The Honorable Matt Alt, over at Alt.Japan, with his own spin on what dem Yumiko Shaku be sayin down dere:
She's commenting how much more knowledgeable about Akihabara you are
than her, and that seeing the "scene" there was a really eye-opening
experience: the "conventional wisdom" is that Tokyo is Japan's attempt
to ape the West, but when you see the confluence of technology and
imagination in places like Akihabara you realize that Tokyo actually
represents the "singularity" where creative Japanese come together to
build a new and more interesting life for themselves. And she wants to
promote that image and idea of Tokyo to tourists and such.
Like, deep, man!
In an unrelated segment, jet lag found me watching Serpico at around 6am for no particular reason. There's a nice exchange between Pachino (in his 'Paco' persona) and some drunk girl at a party. On the DVD, it's during Chapter 4: "Everybody Loves You."
Girl: You know, Japanese culture, theater and painting…it’s too rigidly stylized.
Serpico: Well, you know…yeah…but…I think after a while, you get through that. You start to…appreciate the clarity…the authority.
I wonder if that is a Japanese conventional wisdom, or a Western one? Edo was a great metropolis centuries before Commodore Perry waved the crowbar. It ain't like they were squatting around huts, worshipping Amaterasu like Tezuka primitives.
As for its current look, skyscrapers and all that, I don't think you can build 40-story buildings with saddle roofs and wooden posts. In other words, much of the way Tokyo looks isn't so much about aping the West (you realize there pretty quick you're not in Toronto) as the requirements of modern life as refracted through Japanese society.
It's funny how in films like SERPICO and KINJITE you find these scattered insights.
Posted by: Carl Horn | January 02, 2006 at 05:35 PM
The inferiority thing may go all the way back to when the Emperor was in Kyoto and all Edo had was the Shogun. Things picked up a bit during the Meiji when Tokyo got all those parks and department stores, effectively kicking Osaka's ass. Nowadays…well…how about those Harajuku Girls?
Posted by: Patrick3 | January 02, 2006 at 09:48 PM