Unhygienic practices in Akihabara - Garbage disposal in Japan

I would not have surprised and shocked, had I been noticed these garbages thrown carelessly on a roadside in any other country except Japan. But to my surprise this is in Japan and when my friend asked about my opinion on this, I was without words, but agreed silently, 'ya, it happens in Japan too, but unfortunate'.

I was walking from Yodobashi camera building in Akihabara towards Laox today evening with my friend. First we noticed this garbage and passed by, but returned back and had a look at this and wondered such irresponsible acts happens in Japan ! We thought of taking these snaps in order to make public more aware of what is happening in our own Tokyo.

When it comes to hygiene, I was full of admiration with the Japanese authorities and Japanese people for their high level of social awareness and discipline to practice public safe health behaviors. Public garbage disposal control comes under the jurisdiction of prefecture governments.

Infact I used to argue with my friends about the public awareness of garbage disposal and public hygienic practices being adopted and practiced by Japanese society. J. Philippe Rushton, in his famous k-group transition theory grouped Japanese society as one of the most civilized human race, both intelligent and culturally developed and advanced. He got severe criticism from all the corners for supporting far east Asian countries including Japan and negating the Africa.

But I have observed characteristics of a culturally advanced society in Japan and used to propagate my feeling to my friends and relatives in other countries.

Disposal of garbage and domestic waste is an indispensable task of local authorities. Refuse disposal, sewerage disposal and street cleaning expenditures take up more than half of the total municipal health and hygiene expenditures, where municipalities are making their greatest effort. The volume of garbage has been increasing as living standards rise, and municipalities are trying hard to dispose of it as efficiently as possible.

Sewerage disposal is directly tied to maintaining good sanitary conditions and to ensuring clean rivers or lakes. Therefore, it is imperative to provide disposal plants with sufficient capacity. It is important to note that municipalities are only responsible for the disposal of domestic waste; it is the responsibility of the producer to dispose of industrial waste. However, the complexity of the problem forces local authorities to demonstrate commitment in this field.

In the field of health and hygiene, the central government handles the national qualifying examinations for doctors and nurses, the licensing of pharmaceutical products, general planning and instructions. Most of the actual administration closely connected with residents is undertaken by prefectures and municipalities.

The total expenditure is 5,707 billion yen in fiscal 2005, and the share borne by municipalities is three times that of prefectures. Public health comprises more than 86% of the total prefectural expenditures; on the other hand, in the case of municipalities, refuse disposal, sewerage disposal, and street cleaning expenditures comprise more than 51% of the total.

Japan has such an admirable local governance system handed over by generations and implemented and verified by culturally developed and advanced community members.

Akihabara may be one of the most crowded region of Tokyo. Maintainance of public resources in such an area requires constant monitoring. Lapses happens but will be corrected immediately. But even if it is for a short period of time, throwing garbages publicly is one of the unexpected thing in Japan.

Akihabara's crowd and a small level of indiscipline can be attributed to the street sales and sales canvassing on the road sides. Akihabara may be the place where we can see maximum number of gaikokujins - foreigners. But the disposal of garbage may not be accused on the density of the foreigners !

Anyway, I thought of sharing these photos to make aware within the Japanese society and among foreigners living in Tokyo that sometimes Tokyo municipalities are also not immune to unhygienic practices !

Waiting for Typhoon in Tokyo !

Yesterday till late night or early morning 3:00 AM I did not sleep. I was waiting for the typhoon.

It all came to my interest as our Japanese class on this saturday was cancelled due to the expecting typhoon. OVTA, where I go for learning Japanese language for beginners informed through my company adminstration that they will compensate the class which will be cancelling as a precaution towards the typhoon on October second week.

I have never experienced a typhoon and wanted to see how it happens. One of my friend at the office told about the typhoon which is expected to hit Tokyo on early hours of 20th September. He told the name of the typhoon is Sinlaku.

We browsed the internet for getting more details about the typhoon. Many Japanese sites had given detailed information on the route and time of the typhoon.

