Sweets and Bitter

Over the weekend, I took a detour from my usual routes of walking, hoping that I would be able to see something new (or, rather, some things old) and it really paid off.  There were a slew of stores and homes that were of a certain era (before the War, that is to say, before 1945), because according to the seniors who we spoke to, this city was almost completely destroyed during that particular fight for "freedom".

There was a candy store which I had to go into.  One glance made me know that it was the kind of place that I am most interested in- one foot in the past and another in the grave.  Yes, this is a kind of nostalgia, but again, it is not a nostalgia for my own youth (of which this plays no part) but a nostalgia in general for days past.

We soon found out that the War had indeed destroyed most of the buildings in the area, including this particular candy store (which belonged to the owner's parents, the owner being in her 70s or 80s).  They had to rebuild the store and changed to these more modern candies because the equipment to make the traditional Japanese sweets was destroyed. and material/food stuffs was hard to come by.  That was almost seventy years ago.

Another story is that it is most often adults (nostalgic ones) who come by the store, as kids nowadays do not go out much (the fear of it not being "safe" even in this very safe country) and they do not enjoy these kinds of candies anyway.  Well, I can't really blame them.  Time is time, but in the meantime (the mean times), I will go pick up my sweets from her shop.