... looking ahead... (72/365, 13 Mar 2022)
Sunday, mid-March, we should be resting, for before we know it, we will be preparing for the new academic year starting in April. Actually, we haven't really had any sort of break. I had hoped to get back to Australia during this time (as I have done in the past) but somehow it hasn't happened. The 'breaks' are just that, days here and there, like last Friday...and maybe next Friday which happens to be meeting-free *at this particular point in time*.
There are lots of things I could be doing, should be doing, but the overwhelming sense is 'just rest, just try it'. But as each day here is one day closer to 'getting home' and 'getting home' might mean not really returning to Japan for a long time (or ever), I feel I should make the most of it.
There is still a lot to explore, of course. I will get to Okinawa, for example, before I go home. Another trip to Hokkaido is important too. And, there is my little corner of Tokyo, Itabashi. It has been my home away from home since my student days in the 1980s and the place I returned to to stay with friends each time and of course my current preferred suburb for the last six years.
Almost forty years ago, when I learnt I was awarded the exchange scholarship to study in Japan (finally!) one of my Japanese teachers (not a particularly popular one amongst us) declared, ah that will suit you, that part of Tokyo is a slum... Now I have no idea why she would say that (except she was not a pleasant person) and indeed I think all my classmates were just as surprised. But Itabashi has been my preferred place of residence ever since.
As a student, I did a photographic essay of the 'danchi', the apartment blocks near Takashimadaira Station. I think these were the 'slums' said teacher was referring too. Danchi were a way to provide mass accommodation to the workers in the postwar economic drive, small apartments for families, not comfortable by any stretch, but largely self-contained with supermarkets and shops. Takashimadaira was one of the main such areas. The danchi still exist, the residents are aging but the buildings are being renovated as more affordable accommodation for young families as well. I was interested in revisiting the area, and did so today.
My approach to photography has changed dramatically in nearly 40 years. I have a much greater sense of people's privacy in this social media age, so the photos today will probably look very different from the photos 40 years ago. I look forward to the comparison.
My main object of interest today though was a park a 'green strip' that runs for almost two kilometres along the train line. I think I will do the full park in spring when many of the buds I saw today were in full bloom.
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| A declaration, from the early 1990s, how residents of Itabashi shall live with an 'eco-consciousness' in 'Eco-polis Itabashi' |
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| The station |
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| I did not expect to see ducks |
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| Some water in a largely dried up 'stream( |
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| 'MatsuHi II' by Hiroko Tsuda, 1991 |
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| Some have left wishes on the sculpture |
I remain intrigued, perhaps curious, in a genuine way, about how we reside in communities. The Tokyo danchi are largely criticised, and yet, ... I don't know, I remain ambivalent. I do know, however, I wouldn't live anywhere else in Tokyo. I 💜 Itabashi.
Today's walk accompanied by the Canon EOS M5, 18-150mm lens.
