Theme: Neighborhood

Neighborhood home layout - The neighborhood that I live in seems to be a typical urban neighborhood in Morioka. The neighborhoods all have their own names and inside the neighborhood there are different sections. While in the states the neighborhoods generally have little importance while the streets carry much more importance, here it is opposite. Another difference is the shape of the streets. Everywhere I have lived in the US, it seems as if one goal when building a neighborhood is to make sure that all of the streets are generally straight and either parallel or perpendicular to each other. In Japan the streets seem to strive to be generally to be in a firm grid, however the streets are much smaller and tend to wind around. However, as my host-family lives in a more mountainous part of the city, it could be a result of their location rather than of Japanese culture. In the picture above you can see a picture of a section of my neighborhood including my house. The homes are almost all a square with two floors and a balcony used for drying clothing. There are no garages (however, some homes have covers), instead there are places for either one or two cars to park around the house. Besides the area to park there is little land that each homes has outside the house. Around the house there is usually a two-three foot long area where the owners plant bushes or other plants (or just rocks), there is no grass.



Trash Disposal - The neighborhood is organized into different sections, each having a center to throw away trash, which is displayed in the picture. Each month one house is in charge of unlocking the trash area on the correct day of the week. The key is then passed to the next family on the next month. In a previous post on my first impressions of Japan, I mentioned the trash separation in public areas. In the homes, trash is also separated. In the picture, you can see the bottom right poster. This poster describes the different groups of trash and recyclables and the dates that they are picked up. When a household is wanting to dispose of their garbage, they simply put it in the right bin inside of this structure on the appointed day. Otherwise, this shed is kept locked. On of the reasons I can tell for using this shed is to keep the trash from the crows. Around the neighborhood, I haven’t seen any stray cats or dogs, but the crows are massive and are frequent visitors. In my neighborhood, these trash areas are located in the middle of the neighborhood next two a playground, which you can see slightly in the picture, and a cemetery, which is to the right and on a higher level of land than the surrounding homes.