November 11, 2010

This entry is going to be more of a reflection of the sheer beauty of some of the scenery here in the Land of the Rising Sun–and yeah, they call it that for a reason. It gets abnormally bright here in the morning, I’d feel sorry for any vampires dwelling in Japan, and they’d be just before they know what ’em.

My first reflection would be a place called Kaihinmakuhari, which was the first place I was sent to after I arrived here. It kind of reminded me of those endless stairs paintings in that it was both dreamlike and extraordinarily confusing. The trees and other shrubbery are always in such ripe condition, fully displaying their lushes green colors, and the color scheme and design of the plethora of stairs and crosswalks matched perfectly with the background. The second place where my college was located, in Urayasu, was similar to Kaihin except that there weren’t any crosswalks or anything and more shrubbery.  On some mornings where the sun was shining it’s brightest–if I was able to see in front of me–it was literally like walking through a dream town. Everything just matched perfectly and looked too fake to be reality. But this dream-like image usually only manifested itself during the morning when the sun was out. Once the sun began to descend it just looked like any old city. Of course, all of this may be because I live in a rural area, where I see no crosswalks, tall buildings, or large paved sidewalks. But from my minimal travels to cities such as New York…actually that’s it, man I gotta travel more. Anyway, even New York looked like nothing special. This isn’t to say that all of Japan is like this; in fact where I lived it was quite the opposite. And the myth about Japanese cities being pristine clean is a totally false. I mean, some city areas are really clean but not all of them. However, if you take a gander from a broad view you will see no garbage or dirt, but when you just look at the ground next to you chances are you might see a small piece of garbage or something. Broken umbrellas are especially prevalent, thanks to those bothersome typhoons.

This picture is a shot taken from my first arrival in Japan, from the hotel we stayed at. I think it was from like the 8th floor or something. I would’ve loved to go to high school with this scenery to brighten the day.

Here is a picture my one friend–who is an avid photographer–helped me take. It is really nice I admit, I just can’t see the image that photographers see I guess.

Location: Japan