Why I Want To Move Back To Japan
I've recently been going through the videos of one of my favorite YouTubers, a channel called Not Just Bikes, which talks about urban planning and policy with the stance that the world should be moving toward less car-centric societies. I agree wholeheartedly as someone who does not drive and has never had a car. Our places should be easily accessible to those without motor vehicles. We should be able to get to work, to the store, to restaurants and bars, easily without depending on a car.
Photo by Michaela Winters, 2018
The other day, I watched one of Not Just Bikes' videos that explained how Japan has made more strides to become less car-centric than possibly anywhere else on Earth, at least in the developed world. I used to live in Japan. I spent eleven months there while I was studying abroad in university. I recognized so many of the photos and concepts in the video that it made my heart ache with the longing to go back and be amongst Japanese society again.
The video explains how few people drive cars in Japan, because the easiest way to get around is public transportation. I experienced this myself, and even though it took me an hour and ten minutes every morning to get to my dorm on the outskirts of Tokyo to my university in the middle of the city, it was still ten times easier to get there on the train than it would have been to take a car. Not to mention, they make taxis extremely expensive in Japan (or at least in Tokyo) to the point where hardly anybody takes one. I only took a taxi once during my eleven months, and that was because I was desperate and lost, and it was past midnight, so no trains were running until early in the morning.
Photo by Michaela Winters, 2018
The nice thing about Japanese transportation is that everywhere you want to go, there is a way for you to get there without too much hassle. I live in Chicago now, in the Jefferson Park neighborhood. If I want to get to Andersonville or Uptown or any neighborhood east of my own but still north of downtown, I have to take a bus to the train station, then a train all the way downtown, then another train all the way back up. In Tokyo, if I wanted to get from Kasai to Akihabara, it's a simple switch from the Tozai train line to the Ginza line and nearly an exact direct route. One can get from anywhere in Tokyo to nearly anywhere else in about two trains, without having to go out of their way like they would here in Chicago.
Not Just Bikes mentioned another thing in his video that I hadn't noticed when I was living in Japan, but looking back on it, I realized it had made walking around Tokyo so much more inviting. There are no parked cars on the streets in Tokyo. The city made it this way to give more room to pedestrians and cyclists, as well as to allow trucks carrying things for restaurants and shops to be able to easily find somewhere to temporarily park and unload their cargo. You don't realize how stifling it feels to be surrounded by parked cars on every street until they're gone, and it's like a breath of fresh air.
Photo by Michaela Winters, 2018
This is not to mention the other reasons I am missing Japan so much, for example, the great food at the convenience stores on every corner, the culture of safety and politeness that meant I could go for a jog in the middle of the night if I wanted without anyone bothering me, or the pedestrian streets lined with amazing shops and cafes. It's not feasible for me to move back to Japan right now, however, it is something I may heavily consider for the future.
