Living in a Dying Japanese City
A city slowly eating itself
Kia ora Koutou, Tim Bunting, Kiwi Yamabushi here on the Japan you never knew you wanted to know.
Those who have been following my Instagram would have noticed an uptick in the number of photos of buildings from small town Japan. It all started with me just thinking these buildings look cool, because they do, but then I realised something.
I need to take the photos while I can.
Whether by man or by nature, these buildings are disappearing. And they are disappearing fast.
In what is the polar opposite to my hometown in New Zealand, I keep discovering that where there was once a building, now there is not.
Sometimes even entire blocks are wiped out.
I wish I were exaggerating.
I’m not.
With the aging population only exacerbated by people leaving in droves for the big cities, many of these once thriving townhouses and shops are slowly shuttering up one by one only for grandma and grandpa to stick around until their dying breath.
And then, poof.
Just like that, another entire family business, many of them decades and sometimes centuries old, goes up in the air. All they leave behind is an old building.
For now, at least.
Just yesterday I visited one of my favourite cafes here in Shonai, Ume Coffee Stand in Tsuruoka. This quaint cafe is run by a young couple out of the son’s grandparents’ udon shop. I don’t know when this udon shop opened, at least 20, maybe even 30 years ago, but one of their claims to fame is that they have never changed their prices.
Inflation be damned.
That would be the NZ equivalent of fish and chips costing, I dunno, less than $5? How long ago was that? And apparently it will be that price until grandma and grandpa too are no more.
And the young couple from Ume Coffee Stand? Well, at the end of March they will be packing up and going away to warmer shores.
Literally.
They’re moving to Okinawa.
They set up their shop last year with the clear intention of running it for about a year, then escaping to the warm embrace of Okinawa.
Lucky for some, I guess.
The Pumpkin Pie Factory That Could
Yuza, a place of 12,719 people just north of us here in Sakata.
I forget the name, it’ll come to me, but way back when, my wife and I used to make a day, or perhaps an afternoon would be the more appropriate word, of visiting the pumpkin pie factory.
The factory was a smallish glass shop next to an awesome Kura, one of those small rice warehouses all the farm houses have here (see above image). Well, we would line up with the rest of them and pick up a few of their bite-sized pumpkin pies before heading off to what was then our favourite picnic spot among the sunflowers and with that glorious view of the Shonai Plains and the Sea of Japan. There where we would sit devouring not only the view, but quite possibly the best pumpkin pies this side of the Mogami.
To put it lightly, this place was popular. Yuza is not a big town. Besides for ramen, you never have to line up.
Well, ramen and pumpkin pies, it seems.
But then, in a move I can’t for the life of me figure out, the oven for the pies broke, and they decided not to get it fixed. They decided they would rather just shut up shop.
And shut up shop they did.
No more pumpkin pies for Timmy and wifey.
So maybe it’s self-imposed? Maybe it could be helped? What are people supposed to do?
There’s no way we can compete with the higher wages in the big cities, there’s no way we can compete with the glamour and allure of big-city life.
My argument is we don’t have to.
We’re perfectly fine living here, thank you very much. We’ll keep all the best life in the Japanese countryside has to offer to ourselves. In saying that, maybe we should be putting more effort into downscaling thoughtfully. Plus, people dying off of natural causes is probably the best way to get rid of a population probably too big for this earth.
Which is all to say, I don’t have the answers. But I do have photos of cool-looking buildings to post on Instagram.
For now, at least.
Interesting Stuff from Japan
It occurred to me that it might be interesting to share the tabs I have open right now.
Here are two:
Diane Neill Tincher at her best with yet another in-depth-yet-still-general-enough-to-remain-interesting-throughout introduction to Buddhism in Japan (on Medium, but without a paywall!).
Increase your understanding of Buddhist statues four-fold with this piece on Carving The Divine.
Daily Yamabushi for This Week
Daily Yamabushi posts for the week of January 19 to January 25, 2024.
Read Daily Yamabushi for free at timbunting.com/blog or Medium.com.
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Ka kite ano.
Tim.
The crusty shuttered building with the colorful Komeito poster might be the perfect photo of decaying old Japan. Not only strangely beautiful, but symbolic of you get all the change you vote for.