Japan needs something like freecycle. One place I lived for a while had people who gave away the most amazing things, and lots of them, all the time. Other places it's pretty useless. In the extravagant place I dug up rose & lilac bushes, took home amazing furniture, and accumulated a lot of useful things like wood flooring and appliances.
I don't see that happening happening in Texas. People flip old houses all the time, they don't get demolished. Unwanted household items can be sold or put out on the street and people will come by and pick them up. I assume to resell them.
Japan has what they call Recycle Stores. These are places where you can sell anything you no longer need or want. Anything…almost. Given my difficulty finding a mini compo with CD, cassette and MD players, I suspect these may not be able to be sold. Otherwise, it seems that they take just about anything. Some specialize. We bought a lot of things for our son at one that bought and sold only used baby and toddler wares. This was one that did not survive the panic. 2 or 3 years ago I took somethings that we had been storing for a few years there to sell and was shocked to see it gone. Not just the business, the whole building GONE.
Another one that we more recently discovered is a couple of towns over and it specializes in camping gear. We have both bought and sold items there. Most of my camping gear was purchased there.
The closest remaining recycle shop near the house has everything. I bought a gas stove and oven, and microwave there for my apartment. We have sold a lot of stuff there too over the years. Sometimes they cannot offer any money but there will accept the items if we wish. This at a minimum saves us from throwing it out and often from paying for it to be taken away by the trash collectors. Maybe some will find a use for these things that we no longer need even if the store won’t give us anything for it. I rarely bring things back that I tried to sell.
This being the case, the reality of homes torn down with all the belongings of the last occupants is even more baffling. I have asked and discussed this many times and learned a few reasons this may happen.
Japanese homes are rather small and can be a struggle to find ways to stow their own dunnage without taking on those left behind by their elders. There also seems to be little interest in keeping mementos of their ancestors. This mystifies me, given that ancestor worship is important to them. Not universal, of course, nothing is, but it seems to be nearly so.
There is another facet that I have learned of when studying the language, history and culture of Japan. I have no idea to what degree this may play but I suspect it does some. There is a belief that after many years, inanimate objects will in various ways acquire a spirit, and the Japanese do not generally want to let this happen.
Another possibility may be that the inheritors no longer live in the area and just didn’t think it was worth the effort to disrupt their lives and travel cross country to take of it and just sold the entire property.
Someone wrote about leaving expensive air conditioners when moving out in their location. That is something is taken with or sold when leaving an apartment. When we moved from the apartment to the house, we took everything including the air conditioner. But, this does not seem to happen with homes.
I just now recall that a friend’s wife, he American and she Japanese, hated the idea of buying anything at recycle stores. Additionally, when they bought their house, all their furnishings were thrown out and they bought all new. By contrast, 25 years ago I bought a Japanese tansu at a recycle store for ¥10,000 and it is now in its 4th residence with me.
Sadly, it’s same in other Asian countries and it’s common in Hong Kong to see perfectly serviceable items dumped on the landfill. An apartment next to me was recently sold and most of the furniture and fittings were left behind including Panasonic split type air conditioners for each room which had been hardly used. They were all ripped out along with everything else that could be removed, including doors and even windows and the entire apartment was refitted. Even the new air conditioners closely resembled the ones that had just been removed. Fortunately I knew the seller and was able to pick quite a number of furniture items for my apartment but there was a limited to the number of things I can take.
Heartless. Soulless.
Not My Problem-esque™
Not my problemism is strong in Japan.
Japan needs something like freecycle. One place I lived for a while had people who gave away the most amazing things, and lots of them, all the time. Other places it's pretty useless. In the extravagant place I dug up rose & lilac bushes, took home amazing furniture, and accumulated a lot of useful things like wood flooring and appliances.
I don't see that happening happening in Texas. People flip old houses all the time, they don't get demolished. Unwanted household items can be sold or put out on the street and people will come by and pick them up. I assume to resell them.
Japan has what they call Recycle Stores. These are places where you can sell anything you no longer need or want. Anything…almost. Given my difficulty finding a mini compo with CD, cassette and MD players, I suspect these may not be able to be sold. Otherwise, it seems that they take just about anything. Some specialize. We bought a lot of things for our son at one that bought and sold only used baby and toddler wares. This was one that did not survive the panic. 2 or 3 years ago I took somethings that we had been storing for a few years there to sell and was shocked to see it gone. Not just the business, the whole building GONE.
Another one that we more recently discovered is a couple of towns over and it specializes in camping gear. We have both bought and sold items there. Most of my camping gear was purchased there.
The closest remaining recycle shop near the house has everything. I bought a gas stove and oven, and microwave there for my apartment. We have sold a lot of stuff there too over the years. Sometimes they cannot offer any money but there will accept the items if we wish. This at a minimum saves us from throwing it out and often from paying for it to be taken away by the trash collectors. Maybe some will find a use for these things that we no longer need even if the store won’t give us anything for it. I rarely bring things back that I tried to sell.
This being the case, the reality of homes torn down with all the belongings of the last occupants is even more baffling. I have asked and discussed this many times and learned a few reasons this may happen.
Japanese homes are rather small and can be a struggle to find ways to stow their own dunnage without taking on those left behind by their elders. There also seems to be little interest in keeping mementos of their ancestors. This mystifies me, given that ancestor worship is important to them. Not universal, of course, nothing is, but it seems to be nearly so.
There is another facet that I have learned of when studying the language, history and culture of Japan. I have no idea to what degree this may play but I suspect it does some. There is a belief that after many years, inanimate objects will in various ways acquire a spirit, and the Japanese do not generally want to let this happen.
Another possibility may be that the inheritors no longer live in the area and just didn’t think it was worth the effort to disrupt their lives and travel cross country to take of it and just sold the entire property.
Someone wrote about leaving expensive air conditioners when moving out in their location. That is something is taken with or sold when leaving an apartment. When we moved from the apartment to the house, we took everything including the air conditioner. But, this does not seem to happen with homes.
I just now recall that a friend’s wife, he American and she Japanese, hated the idea of buying anything at recycle stores. Additionally, when they bought their house, all their furnishings were thrown out and they bought all new. By contrast, 25 years ago I bought a Japanese tansu at a recycle store for ¥10,000 and it is now in its 4th residence with me.
Sadly, it’s same in other Asian countries and it’s common in Hong Kong to see perfectly serviceable items dumped on the landfill. An apartment next to me was recently sold and most of the furniture and fittings were left behind including Panasonic split type air conditioners for each room which had been hardly used. They were all ripped out along with everything else that could be removed, including doors and even windows and the entire apartment was refitted. Even the new air conditioners closely resembled the ones that had just been removed. Fortunately I knew the seller and was able to pick quite a number of furniture items for my apartment but there was a limited to the number of things I can take.
I think it is wasteful and depressing. If I were there to witness all my possessions treated so dispassionately, it would be heart-breaking.
"But wait—"
"Can't I just come in and —"
Were there no childrren to argue over the remnants of this person/family's life?
Was there not at least someone from the Japanese version of "Pawn-stars" to look for some "treasure" among the trash?