La Palette

   If you walk around the wharf at Nagahama (Fukuoka City, Chûô-ku), you'll find pallets and boxes stacked up two, three meters high at the edge of the quay. The wooden boxes are filled with ice and freshly caught fish and then taken to the fish market early in the morning where they are auctioned off. In this age when virtually everything is disposable, it's nice to find things like these simple wooden boxes that are used over and over again.

   Two weeks ago when I was in Tôkyô's Yuraku-chô neighborhood looking for a Turkish restaurant (which ended up being closed) I came across a seafood restaurant under the tracks of the Yamanote Line called, I believe, Uomaru (魚河岸 魚◯本店). The tables and chairs of the restaurant were all made from these wooden boxes. (Should have taken a picture.)