Japan was awesome.

There’s so much I have to say about the past few days, but there’s what I have the patience and stamina for at the moment: there were two things about the Japanese that stuck out to me. The first was that couples seemed to match each other? Not sure if this is an old or new trend or just a coincidence, but I wasn’t the only one to point that out. The second was aesthetics.

I decided to start a photography project to document different styles of doorways in homes, buildings, etc (if anyone has seen my photos from other countries, I do this a bunch). As I looked through my Japan pictures of doors, I noticed that not one had bad taste. I know we’re not “supposed” to use extremes, but everything was pretty aesthetically intriguing. Everything is aligned just so, plants are blooming with color, and each doorway is framed so well- photographing them was easy.

I noticed not one house with too much going on. I’ve been learning in my history of world art and also my global music classes about the traditions of less-is-more (I believe it’s zen? I clearly pay enough attention…), and I could definitely tell it was there. The concept is that in an art, even what is around the subject contributes to the aesthetics of the piece. So, the silence between notes, the space surrounding objects, etc., all contribute to the beauty of the artwork. In all of my photos (mind you that I will take pictures of two feet if I must) every door had simple décor surrounding it, and they all intrigued me. After talking it over with friends, my roommate with Japanese heritage said that it probably had to do with the collectivist culture. It seems that no one tries to be ~individualistic~ with the cool house on the block that stand out and draw attention; rather, they all blend in nicely and are easy on the eye. As my roommate said, they know what looks good and would rather stick to it.

I noticed this everywhere, but for the sake of an example, in restaurants. In America the common place setting consists of a fork, knife, napkin, a small place, often both a water and wine glass, and probably a flower or candle or some kind of centerpiece. There might even be sugar packets, ketchup, or a basket of bread and butter waiting for you, depending on the restaurant. In Japan, most of our tables were either completely cleared or had small cloths for our hands. It was only off to the very side of the table that we found small trays with drawers of chopsticks with a box of ginger (my favorite part). Everything looked clean and organized. The picture below was taken at a restaurant where I noticed that the dish-ware was eclectic yet matched so well. I’m also in LOVE with the sake cup. It's all metal, but the thick, heavily weighted bottoms were completely rounded, so they balanced (I asked the waiter where to buy them. He replied, “online”- the only word of English he spoke all night. But he did write down Nousaku, so Mom and Dad, we'll for sure pursuing that).

Anyway, if you walk into my room at home I’ve decorated in quite opposite ways…(like my 30+ shot glass collection on display, for one thing). Mom, this does NOT give you permission to throw anything out until I get home, but I PROMISE I'll do some purging when I return to the pigsty. Who would’ve thought it would take a trip to Japan to get me to clean my room?

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things” – Henry Miller