On aesthetic differences – An ugly nation cursed with a love of beauty
Posted on | May 5, 2008 | 15 Comments |
Sorry all, it’s been a while – as always apologies for non-posting…
I wanted to elaborate today on one of the things that struck me first as a disappointment about Japan and now, having digested and understood it, becomes merely just another quirk in a country that defines itself by its enormous number of quirks.
I mentioned in my first post on my elective that the first thing that strikes you as you enter Japan by the Narita Express (or whatever other mode of airport-city transport you choose – no plugging any company there of course ^_^) and watch the dilapidated looking suburbs of Chiba merge into the equally dilapidated suburbs of Tokyo, you can’t help but wonder how a nation which prides itself on its worship of order and simple beauty built such a sprawling concrete monstrosity such as this.
The optimistic will think that perhaps this is just Tokyo – since it’s well known that Tokyo is the largest, most densely populated and one of the most polluted cities in the world, surely other towns in Japan will be nicer looking. Japan must have its share of quaint little villages with their cobbled backstreets and secret markets selling knickknacks that you get everywhere else.
Having travelled around Japan top and bottom now, I can safely tell those of you deluding yourselves with this statement that no, these are but a distant dream. 99% of villages in Japan are just tiny miniature versions of cities – with small two or three story run-down concrete buildings and the same old worn looking storefronts you’d fine anywhere else.
When God was creating Japan, he definitely had some sense of irony. Or just beat it with a huge ugly stick.
The reason why I think Japanese cities are particularly ugly are manyfold, but boil down to a few unusual reasons.
- The “above ground cable” fiasco – I’ve discussed this before; whoever thought that it was dangerous to put cables below ground in japan was probably an idiot.
- The “Borrowing of the American Intersection” – What better way to make cities boring than have the same pattern of road system running through the entire city. How can you have quaint little side streets and alleyways with interesting little shops and restaurants and hidden parks when there aren’t any side streets and alleyways O_o
- The Japanese Love Affair with Concrete – I know it’s probably more America’s fault (see below), but the Japanese love of building megastructures out of concrete in a square like fashion persists to this day, with only the odd new architecture poking out here and there. I mean, what better contrast can there be to a beautiful row of sakura trees in full blossom than a huge dirty square tourist hotel either side?
- The Tourist Culture ruining shop diversity – It’s not unfair to say that Japanese people do go round cameras at the ready – Even though this is a huge stereotype, it’s very true that Japan has a huge tourist culture, and this very much extends to their own country. Combine this with the necessity of Japanese people to buy gifts or omiyage at every place they visit and hey presto, about half the shops in any tourist town turn into omiyage-ya selling the same things at the same price.
- The Blindness to the Innate Ugliness of corrugated iron – I think this one speaks for itself.
- Japan and its disposable culture – I think this one requires explanation in more detail…
When I ask Japanese people about why they think that their cities are so ugly and concretey I usually get one explanation – Because of Japan’s innate volcanicity and propensity to natural disasters, nothing really lasts for long enough to warrant building nicely unless its of particular interest (for example a temple or shrine).
This I think is an example of the throwaway culture of Japan.
Although there is a great drive amongst Japanese people for self-dependance and sustainability, live in a city for any length of time and it becomes obvious how dispensible Japanese life can be. Plastic bags come with absolutely everything. If you go to a bakery, they’ll often wrap each of your purchases in separate plastic bags then put them all into one big one. Brave a rainstorm in Tokyo and you’ll see people diving into convenience stores to pick up the crappy 400yen disposable umbrella, many of which by the end of the storm will be lying inverted and broken in various “other waste” bins. Each week sees not only the production of the week’s papers, but also stacks and stacks of weekly tankoubon of manga (for example, Shounen Jump) which clutter up Japanese homes for months until paper collection day.
