Friday, March 23, 2007

Where is Carl?

Everyday, I have a 45 minute walk from my weekly mansion (somewhat seedy hotel, definitely not a real mansion) in Akasaka to TUJ in Azabu Juban. I take the same route everyday and I walk there and back at least once. Every single day, there is a homeless man sitting by a sidewalk I use on my commute. Every time I walk past that spot he is there. Usually he is sleeping but I have seen him listening to a walkman, reading the paper with his glasses, eating and peeing. Sometimes he gestures towards me and makes weird, incomprehensible noises, but most of the time he's doing his own thing. A friend of mine who lives in my building named him Carl, and the name just kind of stuck. Everyone who lives in our dorm knows who Carl is and we often refer to him in passing conversation. In the past three months, Carl has ALWAYS been there. Never once, have I not seen him.
Until last week, that is. One day, I was walking to school and Carl was gone. Not only was he not at his usual spot, none of his stuff was there either. Carl always had a massive amount of junk collected around him. This time, there were remnants of it left: a broken umbrella, an empty lighter, but the vast majority of his stuff was gone. When I say the empty area, I immediately got a dreadful feeling. What could have happened to Carl?
When I walked back home later that day, there was new green grass planted over the empty, dirt patch where Carl used to sit. A week later, there is a bright green parking lot in place of the once empty area of land that bordered Carl's home. I have not seen Carl since.
This experience really got me thinking. What is Tokyo's policy toward homeless people? I have seen very few since I've been here, especially considering Tokyo's size. The ones I have seen, at least the ones by themselves, all look like they might be crazy. I see homeless people en masse in parks sometimes, and in boxes in train stations at night. How is it that they allow them in train stations, if they don't allow anyone else to stay inside and wait for first train? What happens to the mentally ill in Tokyo? I learned in a class once that Japan has one of the highest ratios of people in mental hospitals in the world. But where are all of these hospitals?
These are the hidden parts of a city. These communities and neighborhoods are much more difficult to explore. But I am beginning to get curious, and perhaps my next Neighborhood Narratives project will deal with these issues. At the very least, I hope that Carl is OK. I hope that he is happy and has found a new home. And I hope that in his new home he does not get usurped for a parking lot anytime soon.

Friday, March 2, 2007

Final Project Hajimemasho!

I had my first interview today for my final project and it was awesome! The whole experience was so interesting it got me so excited to work on this.
I went to a local temple in Azabu Juban to interview the monk there and try to begin to understand how the temple acts in the community.
When I first got there, the outside grounds were filled with small children and their mothers. Tables were set up with food and goodies and everyone was enjoying playing, running around and eating. I was immediately welcomed inside and served a huge plate of delicious food. The picnic was in celebration of Girl's Day, which is officially tomorrow. Little onigiri dressed up in an egg "coat" were made to look like ohinasama, the little girl god prayed to for girls' health and happiness on this day.
I met the whole family of the temple. This celebration was a family affair with each member making one or two of the many dishes that were served. Everyone was so nice and welcoming and I immediately felt the close knit community that exists there.
I met the head monk and watched as he played games with children, running around with them in a sweatshirt and a track suit. There were little kids everywhere, riding on tricycles and playing jump rope, their attentive parents close by. For the monk, parent involvement is very important. One of the first things he said to me was that this program is different than a regular day care because the parents are not simply paying someone to take care of their kids, but doing activities with their children. He believes that this strengthens the bond between parents and children, and these bonds will last with the children through adolecense and into adulthood.
After taking some pictures of incredibly cute Japanse kids, we started the interview. All in all, it went well. He answered my questions honestly and thouroughly. The only unfortunate part was the camera battery, which died halfway through the last (and argueably most interesting) question.
I will go back to the temple later this month to interview some danka, or temple patrons, and watch a ceremony for a traditional holiday.
The monk was so excited that i was working on this project and he will come to Harajuku to see the exhibition. I am getting really excited to work on this project, and hopefully I will do a good job representing these amazing people.