Date:04/29/2015
Fieldwork:
For our first fieldwork, we decided to walk around Machida and explore the area to see what kind of old shops/shops with a history that we would be able to find.
Our first stop was 仲見世商店街。
It was Wednesday in the middle of the afternoon (15:30~) so a lot of the places were either closed for the day or not yet open, it seemed.
Next we stopped by ひじかた園, a place specializing in tea/tea-brewing goods/etc.
They had a whole row of tea there in the front and seemed to sell tea from all over the world.
Since it was our first fieldwork and our first interview, we weren't sure what to ask, so we just kind of asked about their business and business-related questions that came to mind.
They have been in business for more than 160 years, and had been in the area for a long time. In their opinion, the area has changed a lot and a lot of older shops (we tried asking if there were any other old shops/shops with history we could go to or any that they would recommend and they said that there aren't that many old shops in the area/vicinity anymore and that a lot of the area has been taken over by cafes and Pachinko parlors, etc.)
Next we tried stopping by 中野屋, the 和菓子屋さん in 町田 that everyone has probably walked past a number of times already.
They'd been in business for more than 80 years, and after asking some questions about what types of 和菓子 they sell (both seasonal 和菓子 as well as year-round 和菓子), we decided to buy some and split them amongst us and try different kinds since most of us hadn't had most of them before. For the most part, 小豆 and もち were the main ingredients.
We weren't sure where to go after that so we briefly stopped by 富澤商店 that sells all kinds of dried goods from not only Japan but also other countries - sesame, beans, Western, Chinese, etc. However we didn't interview them.
Reflection:
Since we were just told to "explore," we didn't know what we were doing/what we were supposed to be doing/the purpose of the fieldwork (the purpose was essentially "to find a purpose"???), so we didn't know what to do. But in a sense, this was a good way to see Machida because all the places we went to were places that you wouldn't normally just walk into even though we've all passed by them multiple times because they're all right there amongst all the normal go-to places in Machida.
In a way, we were the splitting image of 若者 today. The younger generation probably doesn't think much of shops selling tea or 和菓子屋さん, etc. unless they're looking for that specific thing. Everyone probably goes to the cafes, bakeries, ケーキ屋さん, McDonald's, etc. which is what we normally do if not for this fieldwork class.