Visually time traveling and looking at things mainly from a visual perspective (disregarding the content), things look interesting in different ways. Modern scenes (from the standpoint of 2023/05) often have a sleek polished element to them. Part of that is simply the color of the lighting. With white and blue lighting, things seem sleek and modern? That's what I'm thinking as I look at the above photo in any case.
Aside from the lighting issue I mention above, this photo has many elements that have carried forward over the decades. One of many changes from past decades is tourism. Japan has long been a popular tourist destination, but in decades past, tourists didn't have satellite navigation and micro-slab computers for translating the language, and so didn't dive into back streets popular with the locals so much. Walking around in Nakano about a week ago, there were quite a few tourists there.
The people in a given area generate much of the atmosphere of the place, which is why a given place will have a different atmosphere just through time, even with the same age of locals there, since each new generation of young people is composed of, after all, different people, and different people generate different atmospheres. From generation to generation, at least there's the constant flow of a common culture in the background, but tourists are much more disruptive... and disruptive in a very irritating way. A few tourists in an area don't affect it much, but as the numbers grow, the tourists become a major generative force for the area's atmosphere and at a certain point, tourists destroy the original atmosphere of a place and replace it with a shallow amusement park atmosphere. I don't think the politicians calling for more-more-more tourism comprehend how destructive it is to the local culture.
It's amazing how even just a little bit of plant life improves the atmosphere of a place!
I was sorry to see that the record and CD shop was longer in business....
- Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon - www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~LLLtrs/ - youtube.com/lylehsaxon - lylehsaxon.blogspot.jp/
1 comment:
Thank you for another great post, Lyle! I'm still a kid (23 years) so I don't have any experience with 80s/90s Japan, but seeing your posts and photos reminds me of summertimes visiting my Japanese side of the family throughout the 2000s. Miss those days!
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