The SuperSparkle goes to Japan!

Deep Thoughts by Sharon on Donald Richie's Lateral View

So I've been reading these essays from Donald Richie's 'Lateral View' and it's been influencing the way I've been seeing things. He's been like my personal tour guide past the outer layer of what I percieved to be Japan. Having grown up in Brooklyn, NY I'm no stranger to large cities, and so upon first arriving in Tokyo, I felt strangely at home and very comfortable with my surroundings. But as I've walked around more and observed more, I've been amazed at how very different this place is from where I grew up. Like Donald Richie explains in his essay 'Tokyo, the Impermanent Capital' Tokyo is not a very structured or planned out city like most Western cities are. Instead of creating a city that is meant to last, it grew more organically and was designed for the present with the understanding something else will take its place in the future. That seems such a difference from how the culture used to be. How they built the temples and pagodas with joint structures that would survive and have survived the worst of earthquakes over time.

Living here this past week it's also been interesting looking at the people who live here in this city. When I went to the arcades late at night this week, I didn't really think about it, but these places were filled with your teenagers, young adults and buisness men and women who have come straight from the office, briefcases in tow. After reading Richie's essay 'The City Home' I started thinking about all the people I'd seen out and about and started to think about their plurality of homes instead of the home we're used to in the West. They don't even have a word for home here in Japan. So this I've found very interesting as I've been walking around observing people and thinking about these new concepts.

As you walk here in Tokyo though, it's hard not to get your attention caught up in all that is being flashed around you. There is an overload of information coming at you all the time. I like what Donald Richie says in his essay 'Walking in Tokyo' about how 'Tokyo is a cornucopia held upside down. One does not know where to look first. If people say and they do that Tokyo makes them feel a child again, this is because it makes them all curiosity, all enthusiasm, all eyes.' And feeling like a child is exactly how I've felt, especially with all the cute things everywhere and the bright lights and the games and even the outrageous outfits I see. Teenagers who like to put on lots of makeup and dress up like dolls and buisnessmen reading manga in the subways. It's all very interesting to observe first hand. Especially when you see the extreme that the teenagers take, and then on the same street you see a woman in a traditional kimono outfit. The contrasts like that are all over the place.

In 'Tokyo Style' Richie talks about this contrast of the old and new, familiar things being used in unfamiliar ways, how everything is miniaturized and space conscious, 'trad but mod'. It's definitely a style all it's own, where anything goes. Perhaps it's that designing for the present, that nothing is permanent, so people take more risks to express themselves. It's a really great environment to be in right now. There are just so many influences to take in all the time. And again lots of contrasts. It seems that overall the Japanese are definitely very consious of how things appear aesthethically. They care how they look and that's why fashion is such a big deal. Donald Richie talks about the aesthetic of their written language in 'signs and symbols' and how people can tell alot about you by how you write. So there is a lot to take in all at once here. With one week past I've learned a lot from all I've seen and I can't wait to soak up more.

posted by thesupersparkle @ 10:24 PM