When I was in high school, we used to hang out at Miyashita Park, a long stretch of dirt and playground that paralleled the Yamanote Line tracks between Shibuya and Harajuku. Besides the occasional police training program and the couples making out on the benches, the park pretty much belonged to the homeless community. These guys had blue vinyl tents set up on the peripheries of the main walkway, and were always doing laundry or cooking. They hung their damp shirts on tree branches and ate off of makeshift stoves on stones and never, ever messed with the rest of society. Never asked for money, never asked for food. They simply lived there.
Anyway, I'm psyched they made this documentary about a similar community in Osaka. Japanese, American, and German filmmakers collaborated on this project, and the result is an insightful, breathtaking view of what it means to be homeless in Japan.
I love how they just live there and do their best to survive by using their brains. They aren't even complaining!
Here in the US, all the homeless do is beg. And beg some more. And complain because they aren't getting anything. They don't try at all to survive on their own.
I want to see this documentary.
Posted by: Joey_v | February 17, 2007 at 11:41 AM
The link is broken.
It's
http://www.kansaikouen.org/
Posted by: Dusty | February 17, 2007 at 10:38 PM
If you haven't read a book called San'ya Blues by Edward Fowler, go and order it today. Illuminating stuff.
http://www.amazon.com/SanYa-Blues-Laboring-Contemporary-Tokyo/dp/0801485703/
Posted by: Durf | February 19, 2007 at 06:16 PM