Japan: 18 months in 18 pictures – May 07

Part 1 and explanation of the series here. Read entire series via tags, here.

May was a busy month of sorts partly because of the Golden Week holiday, one of Japan’s three major holidays of the year (with Obon in August and NYE), which meant I was able to do more things/sightseeing/cultural discovery than usual. By May I had also come to a very vivid realisation about a facet of Japanese life and culture which stayed at the front of my mind for all of my time there, and which I strangely miss: spaces and heights, and how they are managed.

I wrote about it shortly after arriving, and the idea continued to gestate during my entire stay. Japan is rather scarce on land space being an island, and a mountainous one at that. In Tokyo, this lack of space is only amplified by the amount of people who inhabit the city and its surroudings and the need to accommodate them all. The result is that space in Japan is managed in ways you never think about coming from Europe. In the streets this means automated parking lots which store your car inside a building without the need for you to do anything but drop it at the entrance before it is literally ‘swallowed’, or, even more surreal to many foreigners, parking lots for buildings that either flip the cars vertically to save space or rack them up on top of each other as you would on a truck. Shopping is done vertically, based on height and not on street level. You barely find one tenth of the shops, restaurants and entertainment at street level, the majority of it is spread across the floors of buildings around the city. So you learn to shop and look for things with your head tilted upwards, something that is odd at first but quickly becomes second nature. I particularly loved the fact that you often have to use an elevator to go to a shop or restaurant, which will either open right into the shop or onto a floor where said shop/restaurant will basically just be a flat that’s been ‘modified.’

In your own home, which tends to be relatively small, this means that you have to learn to manage space in new ways, and the Japanese have developed an incredible amount of useful gadgets, tools and products to do that: from vacuum packed bags to hold clothes, to the use of futon beds that can be folded and an impressive array of boxes and other devices that apply a Matroska doll-like concept to anything you might possess, be it CD, DVD or food. Space in Japan is about maximisation and about height, if you live in Tokyo you have to change your understanding of it, and personally I soon found out that while I did miss certain things, like a spacious kitchen or bathroom, I actually loved the praticality, the logic and most of all the difference that is involved in space management. It’s not for everyone, but it really forces you to rethink a lot of what you know and possibly took for granted.

May bonus shots

At the end of April, when the Golden Week holidays started I went on my first massive bike ride atop my trusty mamachari. In about 8 hours, I cycled some 25 odd kilometers going from Kiyose all the way to the two main lakes near Tokorazawa, in Saitama Prefecture, and back. As with all the bike rides since my first one in February, it was a unique insight into suburban Japanese life, culture but also people. Probably the most interesting bit was a stop I made at a festival which I came across on the way there. The photo above was taken at the flea market that was part of the festival. The festival, the flea market and the whole experience of that day were a real eye opener into another Tokyo for me, one I’d started to discover a few months earlier but which was becoming a lot more real with every new week. In contrast to the hyper capitalism, noise and frenetic speed of central Tokyo, the one you see and hear about outside of Japan, there is a world that can be quieter and slower as well as culturally rich and fascinating in ways the center isn’t. As I said before, most people never get to see that side of Tokyo, but to me it’s an integral part of it now, and I don’t think you can get a proper idea of the city and its people without experiencing both.

May also marked my first proper visit to the geek/otaku/nerd mecha that is Akihabara, the electronics district of Tokyo. Guided by my friend who is a veteran of sorts of the area, I delved head first into memories of my childhood (I’ll go back to this in a later entry), and my fascination and love for video games, anime and toys. It’s hard not to feel like a kid again when you first go to Akihabara and the size, noise and sights of it hit you head on. From arcades with floors dedicated to one genre of game to maid cafes where geeks can ‘live’ some of their fantasies to shops filled with hardware, software and toys in ways you never thought possible, Akihabara is a truly unique experience, one that not only affords you personal pleasure if you’re into technology, games or anime, but also affords you an insight into certain aspects of Japanese society that are often distorted and misrepresented outside of Japan (and inside of it too).

I also used the Golden Week holiday for a visit to Nikko and Kinugawa, my first proper road trip in years and first visit to another prefecture. Nikko is one of Japan’s most famous tourist sites, home to the Nikkou Toushougu Shinto Shrine, the legend of the see no evil, hear no evil monkeys, and some truly splendid nature. The picture above was taken at one of the many historical monuments spread around the site, which occupies a beautiful forest in the mountains. While it’s definitely an overly touristy attraction, Nikko is still a remarkably beautiful place and one that really brings home the attention, care and respect the Japanese hold for their history and culture. If you’re into architecture it offers some truly amazing works too. More than any of that, for me it was the chance to discover elements of Japanese history, culture and society which I hadn’t yet, leaving the capital behind and entering what can sometime be a totally different world, but one that retains similar elements and introduces new ones.

Flickr Set(s):
Trip to the lakes
Nikko & Kinugawa
Akihabara geek pr0n
Zion Rise x Back To Chill