[HN Gopher] Kanazawa's Empty Spaces
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Kanazawa's Empty Spaces
Author : tintinnabula
Score : 52 points
Date : 2021-12-23 01:14 UTC (4 days ago)
(HTM) web link (placesjournal.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (placesjournal.org)
| bamboozled wrote:
| I visited Kanazawa once, to me these spaces gave me this really
| lonely energy, not entirely bad, just seems like a once great
| city which is struggling to survive or at least keep its
| identity.
|
| I think about what circumstances would turn things around for
| Kanazawa but couldn't imagine a time when people would flock back
| to live there. At least in the near future.
|
| So many incredibly quiet yet beautiful neighbourhoods either
| abandoned or waiting to be.
|
| Almost worth a visit if in Japan just to experience it. There is
| a list of beautiful things to see there.
|
| I wonder if anyone else who's been there felt the same ? I
| couldn't tell if the author was trying to convey a similar
| feeling or not. Maybe the following comes close.
|
| > Seidenberg's photographs depict this city as storied and
| imperiled, poised between decline and revival.
| cageface wrote:
| I visited it once too and really enjoyed it. I'd consider
| moving there if immigration to Japan wasn't so difficult.
| bamboozled wrote:
| Funny as my friend said they'd like to live there almost
| immediately too.
| gibagger wrote:
| I was there and it felt a bit odd. Even downtown areas were not
| that busy and buildings not that pretty or well kept as they
| would be in the bigger cities. The local food that I sampled
| was simpler too. The local markets didn't seem vibrant or busy.
|
| Definitely had the feel of a city which has seen better days.
| It has lovely gardens though.
| xrd wrote:
| I lived in Kanazawa, attending Kindai (Kanazawa Daigaku, Kanazawa
| U). Kindai is a second tier university, first tier are like Ivy
| League in the US; Kindai was still a good school.
|
| Until they rebuilt the university, it was one of only two
| universities within original castle grounds (the other is in
| Germany).
|
| As the article mentions, it's an interesting place because it was
| one of the few major cities not bombed during WWII, so lots of
| the street layouts are still intact. The note in the article
| about the open air gutters was funny to me, I saw a few cars rip
| off their bumpers after the fell into those gutters that would
| have been rerouted in other cities.
|
| Kenrokuen is an amazing, incredible garden there. I live in
| Portland now which has what many consider the best Japanese style
| garden outside of Japan. But, those imperial gardens like
| Kenrokuen put the Portland Japanese garden to shame. Absolutely
| worth a visit to Kanazawa just for Kenrokuen.
|
| When I lived there it was considered a bit of a backwater. My
| Japanese friends said it was the "waki" (armpit) of Japan. Now
| that the Shinkansen goes there, I think things have changed
| radically.
| dejawu wrote:
| One of my fondest memories is a day-trip I took to Kenrokuen.
| It was the dead of winter, absolutely blanketed in snow with
| more coming down, and I remember being simply awestruck by the
| serene beauty of it. I still go back and look at the photos I
| took there four or five years ago - it's one of the few times
| I've actually wished I'd sprung for a phone with a decent
| camera.
|
| I also remember hopping on a bus, looking ridiculous covered in
| snow after a whole day walking around outside, and getting a
| good-natured laugh from some schoolchildren for my appearance.
| Good times.
| UncleOxidant wrote:
| I just googled Kanazawa and it happens to be snowing there
| right now. I was curious about the latitude and it looks to
| be at about the same latitude as the SF Bay area where it
| rarely snows. And it's right on the coast as well. Is snow
| more common on the west coast of Japan than on the east coast
| due to the Japanese current which passes on the east?
| zzzbra wrote:
| east west distinction does make as much sense in Japan
| since the main island runs at a sort of diagonal but from
| my experience, in the northern half, the west is snowier.
| the islands as a whole are immensely wetter than
| California.
| mc32 wrote:
| What strikes me most is how they clean up these structures and
| leave empty land, actual earth so it doesn't end up in a
| dangerous imploded pile of rubble.
|
| I haven't been to Detroit and though I've read of efforts ti
| clean up abandoned lots with decrepit housing, most of the
| abandoned lots and houses are left to succumb to natural
| deterioration or arson.
| dole wrote:
| The constrast of this reminded me of my city and the "urban
| prairie", where previously crowded, close-to-downtown urban
| neighborhoods began to be abandoned, where 16 houses stood
| before, now maybe two or three, and the lots around those get
| overgrown with grasses, leaving behind a typical city street
| grid, streets and infrastructure and tall wild grassy fields
| where the houses were.
| bcherny wrote:
| Are there any more photos? The article includes a few, but seems
| to imply there's a larger collection.
| tagami wrote:
| There's a slideshow at the bottom. Also:
| https://www.amazon.com/Kanazawa-Void-Steven-Seidenberg/dp/19...
| https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=3094896799...
| thedailymail wrote:
| The demographic decline of the Japanese countryside is a stark
| reality most vistors don't get to witness, but it really is
| transforming the country. For a great, poetic examination from a
| few years back, the (now dormant) blog Spike Japan is an
| essential resource.
|
| https://spikejapan.wordpress.com/
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