Stifling Aesthetics

"In Japanese cities the nights are bright. Too bright. Streets, railway stations, offices, shops, vending machines—all vie in their brightness for people's use. The entire interior of convenience stores is luminous. Unfamiliar with the calming effect of balanced lightness and darkness, the Japanese perceive a dark city as desolate. While there has been repeated mention of reviewing the excessive brightness of cities, nothing has changed; rather, cities are calling for more brightness amid economic doldrums."
-Makoto Ueda, "Summer Living in Japan"
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This photo was taken in a keitai--or cellular phone--store in Hirakatashi. This particular store offers the top three brands of phones, which are Softbank, au, and DoCoMo. The photo captures the cluttered, fluorescent aesthetics of the store as well as the concentrated, formal process a customer must endure in purchasing a phone for the first time. Surely such a long, tedious, and important rite of passage as buying a phone should be performed in more comfortable lighting.


Again, like moths, Japanese people seem to constantly flutter around bright, pretty lights, especially in a place such as an arcade. An arcade is naturally lit by the neon glow of screens and whirring machines. Many are loud, smoky, and filled with sad, lonely men gambling their funds on pinball. The aesthetics are terrible, in my and Mr. Ueda's opinion, but people are always going back for more.