Its only natural that Japanese would see their buildings as throwaway as well – if you expect them to fall down in the next earthquake, why build pretty things? I think that this is perhaps a little part of the answer, but not really consistent – why then in the old days, when they still knew about the frequency of earthquakes, did they build such beautiful shrines, temples and gardens? Surely if they were to fall down or be destroyed in the next earthquake they would just be rebuilt as beautifully (since most old shrines have already been rebuilt countless times)
Japan’s concretey heritage holds at least part blame with the Americans. Since Tokyo and many other large cities in Japan were sheet bombed to oblivion in the latter part of the Pacific war, many of the buildings now were built in the post war era, when, sad to say, pre-cast concrete was in vogue (you’ve only got to look at my current town (Coventry) and where I last was (Churchill College Cambridge) – both built post war, both ugly as hell). As to why everything else looks a little ramshackle, perhaps throwaway culture is a little to blame – Japanese people do seem to have a propensity to repair the insides of their houses and buildings while letting the outsides decay.
So in short, that’s a guide for those of you who have come to Japan and were left wondering what the hell had happened to leave such a dichotomy between the built up areas and the other areas of outstanding natural beauty around Japan.
Oh, didn’t I mention that?
Everywhere outside cities that isn’t a farm is likely to be insanely pretty. And packed with tourists.
Figures.
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15 Responses to “On aesthetic differences – An ugly nation cursed with a love of beauty”
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May 6th, 2008 @ 12:12 am
I don’t know which parts of Japan you’ve traveled to, but at this point I’m rather skeptical of your claim that 99% of Japan consists of ugly mini-cities. I will verify the claim myself in a month, when I come back from Japan. =D
(At this point I wish to remain romantic and ignorant. ‘Tis all.)
May 6th, 2008 @ 1:14 am
What’s wrong with concrete? I think nowadays every developed and developing country is made of concrete.
They have no choice because you have more than 120 million people sharing a very small land mass. They have to build their homes and offices vertically so as to save space. And yea, trash is a huge issue. I heard you even need to “pay” in some cities to throw your trash away. Also, I think Japan and our country (Philippines) has some controversial trade deal where we essentially become their waste basket. Hey, we are also almost a hundred million people in almost the same land area over here.
May 6th, 2008 @ 1:22 am
There are cities that have “quaint little side streets” with shops and traditional Japanese food stands (I’m not sure a 5 seater counts as a restaurant). I’ve been to many and lived on one in Kyoto.
If you’re worried about your plastic bag usage, you can always tell them that it’s okay as is and they’ll just put a sticker on it. In the case of the bakery, you can always tell them to put all the bread together, except the sticky stuff. Some groceries are also starting to sell reusable cloth bags in an effort to cut down on the plastic bag usage.
May 6th, 2008 @ 1:35 am
Having lived in Japan in 1985-86 I agree with some of what you say. There are quaint areas left but not much. Three things you should consider:
One is the density of the population and the amount of buildable (flat land) there is.
The second factor is the extent of devastation caused by WWII and the US fire bombing. If you want to get quick feel rent the fog of war and watch it. If you don’t have the time fast forward to the list of japanese cities destroyed during WWII. When the narrator names a city he also names a comparable size US to give the US audience a frame of reference. Its shocking.
Third there seemed to be a totla lack of aesthetics in most of the architecture of the postwar construction I saw there
May 6th, 2008 @ 2:14 am
Actually a great deal of the concrete ugliness in Japan can be blamed by the propensity of the government bureaucrats to build, build, build. I forget what the share of construction is to the Japanese economy but it’s a significant chunk.
What’s even crazier is the fact that the same bureaucrats who rain money on construction firms also retire to take prominent positions in those same construction firms. It’s a remarkably incestuous relationship of retired bureaucrats receiving government money from current bureaucrats. It’s made worse that these same bureaucrats create study boards of all sorts dictating the regulations of all aspects of construction.
The reason why power lines are not placed underground where it will be safer after earthquakes and make urban areas look less cluttered, is because bureaucrats decided that they don’t want to lose a very lucrative source of income that comes from creating concrete power poles… housing regulations, no building on mountains, zoning laws (there are lots of billboards in japan…), etc are all in a timewarp. I don’t think they’ve been modified since the 50’s.