My interest grew to watch the typhoon. There was moderate rain in Tokyo area on 19th evening onwards. Typhoon as my friend informed will be with heavy stormy wind and landslides. He had experienced last year 2007 July a similar typhoon, in which some people were killed.

Last year's typhoon destroyed many houses and created panic among the public. People can not stand outside as the storm speed will be around 130 miles per hour.

This time the Meteorological Agency in Japan had warned the public to stay alert for heavy rain, stormy winds and landslides that the season's 13th storm is expected to cause in wide parts of the Pacific coast.

Japan has an admirable system to report and monitor typhoons, tsunami like killer waves and earthquake etc. One of the reason is Japan have similar past experiences of natural calamities and over a period of time have been developed encounter measures.

The place where I am living is with lot of trees and high buildings. I thought I can see the strength of wind while the typhoon passes through the area. The Komatsugawa area is one of peaceful area in Tokyo for living. Komatsugawa is with trees, rivers, bridges, and high buildings in between.

But I could not sense any big difference between normal wind and yesterdays typhoon atlest in Komatsugawa area. The news papers reported something different, that there were small casualties at some parts of Japan.

Today morning I woke up and had a round around the Komatsugawa area, but could not find any noticeable changes due to the typhoon. But the Japan Times online reported casualties at Owase.

The Owase Municipal Government urged about 7,900 households to evacuate. A total of 12 homes were flooded, the city said, adding that about 50 residents fled to public halls and other places to take shelter. Sinlaku also caused 17 schools to close. Central Japan Railway Co. (JR Tokai) announced the suspension of eight express train services due to the typhoon.

The summer is just finished ! - Japan and her weather

The summer is horrible in Japan. Many Japanese go out of Japan during summer holidays. When I first landed in Japan it was too cold and could not imagine the weather can turn exactly opposite !

In our Japanese language class also teaher used to say 'Nihon no natsu wa atsui desu'. Japanese summers are hot. The weather is a suitable topic for coversation for foreigners to start with Japanese people. The differences between the seasons in Japan are distinguishable. Spring and Autumn are the most convenient and pleasant. Spring is associated with cherry blossom popularly known as Sakura in Japan. O'hanami parties are very famous in Japan.

Autumn is another best season in Japan. It is associated with the autumn leaves known as momiji in Japan. I had a visitor to this blog from Japan who suggested me to put the photos of autum leaves in my blog. Her name is Momiji. She did not disclose that her name has the meaning of autumn leaves! I searched in the internet for momiji and from a Japanese site, I got the meaning and photos of momiji. It looked wonderful for me.

Foreign people can start conversation with seasonal changes. The Japanese summer is less pleasant as first the rainy season will start in June followed by a hot and humid August and September first half. Summer and early autumn coincide the typhoon season. The winter is short and mild in the south of Japan but grows longer and more severe at North of Japan.

The change in seasons are always mingled with festivals. Each area has its own festival in Japan. The major yearly festival is at the beginning of the year and in mid of August. At New Year everyone has about a week off, which would traditionally be spent at home, with visits to relatives home. Japanese people visit to their temples at this season. I have heard from friends that they go to temple only once in a year that is at New year !

Japan have Shinto temples and Buddhist temples. At new year children will get gifts of money in small envelopes, from their parents and visitors to home and from those whom they go to visit. April is the month for Cherry blossom. Schools will be starting at this month. My daughter will attend her LKG this coming April in one of the Indian school in Japan.

At the end of April or beginning of May there is a Golden week festival. It is a ten day holiday. This is the time for Japanese people to visit their ancestral home and visit their family graves. Increasingly it too is being used as an ordinary holiday. Generally Japanese companies distribute bonus during June and December.

The summer gifts are known as 'o-chugen' in Japanese language and the winter gifts are o-seibo. The contents of the gifts will be same, generally gift-wrapped boxes of towels, soap, tinned food, whisky etc, which are not handed over personally but delivered by the store from where Japanese people will purchase those gifts.