13 November, 2006

Working Poor 4

No wonder my so-thought cold wouldn’t heal: I finally passed out and went to the hospital last week and found out that my body was and still is invaded by a very rare virus to be found in Japan. My throat is still sore, but is so much better than the past few days.

Anyway, getting back to the working poor issue, I think I ended last entry by telling you how hollow and sad I felt. Everything at one big place with a huge selection of goods and parking lot – yes it is indeed more convenient to go shopping in a shopping mall. I think it is the same for other countries too, but in rural areas where the population is spread out public transportation doesn’t develop so much and people’s lives are really dependent on cars. When you’re in Tokyo you don’t really have the urge to get a car but when you go into the suburbs and rural areas, you really need a car to get around. Plus, if you go shopping with a car you don’t have to carry heavy or big bags yourself and the weather can’t affect you too badly. How convenient. So this is how the local economy becomes immensely centralized on huge shopping complexes in these areas and how the little shops disappear.

You may think, and there are actually voices criticizing these little local shops for not working hard enough to face the issue, but seriously, this is not an issue that can be easily solved by effort.

Okay, I’m feeling pretty sick again so I’ll stop here for today and continue on tomorrow.

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