Shun's Bar: Exchanging Perspectives

As I was setting the table, goosebumps began to run along my arm. As each plate was placed on the table, it gave me a crescendo of excitement. I’ve set up the tables by combining all of them to make one big one so that people could sit together, and eat and talk over a family-style meal. All the plates I was using were ones I personally chose from various pottery makers, each with its own distinct characteristic. Some with intricate designs and patterns like the Onta-kiln plates, while others had a single color but solid deep hue like the Shussai-kiln plates. The food-vegetables from Shimane Prefecture, mozzarella made locally in Tokyo, salami from Italy- were all carefully picked for its background story. The music playing in the back, The Shape of Things to Come by George Benson, fit the atmosphere creates by the dim yellow lights of the room. It was a space both imagined and created by me.

This was all sort of a moment of confirmation that something felt right, that this dinner event I was preparing for was something I was meant to do. 

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This was actually the second 俊’s Bar event I organized, the first one being in September. For those who are not familiar, every month I do an event at Re:gendo (my company’s café in Tokyo) where I usually do sort of a dinner meet up with people who are interested in my work and lifestyle in Omori. For some reason, for this event peoples’ schedules just were not open and the turnout was only about 10 people. In my last-minute half-panicking decision making, I decided to totally change the format of the event. Instead of a meet up, I made it to be more of an intimate sit-down dinner with hopes that it would facilitate deeper conversations. I was particularly interested in having a discussion, you know like those ones you would have in college. That was basically the inspiration for the event, to have a dinner discussion event with a small group of people who were not afraid of saying their opinions. 

I always enjoyed academic discussions during college, and even after graduating I involved myself in discussion style conversations in Omori. Recently I’ve been having friends come over for dinner at my house, where we have thought provoking conversations over a meal and some good drinks (always necessary for good conversations!). 

On the other hand, lemme tell you what I don’t really enjoy. Sitting in plastic chairs arranged in a circle while the host tells you to get drinks and snacks from a table in the back (usually paper cups with convenience store cookies or something). As you leave your snack and beverage on the floor, you watch a PowerPoint in a dark silent room trying to stay awake from the imminent drowsiness that follows after maybe the 30-minute mark as your head starts to bobble up and down. 

Nah, I want to talk to people while sitting at a table with good music in the background eating a nice meal accompanied by a good drink. I want to create a space that only I can provide, share, use with the people I enjoy being with. All the while having like a productive discussion session about things that matter in our lives right now. 

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The dinner’s theme was “Exchanging Perspectives”, in hopes that we could have a conversation about challenging the pre-determined notions of what “rural” or “local” really means and how it affects each other’s lives. 

The concept started with a meeting I was involved in at Omori together with some people from the local government from Oda-city. While we were discussing the current state of Oda-city I heard the people from the local government mention things like: 

The poor city-folk are living in such a lonely society. 

We live in a better environment than they do, people actually say hi to each other here, there’s fresh air, and more space…

This caught my attention because it sounded to me as if suddenly the countryside (inaka) was now better than the city (tokai). Previously, the cities were considered to be the more advantageous place to live (more job opportunities, excitement, economic development), they spoke as if the ones on top were now the countryside. This is all in the context of the aging society, lonely deaths (kodoku-shi), low fertility rates, freeters, all the hot social topics that have been becoming more visible in Japanese society over the last 20 or so years. So these statements made by the local officials sounded to me like a sort of a “ha look at us now, who’s better now!”, which was ironic to me. 

 When you’re in the discourse of countryside and city, it tends to go into a conversation about what one side has and what the other side does not. Before, those of the city would be the one boasting about all the things they have which the countryside lacks. However, now in the age where terms like sustainability, DIY, organic, lifestyle balance are among some of the recent hot topics, the countryside now has things which the city does not. Hearing this just made me tired of this endless act of mounting based on inferiority complexes each side has towards each other.

Thus, I wanted to have a conversation at my event with people who could talk above this endless competition and see the new possibilities in the relationships the countryside and the city could have.

