After one hour of hiking up Komaki Mountain, I felt like my host family and I had traveled through multiple worlds. Starting off in the parking lot of MEGA Don Quijote, an enormous Japanese discount store chain, we ambled our way through asphalt pavement that swiftly morphed into a pedestrian path near a playground. Continuing our ascent, the path transformed again into a trail covered by tree canopy, and we happened upon a traditional Shinto shrine. It was my first day of my month studying abroad in Japan, but my host parents wasted no time teaching me the proper rituals of shrine visiting.
After less than an hour, we reached the top of the small mountain, where we got to see a centuries-old castle where samurai fought in the past. Peering down at the now tiny roads weaving between blocky industrialized buildings, I found myself in awe of the city’s interesting duality of both embracing its cultural heritage while also pursuing future innovation.
Remembering this walk on its own, it's shocking to believe that Kasugai City is still much more industrialized than any of the suburbs across the United States I’ve grown up in, despite them all being about 30 minute’s drive away from major cities. Over the course of one month in my junior year of high school, I made a new home there. Located on the outskirts of Nagoya, Kasugai is still fairly urban. The city’s dynamic culture all exists within a small radius; you could be walking from your home to the grocery store and take one turn to the right to be whisked away into a serene shrine, or to the left to find yourself faced with a busy paper processing factory. It was through this interestingly mixed use of zoning that I found my independence in Kasugai in a way I never quite unlocked in my American hometowns.
Biking to high school everyday, I learned how to find my way without a GPS, relying on the interesting landmarks that defined my route. I weaved my way past the narrow neighborhood streets onto the busier commercial roads. Here, I found myself not only among crowds of other commuting high school students, but also an elderly man grabbing groceries from the corner grocery store. Instead of just a nuisance for cars to avoid, bikes were accepted and respected as an efficient mode of transportation across age ranges. I savored the freedom of being in control of my own mobility, unrestricted from leaving school at a particular time to meet the expectations of my carpool like I did in high school in the United States.
One particular highlight of this increased mobility was when I got to go into Nagoya by myself to meet other exchange students in my program living near Nagoya. Using my limited language skills, I navigated through intersecting train and subway lines all the way into the city core with newfound confidence. Kasugai didn’t fence me in, but instead facilitated my growing independence.
Additionally, life in Kasugai also gave me an appreciation for a more collectivist culture, compared to individualism as a defining characteristic of American culture. The clean streets and quiet train cars are manifestations of the importance Kasugai’s citizens place on the public good and prioritizing preserving harmony with others. However, I was surprised how much I missed some parts of individualism in America. I am used to personal style being a key part of my self-expression and how I navigate the world, from clothing to front yards to public art. I realized I was missing the constant creative inspiration that cycled through my surroundings in America, where free expression is often much more encouraged than in Kasugai City, Japan.
Though my interest in urban planning had been growing in the months prior to my stay in Kasugai, it was the direct comparisons I got to experience firsthand that truly made me want to know this subject more deeply to be able to improve my own communities back home. From the small joys of being able to travel a single block to a vending machine or convenience store to get anything I could realistically need for the day, to the more exciting moments like walking to the local Shinto shrine with my host family to celebrate New Year’s Day, I was inspired to nurture my American home into a place that can also remove barriers instead of adding them, visible or not.
コメント