Pride

Someone asked me (after yesterday's soliloquy) what the attitude is of the homeless people in Japan, whether they would accept 200 yen from a stranger or would refuse it out of pride.

Its a good question, but also a complex one and one that I'm not really in a position to analyse. I have never spoken to a homeless person here, whereas I have talked to, say, my Japanese friends about the homeless issue.

One thing I have noticed about homeless people in Tokyo, which is decidedly different from the general attitude of the homeless in other countries, is that I've NEVER seen one beg. They just mind their own business, read the papers they scrounge from the garbage, and just... hang. I think maybe part of it is the pride thing again. Of course, I can't say for sure. Its actually rare to be put in a situation where you could talk to them or just give them 200 yen. To be honest, most of the homeless people I've seen have actually been asleep.

Its kind of strange - there are similar box communities in, say, San Francisco, where the homeless congregate into warrens, but I would be really scared to walk through the Tenderloin district, whereas I'm not at all afraid to walk through the parks in Takadanobaba or Shibuya where there are hundreds of tents. Perhaps I'm naive.

This is gonna sound strange, but sometimes I actually feel a sense of community when I walk through the parks; that this is the only home they've got and they're trying to make the most of it. Which is why it particularly annoys me when the bureaucrats (have to lern to speel proper) oust them from these places during international events rather than actually pull their fingers out of their tight-asses and at least try to address the problem.