Participants / Impression / Tokyo

I didn’t think that the boonies could exist right in Tokyo, but in the shitamachi area, time still moves very slowly. It had a great atmosphere, and it made me feel as though I’d discovered a very human face to the city. A“school zone” sign we saw in the center of the city left a strong impression on me. Schools in the area have been closed, because the area is no longer a good place to raise children. It made me sad, too, to think about things that used to exist but no longer do. Watching the street performers in Yoyogi who are all striving to make their dreams come true was fun. For some reason, I had this image of Tokyo being a city of cold, distant people, but everyone was very willing to talk when I approached them, and it helped a lot with our project.

Since I hadn’t had much of a chance to meet people from outside Okinawa before, I wasn’t sure how I should interact with the other FOJ participants when we first met. But everybody was friendly and personable, and I had a great time. The program awakened my interest in looking outside Okinawa.

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