May 6th, 2008 @ 10:33 pm
just goes to show you how unaccommodating it can be for a people to try and change with the times, especially a country that from the very beginning could never have anticipated they would ever need to change and hence didnt realize how rapidly they had already changed within such a short amount of time. you can thank Perry and the rest of us americans for that one.
May 16th, 2008 @ 8:23 pm
Hi yuribou, it has been a long time sine you wrote about yuri.. Are you still in business?
May 19th, 2008 @ 11:01 am
Sorry all, I have been a bit caught up with life at the moment and a bit uninspired with respects to posts but I’m still here – Thanks for your concern though!
May 28th, 2008 @ 6:24 am
:o zomg there is someone else using Asuka since I didn’t visit… serves me right…
I SO agree with everything you write. A year ago when I dreamed about coming to Japan and enjoying every little bit of all the stuff I saw in anime, after one year I can say it’s just a mountain of shattered dreams.
This is why I didn’t feel like watching anime anymore. I got totally disappointed by the modern culture of Japan. They do things because it has to be done, because everyone does it, etc. There is nothing behind it – just a giant facade in everything. Seriously dissappointed.
I won’t go into the subject of social relationships in Japan, since I could write a book about that.
…sigh….
May 30th, 2008 @ 8:44 am
Kahaha….that’s what dreams are for!
Blind hope.
June 5th, 2008 @ 1:07 pm
Oh well, I hope my trip to Japan will be fun!
June 12th, 2008 @ 3:09 am
I wish this blog will be updated again..
June 25th, 2008 @ 9:24 am
Give it another month or so.
July 6th, 2008 @ 5:29 pm
I do hope no minds me commenting on such an old topic. Having never been to Japan or really even studied it in depth, this is really just wild speculation. With that said I think the greatest reason for Japan’s current state has already been state WWII, but not just because of the bombings. It is just the fact that they lost the war. War has a massive cultural effect, which basically equates to the vanquished viewing their culture as worthless in most respects. This disconnect with their past is probably the reason it seems off why they just don’t rebuild like they use to. As for all the cement that is just America’s fault, we love it for some reason.
As for why we all get a “false” impression of Japan is just do to the crap we watch. Although it is a little odd. The fact of the matter is Anime has a lot Japanese national pride in it. And I mean national not nationalist, although this can be debated. In the end it is just escapism, in some cases for both viewer and creator.
August 31st, 2009 @ 8:27 am
Having lived in Japan now for four years I can say quite categorically that this article is, by and large, completely true. I came to Japan on the JET Programme and lived in a village in Okayama prefecture. The house I lived in had paddy fields to the front and forested hills to the back. In the two years I was there a concrete road was half-built through the field, despite the fact that there two more major roads running parallel to the new one and it wasn`t needed. Then they literally cleared the entire hillside, flattened the hill, concreted all of the aforementioned hill and built a children`s park when there is already two parks in the village and there are hardly any children left! Heartbreaking stuff.
The Japanese will pride themselves on the “little Kyoto`s” that they try to preserve and some of these are nice, like the Bikan-chiku area of Kurashiki. However, most are perhaps only one or two streets worth and seem to disappear in the haze of concrete monsters that tower over the remnants of a once glorious architectural nation.
The sad fact is that Japan is ugly to look at and what`s more it is depressing. I know work in central Tokyo and the Japanese will always give the lame excuse of earyhquakes as to why they don`t bury their wires and make their suburbs attractive. Go to Tokyo station though and you will notice something immediately around the area surrounding the palace. There are no wires hanging overhead and it is a really attractive part of the city, where old cobbled streets and met by well-designed skyscrapers keeping in character with the old station (which they are refurnishing) and the outer parts of the Imperial palace. The truth is that Japanese people need to start making their country more attractive because if I find it depressing I am sure they do too. My Japanese girlfriend even commented on what a dump Japanese cities are in comparison to their European and American equivalents. They are also incredibly dirty and you`ll be amazed at how many clapped-out and abandoned machines and cars you find in supposed national parks in Japan. It is high-time they hasd more pride in their own country, Christ knows they have enough money and talent for it if they want it!