This picture was taken in the Ochanomizu section of Tokyo. It's a peaceful park like area surrounded by towering modern buildings, and bustling pedestrian and vehicle traffic.
Fast/slow, noisy/quiet, bright/dark, beauty/ugliness, crowds/personal space, celebration/mourning. To me these contrasts seem very close together much of the time in Japan.
4 comments:
What a beautiful picture! The architecture has such melancholy charm. This summer, I went to the Japanese Friendship Garden in San Diego. Nestled within the hub-bub of restaurants, museums, concerts, merchants, and tourists, the garden was surprisingly isolated and quiet. It was so meticulously ordered and manicured, and yet every tree, shrub, and stone felt natural and free. The garden was so peaceful, and yet, I felt so saddened by it. Maybe it's because I knew I had to leave it.
Anyway, what a contrast this picture is compared to to the Sakuraya mega-department store photograph you have. These differences are startling.
Has Japan reached a equilibrium, or is it dominated by one contrast over the other?
Before I comment, take some time to think a little more about what the Japanese are attempting to accomplish with their gardens. Compare that to a quilt made by the Amish where at least one mistake ia always deliberately left in place. Any thoughts?
Hi Georgia,
Took forever to find this spot for sending you a message! So much for long term memory from the last time I responded!
The pictures are beautiful. Is everything bi-lingual. I see English everywhere.
I give up. What is cup dust?
Bob
Hi BD, glsd you finally figured it out! I guess sometimes life is a test!
It seems to be trendy here to write things in English. A lot of times it's just a word or phrase amidst a sea of Japanese. The thing is they don't always check for accuracy, although that seems better this trip. It's really helpful on the trains, and some packaging. However, when we were out on Saturday, Ruth had gotten directions to where we wanted to go off an internet site. We came out of the train station and headed to the first intersection. Ruth said something like, "this is the right street, but the map shows it running parallel to the railway, but this is perpendicular." When we got to the corner the signs showed us that both streets had the same name in English! They just had different route numbers. There is definitely more English where there are more Foriegners. When you get off the beaten path you find you're in Japan after all.
Cup Dust took me a couple minutes. The box sits in front of a coffee stand in Icikawa Station. The British English euphemism for a garbage man is "dustman". So it seems they are trying to tell you to throw your used cups in the box.
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