The Re/Construction: January 13 ~ June 13, 2026

This rather large post documents the construction of a new apartment complex (corrected name on the apartment signage:「フォレストグクリエオーレ城垣町 I II」or, Forest Creaole Shirogakicho I and II) in my neighborhood very close to my own house. The overall saga begins with two earlier posts, about the demolition of the previous Showa era house:

「Deconstruction: Demolishing a Showa Era House in the Neighborhood (this post is still under construction...)」: https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2025/09/deconstruction-demolishing-showa-era.html

and the "pre-construction" of the apartment complex:

「Pre/Re/Construction...」：https://visualanthropologyofjapan.blogspot.com/2026/01/prereconstruction.html

The main construction began on January 13 and was supposed to be finished in May. Construction ran longer than promised, continuing well into June. The crews started out at 8:00 AM and finished around 6:00 PM, Monday through Saturday. They also worked on some Sundays and national holidays. The finished product consists of two 3-story buildings with 12 1LDK apartment units in each building (for a total of 24 new apartments).

WARNING: THE FOLLOWING IS A SOUND-ONLY VIDEO. PLAY AT MAXIMUM VOLUME ON YOUR DEVICE TO GET AN IDEA OF THE REAL TIME EXPERIENCE... This is what woke me up almost everyday for the last 6 months. No snooze button, no shut off button...

This noise pollution has been inconsiderate, disruptive and stressful to say the least, for me, my family and many neighbors (who have sometimes complained to the workers). Sometimes we were notified before hand about work on Sundays and national holidays (the documents are included with the photos below), but many times we were not. Calls to the company headquarters went unanswered on Sundays and national holidays as their office was closed, despite the construction workers themselves having to work.

This documentation is not so scientific as the photos were taken haphazardly in terms of time and number of exposures in each photographic session. I tried to capture the weekly changes on Sundays when I could, but there were some periods of illness and hospitalization that prevented me at times. Most of the photos are structural only, without the construction workers or people walking by the site. Still, this project is ethnographic in that is displays the contrast between Showa era and contemporary architecture, contemporary construction methods (which includes far too few workers - usually 2-4 people - resulting in the slow progress) and the gentrification of the neighborhood (within walking distance of the Kayashima Keihan Train station) that adds to the bed town environment where residents do not know each other or interact as a community. This bed town gentrification unfortunately jives with obervations made in my prior research of the neighborhood fall festival, local Shinto shrine and demographic changes (aging society and low birth rates) that have been ongoing in Japan for nearly 30 years.

What follows are 152 photos, 4 documents, 1 timely social media post and information, diagrams and photos from the rental property company. It is a lot of raw data to digest. Good luck and yoroshiku for going through with it all.

January 13-17

January 18-25

January 27-31

February 1-11 (photos taken on 2/11, National Foundation Day, a national holiday but they were still working and being noisy, even on a rainy day...)

On February 3, we received a notification that construction would block traffic on 2/19, 2/20, 2/21, 3/2, 3/3 and 3/4.

February 12-14

February 15-20

February 21-23

February 24 - March 1

March 2 (Street closed for construction...)

March 3-8

Click on the article for a clear view.

On Facebook, March 16, 2026... I don't know... I haven't seen this kind of curtain in Japan before. And certainly the current construction in my neighborhood does nothing to lower noise pollution or improve the aesthetics of the construction site. As for politeness toward neighbors and functional beauty... NO! These are naive foreign stereotypes and assumptions that are not true. Sources like Japan Daily run rampant with such posts.

March 9-15

March 16-23

March 24 - April 12

We received the following notification that the construction crews would be working on a Sunday (4/26/26) and during part of the Golden Week Holidays (May 4, 5 and 6, 2026).

April 13-18

April 19-26

April 27 - May 3

May 4-10

May 11-17

We received this notice which stated that the street would be closed on 5/13/26.

May 18-24

May 25-31

June 1-8

June 9-13

From the Rental Property Website

The following data and photos are "courtesy of" the Rental Property compnay. Click on the image to get a clear view.

https://rent.sumirin-residential.co.jp/rent/?keyword=%E9%96%80%E7%9C%9F%E5%B8%82

Since today's date is June 13, 6 months after I started photographing the main construction, it seems logical to finally post this monster. I promise to add updates if there are any major changes and/or I have the opportunity to view the apartments myself in an open house. For now, I hope for a little peace and quiet, at least until the 24 new tenants move in...