Hardship post... I can see that. Today in Hakodate it's minus 7 c and there's a Siberian blizzard raging. The snow was so thick when I opened my door this morning that I really thought I wouldn't be able to get out. Here I am on the way to work:
I could certainly live in Sapporo, though. It's got everyone one would need for civilised life, plus some lovely alpine mountains, hot springs, bears...
There is supposed to be quite a large cultural difference between Hokkaido and Honshu. Hokkaido residents are reputed to have a more independent, 'frontier' mentality. In the Kitayama and Marcus' studies of cultural attitudes to self, Hokkaidans scored somewhere between Japanese mainlanders and Americans.
Sapporo, the economic and cultural capital of Hokkaido, is more likely to resemble Honshu culturally, than an isolated place like Hakodate.
Yeah, I was really surprised by the way Hakodate is spread out and oriented around cars. People blow their horns at each other aggressively and drive recklessly. Everything's Drive In. It feels 'individualist'... and I mean that in a negative way – I'm much more at home with the Honshu style; widespread use of public transport, high density urban environments, consideration, etc.
After living there for a year a number of years ago, I returned recently, and walking around in Sapporo after a week in Tokyo was enough to make me breathe a huge sigh of relief (and to contemplate the near miss I had in almost accepting a job in Tokyo.)
While nowadays most/many young people go to work in Tokyo etc for a few years, it's probably fair to say that they prefer Hokkaido - the food's better, summer is cooler, winter is warmer (inside, anyway) things are less expensive and the atmosphere is very different. Odori Park in summer in Japan has a very special atmosphere of friendly community and relaxation that I have never found elsewhere (although some of the less trendy, local night markets in backstreet Taipei and southern Taiwan come close.) Unfortunately nowadays many of the jobs are in expensive, overcrowded Tokyo.
Honshu people probably miss the size of Tokyo etc (Sapporo is around 2 million, which aint bad but isn't limitless like Tokyo.)
With regards to spreading out and transport, while Sapporo has reasonable public transport, if you want to go anywhere in the weekend, or if you live somewhere else, cars are more or less a necessity, unfortunately.
Momus, I meant to ask you this in an email (but I can't find your address anywhere on your site), but how do you rate Berlin life? Not in comparison to Japan, but just in general. I've heard you say it has a nice atmosphere and cheap apartments, but does it have other things mortals require, such as a decent availability of gainful employment (in the arty/design area) and trains that work?
I really love living in Berlin. The trains do work, but the people tend not to. There isn't much in the way of creative employment, but your cost of living in Berlin will be lower than elsewhere, so you won't need to work as much.
It is definitely tempting. If I could continue working for London employers, but working freelance and living in Berlin, life might be sweet. I like the sound of Berlin, it sounds very bohemian. But then I see German businessmen and feel cold.
My uncle lived in Germany for about fifteen years, but eventually moved after he got tired of the German attitute to his Asian wife, among other things. I might have a similar problem, so I may just move to Asia. But if I continue living in Europe, Berlin sounds like one of the best options. London's just insane now - you spend half your life commuting, or your entire life paying off a gigantic mortgage.
Actually there are no businessmen in Berlin! That's one reason why there's no work there. The businessmen all stayed in the Ruhr Valley, Dusseldorf, Koln, Munich, Hamburg. Only bureaucrats and artists moved to Berlin, to join the very old people who've been there since the war. There is no rush hour, no bars full of men in crumpled suits, no old street markets being threatened by an overspilling financial district. Lots of punk squatters with dogs on strings, though, and lots of Nathan Barley (http://ilx.p3r.net/thread.php?msgid=5343419) types.
...can't agree with you about the Mac, though... A dear friend had a second gen iBook when they first came out and it was annoyingly slow compared with my similarly-priced laptop: although hers looked FAR nicer than my boring gray object; and looks are too often under-rated in importance. BUT I could download lots of amazing free software (GIMP, POV-Ray, OpenOffice, WinAmp) that simply wasn't available to her; and when I wanted a quality OS, I just switched to Linux. IMO the problem with Macs is that they are the product of a monopoly - well-engineered, but designed to be limited until you pay to have the limits removed ; and the advantage of PCs is that they are endlessly variable, cheap and can be loaded with quality, free code via the multitudinous open source/GNU projects out there... oh shit... expecting Mac-ist hate mail...
