商店街 / Shopping Arcades

買い物苦手な私はスーパーやショッピングセンターへ買い物に足を運びますが、商店街で買い物する魅力にはやっぱり負けます。近年商店街ではシャッターが下ろしている店が多いです。活気のある商店街を歩きましたら、好奇心が湧きます。色々な店を除いたり、美味しそうな香りに誘惑されたりします。先日京都で時間を潰すために駅までぶらぶらと遠回りしました。生チョコの香りに引かれて、チョコレート屋を覗きましたら、店長に「見るだけでも良いですよ」と。作っている純米ココア酒について色々と話してくれました。次は煎餅屋さんで美味しい煎餅を三袋買いました。以外と楽しく買い物しました。

I don’t really like shopping. I go to the supermarket or shopping centre to buy what I need. Window shopping bores me. A work meeting, the other day, finished earlier than expected, so I had time on my hands. I decided to take the long way to the station and walk through the shopping arcade. In recent years, many stores in shopping arcades across Japan have shut their roller doors for good. The deeper I walked through the lively arcade along Sanjo, central Kyoto, the more my curiosity was piqued. Tempting, delicious aromas wafted out of shop fronts as I passed. One aroma emitting from a chocolate shop drew me in. The shop owner struck up a conversation with me and gave me a taste of his cocoa sake. Next, I bought three bags of rice-crackers from the friendly old guy who runs the cracker shop. I actually enjoyed window shopping, that day. Shopping arcades are definitely more appealing than huge shopping centres. If only everyone else agreed, a lot of them would not be ghost towns.

The Japanese version first appeared in the March 2013 issue of the goodspeed monthly newsletter.
日本語バージョンはグッドスピードレター2013年3月号に掲載されました。