Home > Focus on Japan 2009 > “Understandable” Only Goes So Far

“Understandable” Only Goes So Far

January 6th, 2009

I posted earlier about how everything, including trash collection, shut down for a whole week, and in Japan, it’s hard to find a place to store it for that long. Sachi and I risked keeping it on the balcony, and the crows never found it (they probably were feasting enough from the stuff on the ground), but a lot of people in the building apparently had no patience for such inconveniences.

Garbghall

While I understand the frustration, this is not the answer–you don’t pile up stinking bags of garbage in the corridor outside the locked garbage disposal room. That’s just wrong. The sign says no trash disposal, you don’t just dump in the nearest building hallway. I mean, really, who does that? And the building people were stuck: they couldn’t clear out the bags and clean up the mess without encouraging others to do the same. So, thanks to some less-than-neighborly neighbors, we had a very stinky basement for a week, which left a bad smell afterwards.

There’s always a few in buildings this big, aren’t there?

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  1. Leszek Cyfer
    January 7th, 2009 at 17:18 | #1

    Yeah, I find it disgusting – in my block of flats there are also people leaving such bags at the door to the garbage disposal room, although the door are unlocked and all is needed is to open them and half a meter away is a wheeled container. Fortunately the room entrance is located outside the building, but in the summer it smells badly anyway. I can imagine the smell indoor :/

  2. Paul
    January 7th, 2009 at 20:18 | #2

    I was surprised at the number and size of the crows in the urban environment in Tokyo. We have lots of crows around the Seattle area- heaven knows, I’ve shot a few- but mostly you see them in the suburbs or in more rural areas.

    In the city, not so much- but in Tokyo, man, they’re everywhere. I wonder if there’s some kind of predatory bird or animal that gets the big crows here in the States that is not present in Tokyo?

    I know this has pretty much nothing to do with your garbage story, just the comment about leaving it on the balcony and not being eaten by the crows reminded me of it. 😉

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