On another matter, I, too, would like to live in Berlin.
So uh, OS X is based on UNIX, which means that you can run GIMP, OpenOffice and POV-Ray no problem (right along side your commercial apps). For music, you've got iTunes, and a whole bunch of other open source players if you hate iTunes for some reason. Anyway, just wanted to clear that up.
I am not going to challenge your remark about the speed of PC's generally being faster, but on the other hand, Mac users tend to waste less time in general because they don't have to fight malware (spyware, viruses, etc) all the time. Just my 2 cents. If you were being sarcastic and already knew all of this, forgive me =) This is my first and last post about this, as I am not looking to start an argument.
dammit Momus, please fill in your ID3 tags. You're firing these mp3 files out into the world, and the people who receive them have no idea where they came from. Get a grip!
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-30 08:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-30 09:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-30 10:05 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-30 10:16 pm (UTC)HURRAY!
(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-30 10:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-31 03:27 am (UTC)I could certainly live in Sapporo, though. It's got everyone one would need for civilised life, plus some lovely alpine mountains, hot springs, bears...
(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-31 05:41 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-31 05:47 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-31 07:10 am (UTC)There is supposed to be quite a large cultural difference between Hokkaido and Honshu. Hokkaido residents are reputed to have a more independent, 'frontier' mentality. In the Kitayama and Marcus' studies of cultural attitudes to self, Hokkaidans scored somewhere between Japanese mainlanders and Americans.
Sapporo, the economic and cultural capital of Hokkaido, is more likely to resemble Honshu culturally, than an isolated place like Hakodate.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-01-31 08:06 am (UTC)Right on
Date: 2005-02-04 10:49 pm (UTC)While nowadays most/many young people go to work in Tokyo etc for a few years, it's probably fair to say that they prefer Hokkaido - the food's better, summer is cooler, winter is warmer (inside, anyway) things are less expensive and the atmosphere is very different. Odori Park in summer in Japan has a very special atmosphere of friendly community and relaxation that I have never found elsewhere (although some of the less trendy, local night markets in backstreet Taipei and southern Taiwan come close.) Unfortunately nowadays many of the jobs are in expensive, overcrowded Tokyo.
Honshu people probably miss the size of Tokyo etc (Sapporo is around 2 million, which aint bad but isn't limitless like Tokyo.)
With regards to spreading out and transport, while Sapporo has reasonable public transport, if you want to go anywhere in the weekend, or if you live somewhere else, cars are more or less a necessity, unfortunately.
The life of momus
Date: 2005-01-31 04:16 am (UTC)Re: The life of momus
Date: 2005-01-31 05:43 am (UTC)Re: The life of momus
Date: 2005-01-31 08:08 pm (UTC)My uncle lived in Germany for about fifteen years, but eventually moved after he got tired of the German attitute to his Asian wife, among other things. I might have a similar problem, so I may just move to Asia. But if I continue living in Europe, Berlin sounds like one of the best options. London's just insane now - you spend half your life commuting, or your entire life paying off a gigantic mortgage.
Re: The life of momus
Date: 2005-01-31 11:04 pm (UTC)Lovely post...
Date: 2005-02-01 08:06 pm (UTC)On another matter, I, too, would like to live in Berlin.
Re: Lovely post...
Date: 2005-02-02 02:57 am (UTC)I am not going to challenge your remark about the speed of PC's generally being faster, but on the other hand, Mac users tend to waste less time in general because they don't have to fight malware (spyware, viruses, etc) all the time. Just my 2 cents. If you were being sarcastic and already knew all of this, forgive me =) This is my first and last post about this, as I am not looking to start an argument.
jesse (rystic.com)
blank
Date: 2005-02-02 05:18 am (UTC)ARTIST: Momus
GENRE: Podcast