Will Miss #533 - the liberal zoning laws

A restaurant (with vending machine in front), temple, hotel and apartment complexes all in close proximity. I don't know if this is usual for cities in the U.S., but it's the common crazy quilt in Tokyo.

I grew up in a rural area, so things like zoning laws never really meant much to me. There was so much land between homes and businesses that it never occurred to me in my youth that people shouldn't or wouldn't be allowed to build anything anywhere they wanted to. My husband, on the other hand, grew up in the suburbs and was aware of the way in which small cities and large towns drew lines between where business and homes could be located.

I have a relic from my past which is a jewel in my collection of Japan memories and that is the very first cassette tape that my husband made for me when he started his one-year contract in Japan. That tape is full of initial impressions made by someone who just got off the boat. When you live in a foreign country long enough, you become blind to things which you could see very clearly at first. One of the things that he noticed was the apparent lack of zoning laws which resulted in a mixture of businesses and residences.

Since I have never lived in a major city in the U.S., I didn't think twice about how much more interesting and colorful Tokyo was as a city as a result of the way in which shops and homes freely intermingled. In fact, they not only were up in each others businesses, but they shared buildings. It was very common for the first floor of an apartment building to contain a convenience store, a tea shop, or some other "mom and pop" establishment. I loved this when I was in Japan because it not only made things more convenient, but also you were never too far from a useful shop. I miss the way the liberal zoning laws allowed residences and businesses to mix.

Will Miss #483 - Ameyokocho

One of the oldest shopping streets or shotengai in Tokyo is located in Ueno. It is called either "Ameyoko" or "Ameyokocho" and has one of the most unique atmospheres of any shopping area in the city. There are a fair number of discount shops, a famous one at which a man stands outside and throws candy into a bag and tells you a discount price for the entire lot. There are also sellers who have laid out enormous displays of neatly arranged bags of Japanese food staples, sweets, snacks, and spices that I have to imagine take a very long time to set up each morning. The biggest reason to go there isn't to save money, but rather to soak up the slightly rundown and seedy yet utterly non-threatening feel of the area. 

This particular shopping area has a special feel which is very much "Japan" to me, and I will miss it. 

Won't Miss #456 - helter skelter street layout/addressing

One of my students told me that Tokyo has a labyrinth of small streets snaking all around and carving the blocks up into triangles and trapezoids because those streets were once small waterways and streams that helped the locals conduct the business of living with a steady water supply. I'm going to take her word for that as I have never researched the history of the topography of Tokyo. I have, however, attempted to navigate the odd layouts of the streets in various cities and it seems at times as if the system was created by a madman. Unlike European-style streets, which tend to be laid out in blocks and have numbering which makes at least a little sense, the Japanese use a three-number system which can be pretty confusing, even for some Japanese. More than one student has told me that she or he gets lost trying to find new addresses. There simply is no systematic arrangement to the addressing in many cases. You can "get the hang of (the address system)", but you can never really predict where things will be as things tend to be idiosyncratic.

I won't miss the helter skelter layout of many of the districts in Tokyo.

Will Miss #447 - newness

Now that I'm back in the U.S., use of the future tense in these posts seems a bit odd, but I'm sticking with it for the sake of consistency. I've done over 800 posts in the future tense and swapping now just feels wrong. If it helps, you can pretend I'm still in Japan, or figure that I'll miss these things later but I'm too shell-shocked by being home after 23 years to know what I think and feel. At any rate, this post is courtesy of having been home for about a month and realizing just how much older everything is here than it was in Japan. While I, at times, felt that the constant revamping of everything in Japan was a monumental waste of material (especially the way that people's houses were relatively disposable and torn down and rebuilt about every 30 years), I sometimes feel like many things here are rundown, dirty, and beat up. There has to be a balance between refurbishing too much and doing so too little. 

I (will) miss the newness of things in Tokyo and how things felt clean, fresh, and smartly turned out. 

Will Miss #437 - the Edo/Tokyo Museum

A life-size life-size reproduction of an Edo-era building (that's a real person in front).

The level of indoctrination into a culture that one experiences has a profound effect on interest levels. When I was a kid, I didn't care much about museums or history because I had already been overexposed to tales of George Washington and his wooden teeth or Abraham Lincoln and his log cabin (what's with all of the wood in American history?). My feelings about Japanese history are entirely different though because it was not something I had been exposed to again and again throughout my childhood. When I told my students that I really loved the Edo/Tokyo Museum in Ryogoku, their response was a big yawn. They just didn't care, but I loved the contrast between the life-size reproductions and the miniatures as well as the fact that you can essentially spend an entire day in quiet, comfortable surroundings for 600 yen. The truth is that, you're a lot better off hanging out all day in the museum with your friends than a coffee shop. There are more empty seats, it's a better atmosphere and there are a ton of interesting exhibits covering the history of Tokyo. I especially enjoy the focus on the lives of the common people and the items that they used in their daily lives that are on display and reveal something about how sophisticated life was despite the lack of technological advancement.

