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Here and There in Japan
By Jane Wiseman
One of the first
pictures I took in Japan
was
in Kobe.
My
friends and I were just wandering the streets looking for some lunch
when one
of us happened to look to our left and see this Shinto Shrine. In fact,
we
almost missed it because it was over-shadowed by the surrounding
buildings. The shrine wasn’t miniscule and had some
depth to
it, including the traditional washing station at the entrance. However
I
couldn’t help but notice the very modern buildings all around the
shrine. The
most noticeable transnational building is the skyscraper in the
background.
Plus the apartments on the sides are virtually on top of the shrine,
equipped
with satellite dishes that can bring the inhabitants global news.
Although Kobe
may not technically
be a global city, this picture represents an aspect of global city in
that the
vernacular seems to be getting “squashed” by the transnational.
I took
another
picture while touring Kyoto.
After winding my way up through small alleys crowded with local shops,
I
arrived at the top of a hill/mountain to visit the Kiyomizu Temple.
The view from one of the walkways that wind around the forest was
magnificent,
and after walking through the main temple area, you could see not only
the
temple but also the main city below. I think it is a good
representation of one
of the aspects of a global city, its spatial epoch. I think this
picture
represents Michael Focault’s ideas about the “here and there” and the
juxtaposition of the old and new ("Of Other Spaces").
The famous Kiyomizu Temple looks down over
the modern city
of Kyoto.
The
urban city and the temple don’t really compete with one another, but
rather
coexist.
I took another
picture while in Kobe
and found it rather interesting. There was a small, obviously run down,
convenience store. It doesn’t have any of the chain-store names (i.e.
Lawson’s)
and, based on appearance, I feel that it’s safe to assume that it was
locally
owned. However, all around the store were signs of transnationalism.
For
example, to the left of the store stood a massive glass office building
that
probably houses multi-national companies while on the right was a
modern
apartment building almost certainly complete with cable and internet
connections. Then, almost directly over the store is a highway overpass
that
connects Kobe
to other places. I wondered if gentrification was going on, in the form
of
disinvestment, as way to run the little shop out of the highly modern
area..
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