Yuki Shinohara¡¯s entire life fits in a room the size of three tatami mats. His dingy apartment holds a small TV, fridge, mini gas stove, packages of instant noodles and a single futon to sleep on. At 70 years old, he¡¯s a typical example of the elderly former day laborers eking out an existence in a down-at-the-heels district of Yokohama called Kotobukicho.
¡°I remember back when this town was very lively,¡± Shinohara recalls. ¡°Work was plentiful. You could easily get a job for the day in construction or on the docks. The streets would be full of people drinking after their shifts were done. There was a party atmosphere and sometimes it got violent.¡±
Shinohara knows that fact all too well. He was literally blindsided by an attacker decades ago in the same children¡¯s park he likes to sit in today, leaving him blind in his left eye. A fixture in Kotobukicho, he came here for work at age 18 and has been a resident for 52 years.
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