With this in mind, I organized my “Exchanging Perspectives” dinner discussion. By sharing each other’s’ perspectives on a topic, I thought we could wash out some of these biases through the process of comparing subjective views and possibly create a new narrative.

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The menu was the following:

1.     Mozzarella with an assortment of Toppings (Muscat Grapes, Tomatoes preserved in Olive Oil)

a.     Mozarella from Cheese Stand Tokyo

b.     Muscat Grapes and Tomatoes from Omori and Izumo

2.     Smashed Potatoes with butter and heshiko 

a.     Potatoes from Omori

b.     Heshiko made by us in Omori   

3.     A Salami Platter (pork, duck, wagyu)

a.     Italy and Japan 

4.     German Bread 

a.     Hidaka Breads in Omori

5.     A selection of craft beer 

a.     Umehana Beer (IPA, Belgian White, Rauchbeir) from Omori 

b.     Mikkeller Beer 

I chose the ingredients with the intent of breaking the assumption about what “local” is. You can get top tier ingredients from the countryside which can compete globally. Local can also apply to the metropolises where people aren’t just importing or consuming, but actually creating products that are usually made outside of the cities. Not to mention there is local in the global as well, and globalization can be considered an opportunity to reach out to all of the “local” that is outside of your country. I wanted to include these nuances with the food and drinks that I served at the dinner table that night. 

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The discussion during the meal was equally thought-provoking as well. 

We talked about how it’s just not productive to have simple one-way conversations about which is better, and what the other lacks and so be it. 

One realization that a friend of mine has seen in the business sector were of young people who never lived in the countryside trying to “develop and revitalize the inaka through projects.” She found this to be not very productive for it was simply a project for the sake of doing the project that had a shadow of a watered down generic social impact by people who don’t really understand what the countryside actually needs. 

This I thought was a really good observation of the recent activity by businesses and various revitalization efforts by the government of the countryside. It’s sort of this form of neo-imperialism hidden in an armor of a shining white knight. The act of “developing” the inaka and to “save them”, I mean the symbolic significance of these phrases are really interesting to look into. 

Instead of this “one saves the other” model, one of my guests suggested that a partnership to be made between the inaka and the cities. This I thought was a great idea, for rather than maintaining an ever-teetering power balance, we should think what each side can provide for each other. It’s kind of a classic economics class where you look into the comparative advantage of each’s side. The important thing however is not to limit oneself to a single value system when looking at comparative advantage. In a typical neo-liberal sense this comparative advantage would work like cities will provide technology and infrastructure, while the countryside will provide natural resources. What would be interesting is to level the playing field and see if the countryside can provide technology and infrastructure and the city perhaps providing natural resources. 

Instead of limiting ourselves in these preconceived constructs of what the utility of a certain space or region can provide, see if the disruption of that narrative is able to create innovation.

 For example, what better place to see what types of infrastructure works in a diminishing and aging society than the countryside!

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It was meaningful for me to hear conversations like this occurring in a space which I organized that night. To surround a dinner table and discuss topics that we cared about, where it does not matter if you are a college student, a salaryman/woman, or freelance. What matters is that it is a space of inspiration for each other, where we can build off of each other’s passion and hopes. However, (this will come with practice) I do not want this event to just end with the discussion but lead to some type of action. Action is what leaves a mark and what changes society. Thus, instead of only building castles in the sky, I want this to inspire people, myself included, to take that step forward to try to make something come true through action (See how I sneeked the definition of hope into that!) 

More so though, it was such a treat having my friends I met at different places and points in time, gather in one place and have a meal together. In the end, things last because they are fun and or enjoyable, and I hope that this event was as special to my guests as it was for me.

So, I want to say a big thank you to all of those who came! 

Until Next Time! 

Re:gendo

Address: 3 Chome-38-20 Shoan, Suginami City, Tokyo 167-0054

Phone: 03-5941-8664