"Ebisu Station - 1991 & 2008"

My first job in Japan, back in 1984, was at a company that had a small office in Ebisu. I have fairly vivid memories of walking down the street on my way to the company (strangely, not going back to the station - I suppose the fact that it was more difficult to find the company than the station produced increased concentration and thus stronger memories), and walking up the stairs in an old building to the company, but no memories of Ebisu Station itself (before it was modernized) that I can recall. And so it was a bit of a shock to see it (from the Yamanote Line) in one of my old videos from 1991:

Ebisu is a modern and fashionable place/station now, with two double-sided platforms at which several different train lines stop. There is a department store built over the station, so entering the station (in a train) is a bit like going into a tunnel. Contrast that with 1991, when it was just a single open-air platform, and it's hard to see the pictures of the open-air platform and draw any kind of mental connection with how it is now! I was there! I took the video! I used the station! And I still can't recognize the old images as "Ebisu Station". But it makes sense... the open-air type platforms were all about the same - so each particular one doesn't/didn't have much in the way of anything distinct to remember. (Current Shin-Okubo Station is about the same design of the former Ebisu Station, if someone would like to know how it was on the inside.)

Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon
http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/