Old vs New

One of my favourite TV programs on Japanese telly at the moment is called "Trivia". It features segments on (not surprisingly) trivia. Not quite sure why it entertains me - possibly because it's an interesting way to learn about some of the quirkier stuff about Japan (oh and the world too).

They get a bunch of the interchangeable variety celebrities together (Tamori is on every week), whose role is to hit a button which makes an annoying "eh----" sound (Japanese benkyo note - へえ　is said when you are surprised by something).

A few surprising ones today though.

Off the coast of Wakayama-ken there is a postbox several metres down underwater. Not interesting you may say - but it is actually still in service and in the summer season up to 50 postcards are collected from it each day. A diver goes down to collect them for the post office. They tried it out and the postcard made it from that postbox to the Fuji TV building by the next business day.

For the anime fans - famous manga artist Reiji Matsumoto (author of Space Battelship Yamato) once fed a friend of his mushrooms that he'd grown on his underpants. Not sure whether he had been continuing to wear them during the time he was growing the mushies - was retching in disgust.

There is a famous photo taken in 1864 of a group of bushi (samurai) standing in front of the Sphinx in Egypt. Not particulary astonishing however the story of the guy racing up the side was kinda cute - you can only see one guy racing up the Sphinx in the photo as the guy chasing him had actually fallen over and rolled down just as the pic was snapped.

And then there were two examples which made me reflect on the topic of this post:

The famous Japanese children's song "春の小川" (haru no ogawa - The little spring of Spring) is all about what once was a little river running through of all places Shibuya. Very hard to imagine now - in fact it's been re-routed underground and instead of a spring with pretty yellow flowers there is a stone with an inscription saying that the river once flowed past there.

Back to the Sphinx - did you know what the Sphinx has to look at everyday?

Yes a KFC/Pizza Hut outlet.

I'll be the first to admit that I love new toys and things - but there is something a little sad about these two examples. It makes the new seem almost parasitic - feeding off of the old. Who in their right mind would want to eat KFC having travelled so far to see something so ancient (except for the novelty of it)? It's probably about the most extreme example of the fast-food plague that has encroached upon our civilised landscapes.

I wonder if in a hundred years time people will be upset that they are going to tear down the old Roppongi Hills complex to make way for some new super-building. Or wonder in amazement (in much less than 100 years) how we ever coped with using computers as quaint as Mac G5s. Wince in horror at tales of the kind of surgery being done today "Can you believe that they used to seperate conjoined twins after birth?!".

New does not necessarily equal better, but then neither does old. But I do think it's a little sad when they can't blend together in some kind of harmony.

And no I don't want fries with my view of the Sphinx thanks.