I will miss the Edo/Tokyo museum and all of the cool exhibits and artifacts contained therein.

Won't Miss #321 - Tokyo marathon

I don't have anything against marathon runners and I'm sure that there are people who have to drive their cars through the path the Tokyo marathon takes who have far better reasons to be annoyed than me. That being said, there are things about it which are irritating. First, those who want to take part in it talk about it. A lot. Too damn much. They do this because you have to win a lottery to be allowed in and they want to be one of the lucky ones so they ruminate on it. A lot. Too damn much. Second, there is the fact that the lottery allows for a disproportionate number of foreign runners into the race for reasons I'm uncertain of. I don't want foreigners to be discriminated against, but I also don't want them to be treated in a manner which is unfairly favorable. This isn't an affirmative action move, trust me. It's more likely a crass PR one. Finally, the thing which I dislike most about the Tokyo marathon is the fact that everyone thinks it's a rocking great idea to run with their freak flag flapping in the breeze. It's amusing when a few people dress silly, but less so when a sizable portion do so. One guy with bunny ears is wacky. A few dozen is just boring and tedious.

For all of the aforementioned reasons, I won't miss the Tokyo marathon.

Will Miss #307 - Tokyo Metro Yellow Manner Posters

There is a particular series of "manner" posters that are regularly issued on the subways. They are always the same color scheme and from the same artist. The style is peculiar, but memorable and the messages in English are sometimes strange and surreal. Most Japan bloggers have pictures of the various posters on their blogs as new ones are released, but an easier way to see them is to check out the Tokyo Metro site.

I'll miss seeing these strangely affecting manners posters.

Will Miss #298 - Nakano Broadway

The creepy entrance to one of the many "Mandrake" shops on the Nakano broadway. This one specializes in antique collectibles.

I'm not that big into "tourist spots" in Japan, but there are areas which I think are interesting to visit on occasion. I'm not such a great fan of the "classic" spots like Kyoto or Mt. Fuji because I think they aren't "real Japan" anymore than the Grand Canyon is "real America", but I do like areas which have a strange spin of their own. I especially like them if they aren't too far afield from where I reside and if they display unique character. One of those spots is the Nakano Broadway area. It's an odd mixture of the young and hip with the old and traditional. Walking around there, you see a myriad of shops selling strange items for collectors and geeks (otaku) as well as old folks at repair shops and fortune tellers. It's a great cross-section of what appeals to people of all sorts in Japan.

The Nakano Broadway area is a curious mix of what's new and weird with what's old and curious and its all packed into a space that you can walk through without wasting and entire day or wearing out your shoe leather, and I'll miss it.

Will Miss #292 - Meiji Shrine

You know the Japan that tourists and people who have never been here talk about? You know, the one which portrays Japan as a country which is full of reserved, polite, quiet, respectful people who have a lot of quaint and deeply spiritual traditions and who live in harmony with nature? I'm talking about the one in which there are rock gardens, minimalist homes of immaculate cleanliness, and a spartan aesthetic which portrays elegant style and economy. You know, the one that doesn't exist when you live here. It does exist in Japan, and one of the places you can find it is Meiji shrine.

I'll miss this oasis of all of the best that Japanese culture has to offer as well as a large amount of nature.

Will Miss #213 - shopping in the rain

Shopping in Tokyo has always been stressful for me. I'm a person who is prone to feeling overstimulated. It's not something I can control. Some people have nervous systems which make lots of noise, crowds, lights, etc. overbearing, and I'm one of them. The shopping itself is often interesting, but the oppressive sense I get from being surrounded by oblivious, noisy crowds makes it an odious task... except when it rains. When it rains in Tokyo, the streets and shops are much emptier, especially in my neighborhood which is full of old folks.

Shopping becomes a much nicer and liberating experience in Tokyo when it rains, and I'll miss it.

Will Miss #146 - Shinjuku

My favorite place in Tokyo is Shinjuku. It is a district which isn't far from my home and has more of a modern feel to it than other similarly set-up areas. I worked there for about 10 years and always enjoyed walking around and exploring when I was there. To me, it's got everything you might want in one vast place including big electronics shops, department stores, bakeries, import shops, businesses, parks, sky scrapers, and restaurants. I also used to go secondhand record shopping all over the eastern areas with my husband in our first 8 or so years in Japan and it's tied in with some of my earliest and fondest memories. I probably wouldn't have quit my full-time job if my company hadn't moved its office from Shinjuku to a cheaper area.

I'll miss going to Shinjuku.