April 22- June 8
I have no idea how to adequately capture and document our time in Japan, which was just about 7 weeks. We danced between umbrellas, rode the bullet train, and biked around a volcano. We went on a million hikes. We had a million fights. We stood gobsmacked before a treasure trove of cultural sites. We sometimes reconciled. We took a time machine back to 2012 and met over 30 people who knew Rocky during his first tender years in Japan as a budding professional, working for Honda.
To start, I’m going to share a map of highlights and a list of curiosities. But I’ll be back to add more.
My Curiosities
Yes, SO CLEAN: This country is sparkling and it’s a cocktail of personal responsibility, national pride, and morality training that keeps things tidy. Unfortunately, loud plastic does cover everything - bananas, strawberries, and individually wrapped packets of coffee.
Public infrastructure: As I mentioned, we were traveling. We crossed mountains via tunneling and once pirouetting on the Kawazu Nanadaru Loop Bridge. We went leaping onto various islands, mostly on bridges or ferries. The massive investment in transportation mechanisms in Japan never failed to shock me. It’s totally incredible. Over 10,000 tunnel roads! I will say, they put alarmingly deep drainage channels an inch from the road, so one must exercise extreme caution while driving.
Why is it so cute tho: Still researching this one, but everything is seriously cute. Please browse my collection of signs below. Also throwing in a bonus here: Thematic manhole covers.
Luks in Tokyo: Y’all, people are putting outfits together. There is such a delightful amalgamation of humans buzzing about the subway. Elderly women wearing yukatas (the casual kimono), kids in bright yellow bucket hats, girls with tube socks up to the hither-most heights. Cosplay all day, lookin’ fly. I saw tiny heels on tiny women and a jean jacket with three tiered fringe. I saw organza drench coats. Imagine a middle school student decked in black (midlength pleated skirt, please) with a herd of fuzzy animal keychains knocking their eyeballs on the hard shell of her backpack. I saw that.
Salary Men: This was a term Rocky often evoked which filled him with shivers and jitters, but truly there were so many men wearing suites. We talked a lot about the work culture, the financial strain and burden of performance that has characterized this subgroup. From discussions with various folks throughout our trip, it seemed like some of those pressures were lessoning, which I hope proves to be true.
Fram Kitagawa: I was totally floored by this man. Now in his 80s, he helped initiate a program of festivals in rural Japan to honor aging agricultural workers and drive revitalization. We got to see several of the permanent installations of the festival, Echigo-Tsumari in Niigata Prefecture. He’s a legend: “The opposition was daunting. They said using public funds for art was unthinkable. They asked what use art could possibly be in such a rural area. In the space of four and a half years we held 2,000 meetings to explain our purposes to different groups. Despite those efforts it wasn’t until June 15th that authorization was finally received for the July 25th opening of the first festival. We had gone on with the preparations determined to go ahead even if public funding was not received, but it was indeed a hard fight.” Since its start in 2000, more than 2.64 million visitors traveled to the rural Echigo-Tsumari region and the festival has generated over ¥57 billion. Go Fram Go!
This may look like an anti-bot test to verify you are human but actually, it’s my beloved but dingy collection of cute or funny signage. It’s everywhere - I missed gobs from laziness.
