What a Surprise! BAYCREW’S Brought My Past Back to Life | Shibuya to Umeda | 104 Photos in 4K

This third film presents 104 photographs of Grand Green Osaka at night on October 25, 2026, and Umeda at dusk on October 28, in 4K. Music: Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection,” first movement, performed by the Vienna Philharmonic under Pierre Boulez. “Resurrection.” Never has that name resonated so closely with my memories. Land I lost, the years that followed, and an unexpected reunion with the company that acquired it. My past came back to life amid the city lights. I had been concentrating on photography and had not noticed who organized the event. Tents had been going up for about a week. I learned it was a charity event for the Noto and Kumamoto earthquakes, but mistakenly thought it would begin on October 30. I am overwhelmed by work. When goo Blog closed on November 18 last year, I had published approximately 350,000 essays since July 16, 2010. NTT arranged migration to Hatena and Ameba. Hatena took over a week; many groups of entries could not migrate to Ameba. Many foreign-language chapters used imperfect Google Translate and later DeepL. I decided to rewrite everything. This column will continue for another 170 years. I therefore took out a Pro subscription to the finest AI. On October 24, I hurried to Umeda after work, hoping to photograph a particular view at a particular time. The moment had passed, and the walkway was closed. Only then did I realize the event was on October 24 and 25. The crowds were enormous. A band sounded so wonderful that I stopped to listen. It was CHARA. When she mentioned her 35th anniversary, I looked up her age. The next evening, I arrived expecting Ulfuls at 7 p.m., but all the bands had finished. Music came from a DJ tent. I photographed from the open walkways and went home. Later, watching my film, I discovered the organizer was BAYCREW’S! I had mistaken the long festival name for something involving bicycles. My company was progressing toward an over-the-counter stock listing. We were the strongest of rivals with a leading real estate company’s Osaka branch. Each year, I hired a Kitashinchi establishment run by professional musicians for a joint staff party. My songs included “We Are the World” and “Blue Hawaii.” A client asked us to help acquire land near a Tokyo station for 650 million yen. The seller’s agent was our rival’s Tokyo head office. They knew us well, and we swiftly concluded the contract. Over lunch atop a skyscraper, they suggested I buy property in Tokyo. I asked them to find exceptional land in Shibuya, Chuo, Minato, or Chiyoda. About a year later, while settling a transaction in Sendai, I received their call. “We’ve found one…” I cancelled the next day’s plans and arrived early with our company seal. We signed immediately. That was how we acquired the beautiful property in Jinnan, Shibuya. More than fifty Tokyo companies reportedly sought to buy it. One offered an additional ten million yen per tsubo. I declined: we planned an entirely Italian building incorporating our Tokyo branch. Then came the 1990 restrictions on real estate lending. As I have written, these began Japan’s “lost thirty years.” Prime Minister Miyazawa later proposed injecting public funds in units of ten trillion yen at an LDP study meeting in Karuizawa. I have argued that the Asahi Shimbun and its economics reporter, a certain Yamada, led the self-righteous opposition that defeated this proposal, with devastating consequences for Japan and my company. “Everything begins with one person.” For me, this was its worst demonstration. I sold everything at extraordinarily low prices, including land in Senri New Town intended for my later home. BAYCREW’S, then a midsized apparel company, bought the Jinnan property. I still vividly remember signing at their headquarters. They gained enormous unrealized value, and their subsequent expansion is well known. I regard myself as an architect of their resurgence: the headquarters site I sold so cheaply provided collateral for low-interest expansion financing. There was another connection. I had spent three months confronting organizations alone to defeat a plan for this Umeda site to become merely a park. I also opposed the subsequent football stadium and World Cup proposal. Unable to devote more working time to those battles, I launched this column on July 16, 2010. For me, the event was therefore a reunion on several levels. CHARA’s wonderful sound and the final evening’s fashion show filled a place whose future I had fought for. I stood there taking photographs, unaware of the connection. Now, in these 104 images, I see both the light and the life I have lived. “Resurrection.” What is lost does not return unchanged. But the years lived with it do not disappear. In an unexpected place, one name awakens them. My own history appeared once more. Photography: MIKIO KISARA 104 photographs | 4K October 25 & 28, 2026 | Grand Green Osaka / Umeda Music: Mahler, Symphony No. 2, “Resurrection,” First Movement Pierre Boulez / Vienna Philharmonic