I often walk around the vicinity of the Omotesando area, especially between Meiji-dori Street and Aoyama-dori Street, to do research and shoot photographs. Around noon is just right for shooting photographs due to the lighting conditions, but it is also a time when I get hungry. In times such as these, it would be great to order a hamburger to go that can be eaten easily.

However, the building near Omotesando Station which housed a McDonald’s disappeared altogether and Wendy’s pulled out of Japan. (Their bean chili was my favorite.) The only hamburger shop nearby is Lotteria along Meiji-dori Street, so I would like to see more variety.

In that kind of mood, I was walking near Maisen, a tonkatsu (deep-fried breaded pork) shop on a back road of Omotesando. Right then, I spotted a construction signboard at an hourly parking lot which read, “(tentative name) Jingumae 4-chome, Project H (Hamburger), Site B.” I wondered with hope, “Would a hamburger shop finally be made?!” However, the sign said “a retail store, residences, and a clinic.”

I did some research, which revealed that “insufficient funds for development have been collected and so construction has not yet begun.” Therefore, I gave up writing an article on it. If they are going to “salt-preserve” the land (i.e. keep it as is), they might as well open a real hamburger shop. I would definitely go there often.

(Yoshimaro Tamura)