Door of Your Future / by Nick Burrows

Doors, there are so many. They line the streets and each level as you move your eyes up to the sky. Identical spaces no bigger than a shoe box would be to a mouse. With doorways so tiny the size at first glance seems to hit you right in the face (Occasionally a low hanging appliance or doorway may really do that). Individuality? Forget about it. 150 million individuals is too much trouble. This is why we have millions of doors that all look the same, work the same, feel the same. One creak from the wrong hinge and the doors don't seem so uniform anymore. The wind even a light breeze slips into your house, through you as if reminding you, the tenant how unimportant and semi-permanent you really are. The walls, concrete, you cannot see the blemishes of humans past, leaving their own mark on this place. Tape on the walls suspend letters sent from loved ones from another land. Tape covers the windows to keep that draft at bay. The breeze that does inevitably sneak in bullies your subconscious. Well made but not effective, all these doors, do they keep anything out? Nothing is trying to come in but sometimes you are the one who wants out.

 

A home is important, important to everyone, that sense of place can temporarily be lost when you go somewhere new. Not many people stay long enough to make a new spot on this globe their own. They become that breeze blowing through. Japan’s people are some of the best you will find anywhere, kind, polite, efficient. Like any country there are things which impress. People here seem satisfied while never inherently a bad thing, satisfaction especially en masse creates an interesting place. As this study of Japan continues more differences and similarities emerge. The satisfaction is something that called attention because it seems unique. This started with the doors but has become more than that, who’s behind these doors? In the mind of the average citizen, let us try to discover what hides there in the imagination of a regular person. Order and care, almost everyone here seems to exemplify these traits. From garbage men and convenience store clerks to high level business people it’s impressive to say the least. These traits are enforced by peer pressure and expectation, often no room is left for the dreams, aspiration and imagination of the individual. Do you really need to express imagination, if you can be satisfied with even the most traditionally unsatisfying work? Then why is it unsettling to see this on a country wide scale. The type of expectation offered by the governmental system here is extreme. Though that could very well be what a lot of people need, and want judging by the uniform enjoyment of life here. This uniform enjoyment leads to the same uniform living spaces, uniform doors behind them the same beautiful souls you find anywhere. It’s just a shame that not many will ever have doors that reflect how much they matter.