Today I flew from Hong Kong to Tokyo. The contrast between the two cultures is startling. In some ways the two places seem to be diametric opposites. I have not yet fully processed the difference, but I have a theory.<\/p>\n
The essential energy of Hong Kong seems to come from an inner noisiness, a hustle and bustle, a jostling for space. In Japan there seems to be something entirely different at work — an underlying aesthetic that permeates all things. It is in the architecture, the furniture, the shop displays, the way people carry themselves.<\/p>\n
This aesthetic appears to come from a place of calm, of symmetry. The quiet space within and around everything really matters here, so much so that people just take this space for granted — and perhaps they do not even notice it, so much does it suffuse everything.<\/p>\n
After the churning energy of Hong Kong — which I liked very much, by the way — I am now looking forward to spending some time in a culture where everything is done with a sense of ceremony.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Today I flew from Hong Kong to Tokyo. The contrast between the two cultures is startling. In some ways the two places seem to be diametric opposites. I have not yet fully processed the difference, but I have a theory. The essential energy of Hong Kong seems to come from an inner noisiness, a hustle … Continue reading “A sense of ceremony”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7600"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7600"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7600\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7604,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7600\/revisions\/7604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.kenperlin.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}