This Is Japan
Explore everyday life in Japan
If you find yourself in a small to mid-size city in Japan, and, depending on the neighborhood, a larger city as well, at some point you will probably find yourself walking through a covered arcade that is lined with various shops, sculptures, benches, flower displays, and fountains. Speakers will most likely be attached to the pillars that support the glass ceiling and music will be playing—sometimes you will hear jazz, other times you will hear enka or traditional Japanese music, still other times you may find yourself walking through Japan to the soundtrack of an easy listening version of Smells Like Teen Spirit. And if you happen to be in Japan during November and December, be prepared, ten or more versions of the song Last Christmas is guaranteed to be the default soundtrack of your trip.
Japan has its fair share of harsh weather—heavy rains, strong winds, and snow—so these covered arcades are really nice to have access to. Regardless of the day, you can take a walk, visit a flower shop or a vegetable market, go out to lunch, get your haircut, or do some shopping all without worrying too much about getting soaked by rain or slipping on icy sidewalks. Depending on the city, of course, you will still have to find a good way to get to the arcades themselves, but some cities have been planned very well and you can walk out of a station, cross a single street, and find yourself in a large complex of covered walkways, safe from the weather.
Many of these arcades also have special events that make them fun to walk through. On any given weekend, you may find the open space in the middle of the arcade filled with chairs, tables, and vendors selling craft beers, regional food dishes, local crafts, or vintage and secondhand goods. One nice thing about Japan is that there aren’t any open container laws, so you can buy a beer and sip it as you walk through the arcade enjoying the scenery.
While doing so, you may also find a stage surrounded by sweaty middle-aged men carrying glow sticks and various band paraphernalia who are all doing the same dance-like movements and shouting the same rhythmic chants. If so, you have stumbled upon what is known in Japan as ‘Otaku’, and you are sure to find a local ‘idol’ group performing in their midst. Enjoy the spectacle!
This is an ongoing series that will explore various aspects of daily life in Japan. My hope is that this series will not only reveal to its followers, image by image, what Japan looks like, but that it will also inform its followers about unique Japanese items and various cultural and societal practices. If you are interested in getting daily updates about life in Japan, please consider following me. If you have any questions about life in Japan, please don’t hesitate to ask. I will do my best to answer all of your questions.
Thanks for your post! I'm living in Tokyo for 18 months already, and loving getting to know Japan. I'll be posting often in my adventures in Japan!
Wow. Thanks for commenting on such an old post. It's nice to know that they are still being found and read. I'm sure you will enjoy Japan. It's a very nice place to live. I look forward to your posts!
japan is very cool. They manage to fit so much on such a small island.
Check out what they made in China during the occupation and trip in to...
https://steemit.com/cn/@solarguy/my-trip-into-an-abandoned-defunct-chinese-bomb-shelter
Sounds like you had an interesting adventure. I'm sure there are a lot of occupation stories you could uncover there.
It's like I'm there
I'm glad to hear it. I wish I had a picture of the 'otaku' crowd to post here, but I didn't get one in time. Maybe I'm rushing the post. I'll be sure to post one at another time.
@boxcarblue Japan is full of innovation
Liked the pics
Thanks for reading and commenting. Japan has areas of innovation and large areas that haven't moved forward at all. This is just one example of many that I could list, but fax machines are still commonplace in all schools and many offices over here.
Good insight!
I have met few techies from Japan and they are adding a lot of value to technologies.
That's good to hear. In the tech field, I think there is a lot of innovation happening here. I'm not involved in that area though, so I don't know much about it.
Nice picture of Japan mate !
i just get back from a nice trip in Tokyo for Steem projects,
check out my pics too, i did quote you for your beautiful work on japan pictures
you have a new follower ;)
https://steemit.com/travel/@ekitcho/steem-travel-my-japan-trip-amazing-news-incoming-enjoy-my-pics
Thank you so much for sharing my work! I really appreciate it. Based on your post, it looks like you had a nice trip to Japan. I'm looking forward to finding out about the projects you have in the works. If there is anything I can do to help spread the word about Steem in Japan, let me know. I'm not a coder, but I'll do what I can.
Thank you very much appreciate !
There are few secrets concepts but what i can tell for now :
are you japanese ? What do u do in japan ? (oh sorry just read your introduction) Nice work so far with your pics !
@ekitcho: Sounds very interesting. I work as an English teacher over here. I'm not Japanese, but I have an everyday level of speaking and listening fluency. My writing ability is not very high. I could help you and your partners with Japanese to English translations if that is something you need help with, and I could find people to help me make quality English to Japanese translation as well. That would probably help you more seeing as your target audience is the people of Japan. I could also try doing some on-the-ground marketing if you would like help on that front.