Wednesday, November 05, 2008

My neighborhood

This may not be very interesting but I thought I'd give you some trivia.

Here are a couple pictures of the neighborhood where I live. Do you notice anything that isn't in American neighborhoods? Do you not notice something that is usually in American neighborhoods?

For one, that little blue shed at the side of the street is one of our neighborhood garbage stations. Families drag their garbage to these stations and homeowners take turns cleaning the garbage station and patrolling to make sure someone isn't delinquent about how and when they've thrown out their garbage. That is a whole other story...

Another bit of trivia... If you look at the street corners in the neighborhood you can see that there are no street signs. This has always been a pet-peeve or maybe a curiosity in my mind. With all the people living in Japan, with all the little winding streets, there are no street names and there are no house numbers. When I explain to people how to get to my house from the next city over I'll say,

"You have to take the main road, towards the next town, go through the tunnel, go past three stop lights, go under the over pass, and make a left at the mechanic shop hidden behind the trees. Now you're in the neighborhood. Go down three blocks, turn right at the fourth street, go to then end and we're the last house on the left. If you go past the construction company you've gone too far."

I don't get many first time visitors.

Of course Japanese houses have addresses but they aren't marked anywhere. Some of the more modern tract neighborhoods will have numbers but traditionally there are no numbers and no street names at all. Also no rhyme and reason to the addresses. It is all very confusing and almost impossible to find some one's house by just an address. The mailmen must go through a rigorous training session to remember where to deliver mail!

In the past 10 years most Japanese cars have satellite navigators built into them so it seems to be a fairly simple process of typing in an address and following the machine's little screen map, but according to friends, I live far enough away from everywhere that the navigator only takes them to the neighborhood and they still have to figure out where I live amongst the 80 homes or so...

One feature seen in Japanese neighborhoods (and all over Japan) are mirrors. These are indispensable for getting in and out of tight places. The two mirrors here stand guard at the entrance to our neighborhood and it is the only way cars can see if there is traffic approaching. The roads are small, the fences and walls built right up against the oncoming street, so the mirrors enable the drivers (coming from both directions) to see cars around the corner. It takes a little brain figuring (everything is backwards, right?) but mirrors have saved a lot of lives on Japanese streets. Some people will have mirrors placed strategically so that they can back out of their driveways without hitting other cars or bicycles.

And here is our house at the edge of the neighborhood, and at the beginning of the forest. There's my trusty mirror that lets me know who is coming and going. Now... with all those directions do you think you can find me?


17 comments:

Elaine Adair said...

My goodness - odd!

Tracey in CT said...

I think I'd get lost near the tunnel and you would have to come and find me!!!!

Connie W said...

I would be lost forever with the absence of signs and numbers.

Janet C said...

I am definitely lost! lol

Laura said...

Wow! That is so different...and i thought being a mailman here is tough! lol

Chocolate Cat said...

My sense of direction is not great at the best of times so I think I would be well and truly lost in your neighborhood!!!

anne bebbington said...

So much more like England than the US - you see the mirrors all over the place here too. However we do have street names visible in most places to give everyone a clue :o)

Amanda said...

Isn't it wonderful that, even with Starbucks and McDonald's cropping up over the world, and so many shopping centres starting to look the same, there are still so many differences in different parts of the world. Vive la difference!

Shasta said...

My daughter showed me a picture of a street corner and I did notice the absence of signs. I asked her how the signage worked and she said she didn't see any signs. I thought she wasn't being observant, because there couldn't possibly really be an absence of signs!
Love the mirror idea though; there are several streets here where I would love to have a mirror.

Caron said...

What a pretty house you live in! It looks charming. I don't know how you get around without signs... for the "directionally challenged" that would be a nightmare!

BrendaLou said...

Tanya, I second all the other comments and i want to hear "another story" about the garbage situation. I can't tell you how interesting I find the local customs of other places. My daughter lived in Kiev, Ukraine for a year and it was so interesting to learn their local customs.

Julie said...

Amazing!! I too am directionally challenged. I get lost very easily anywhere. I would have a very hard time finding my way around there.

Pennie and David said...

It must be nice to be hard to find, I like the look of your home it looks very rural. I was interested to see you use the word 'garbage' I thought it was called 'trash' in America.

Sue said...

Dear Taniwa San,Thankyou so much for writing your blog. I was lucky enough to have lived in Japan for three years (I am English) and loved every moment of it. I read your blog and feel 'homesick'! Please keep posting about the wonderful 'everyday' things. I cherish those posts as I know too well about what you show. You are my last contact with Japan. Thankyou from the bottom of my heart. p.s. I also learnt to quilt whilst there and loved all the wonderful craft/fabric shops.

artfilstitch said...

I found it rather interesting while in Japan trying to find places. A challenge to say the least, but love traveling in Japan.
The garbage rules might be something that would help here in the USA....maybe we all wouldn't be so wasteful. :>( Just a thought!

The Calico Quilter said...

One centralized location on the block to put the trash seems so much more sensible than every house having a huge rolling bin that we have to store out of sight. The bins are enormous and are picked up and emptied using an articulated arm on the garbage truck. Oh, yes, I really want to hear the trash bin stories....

Without street signs I would go out one day on errands and never be heard from again. How do they manage in large cities?

Your house is charming!

Karen said...

Wow! That is something. No street signs or house numbers. So very interesting.