct her. but at least this housemate was determined to learn japanese, and even plans to take proficiency tests this december.

the station stamp had a very prominent cat and my housemate shared that this station is well known for stray cats. yeah, she was correct. chatgpt said that the shopping street near nippori, the yanaka ginza, is a retro themed shopping street where cats roam freely. the middle part of the stamp even resembled the long staircase of which yanaka ginza is also famous for.

that station was really out of the way for our target stations that day and it took quite a while before reaching the next one.

saw this beer can inside a convenient store, blackpink promoting a beer? hmm... are you telling me to drink some beer? don't these girls have underage fans? oh well, these girls are all adults so i guess they can promote beer drinking, totally up to them.

we also got inside another grocery shop and finally found a toner. then suddenly my housemate who was checking some spray scents, blurted out some weird but quite familiar word. i had to double check, asked which scent it was and how she pronounced it. it was probably the weirdest pronunciation of ylang-ylang, that sweet smelling yellow flower. i could not get over this. i would have forgiven this gen-zer if this flower was alien, but ylang-ylang is a flower also native to the philippines. i was flabbergasted!

kita senju station (北千住駅)

the usual station exit is this one near the busy shopping mall, but the station stamp was located in the south exit. this part of the station is new to me, it was my first time to be there. never knew that a wide and high ceilinged area was kept hidden for such a long time. i was about to buy some drinks and came close to these vending machines, but to my surprise they sold trading cards. this was also my first time seeing this type of venting machines. kita senju is hiding so many secrets still.

the station stamp featured a variant of negi, green onion, which was historically cultivated in the area. and the ghost chimneys which i have learned previously (and posted here as well). these were brick chimneys of the now dismantled thermal power plant that appeared as one, two, or three chimneys depending on the viewpoint.

minami senju station (南千住駅)

and to the final station of the night, this quite sleepy area of minami senju. no more energy left, we decided to just ride the train.

we were talking about old age while waiting for the train ride home. you just have to be more understanding to people of older age, you will never understand what they are feeling. they were once active and bold youths too, so for sure they are also wondering how their bodies and energy levels have changed. this was my take away on that talk.

now i was trying my hardest to find out about this stamp, but found no clue. but what was even more sad was that minami senju had no famous edo period cultural symbol according to chatgpt. i guess this area will just have to carve out a modern symbol for the modern era.

we returned home after this station. we were crazy tired after that quite a long nightwalk. but was even crazier, there was no rain at all.

as always, AMPING KANUNAY!