Reasonable Urbanism: A Ferry to Japan

Yesterday the winds were wailing, and the waves rolled me off my futon at least once during the night. Overall though, the experience was rather breathtaking in a good way.

I had said I might need to visit Japan for this series. It is not so far, really. Yesterday I caught a train to Busan, and a few hours later, boarded the overnight ferry bound for Shimonoseki, Japan.

As an aside, if you ever have the chance, take it. It feels like a cruise, but priced like a ferry. Good dinner, views, and a nice sento (bathhouse) on the boat. After a sleep, you arrive bright and early in Japan!

At any rate…

Arriving at Shimonoseki port, so many of the themes we talk about here at The Possible City reemerged. The smallness and diversity, the coordination between city and nature, the various ways in which humans express their gratitude to that nature.

Of course, most cities have this in some way or another. Japanese cities though, have a version that presents itself with a certain clarity.

After a walk, I head from here to Fukuoka by local train.

Fukuoka is city which, like many in this part of the world, has been inhabited for some thousands of years. The form that it takes now, as the largest metropolis on Kyūshū island, is a result in many ways of those thousands of years of culture, both layered and mixed with each other. Now, there have been radical shifts during the centuries, but there are also hints of ways of seeing that survive over time.

In the coming week, my job is simply to find those hints, to walk the streets and paths, and to write and draw daily, about those reasonable urbanism “ingredients” mentioned in the previous issue of The Possible City.

I use those ingredients as a guide, but of course, others will present themselves, as they often do.

As usual, more than the individual ingredients, we are interested here in the relationship between people, place, and nature, and how that relationship conjures all of the ingredients, mixing them together in just such a way.

That, we say, is the recipe. Yes?

We will start with Kyūshū. More to come, in Japan, in Korea, and elsewhere. For now, I get my walking shoes on and get to it.

In the meantime, if any of you have your own suggestions on ingredients, send a note to thepossiblecity@substack.com or drop a comment below.

There are many new subscribers since last time. Welcome! You might want to catch up with the previous issue, where we look at the “ingredients” spoke about above. Read it here:

Reasonable Urbanism: Will the Real 15-Minute City Please Step Forward?

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