Explore everyday life in Japan
Every place, whether it be a town, a city, or the countryside has an identity of its own—an appearance and an atmosphere. Sometimes the people inhabiting a place contribute to its identity, but more often than not it is the climate and the geology of a place that, when combined with a slew of minutiae, really create its identity.
When I think of Paris, it wouldn’t be the same without the cylindrical chimney chutes cluttering so many of its rooftops. When I think of New York City, one image that immediately comes to mind is that of rusting, antiquated water towers dotting the rooftops of so many older buildings. And when I think of Japan, one thing that really contributes to the character of Japan as a place for me is the tiled rooftops, with their stacked ridge lines and ornamental corner pieces that can be seen all over the country in various colors.
Without these rooftops, to a certain extent, Japan wouldn’t feel like Japan to me anymore. Perhaps, a better way of saying this is that without these rooftops, Japan wouldn’t feel like the Japan that I now know, which seems to slowly be disappearing.
It could be a figment of my imagination, but from what I have seen over the past eight years, in many places, as new houses and buildings are being built, these tiled roofs are slowly being replaced by roofs that have been covered with other materials like tar and gravel shingles, and metal sheathing.
It may only be a minor change in appearance but, nevertheless, it begs the question, what will Japan and so many other “distant” and “exotic” places look like in ten or twenty years?
How have the countries and places you have lived in and visited over the years changed or been changing? Feel free to share in the comments below.
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 regular updates about life in Japan, please consider following me at @boxcarblue. 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.