Just now on Good Morning Japan they had a segment about a new vacation tour trend. People are taking buses and boat to see . . . illuminated industrial plants at night. See, for example this tour-guide company:
http://www.reservedcruise.com/fact/ The video segment showed the city board of trade members getting together to plan ways to encourage this trend, and cash in on it. The oil refineries are opening up nearby bodies of water to authorized tour company boats so that people can get closer and take photos. They ooh and ah at how futuristic it looks, and about the contrast between artifice and nature (bright lights and the dark sea). This is somehow charming yet revolting. It is quintessentially Japanese. Charming, because after all a lit-up factory reflected in a bay is beautiful, and I am glad that people enjoy it. People in Japan have respect for work-a-day ordinary things. I recall the diary of young woman in the 1930s who wrote about this and that chit-chat, what she had for lunch, and in the middle of that she wrote what a good job the Post Office does and how we should all thank them for their efforts. I once saw a full length movie dramatization and celebration of the product engineers who invented the VCR. You don't see that kind of respect for geeks in the U.S! It is revolting because factories are ugly and polluting, and for the reasons given by Alex Kerr in "Dogs and Demons." I guess it is the same spirit that draws people to watch steam railroad locomotives passing in the night. - Jed
