Seikatsu-sha and the City

seikatsu-sha

I do not think of myself as someone who is well-traveled. Indeed, I am not. I have only traveled to a few places, most of which are quite conventional tourist destinations, and never done any solo traveling. Hence, this is not a travel blog. I am writing a blog about cities and urban life from the perspective of a person who lives there to work, to study, to play and to meet people. In Japanese, there is a word, "seikatsu-sha" (生活者), which is rather difficult to translate but it means something along the line of "a person who goes about living his/her daily life". Hmm, big deal? 

Highlighting Presence through Absence

"Spring for Nobody". Jan 2011.

"Not the Same Place". May 2011.

The Beginning of The Affair

"We treat space somewhat the way we treat sex. It is there but we don’t talk about it." 

~Edward T. Hall, The Silent Language

My fascination with the notion of space began when I was a freshman in university, attending a lecture on Geographic Information System. Yes, you got that right. It was a pretty technical module about recording and processing spatial information using computer software like ArcGIS and stuff, but that is not what I want to talk about. On our first lecture, the lecturer asked the class a question, "Who can tell me what is the difference between space and place?"

Silence befell the class.