Impressions of Tokyo

03 March 2010

Konichiwa,
 
Went to a "group home" facility in the Tokyo urban area today. Such homes are a mandated  formulaic response by the Japanese Government to the national long term care insurance that came into being here 10 years ago.

There are established criteria such as staffing ratios etc, which is interesting because we have a white paper due out of course which will establish our own funding regime for older persons care.

Interesting designs and layouts because these urban schemes are shoehorned on to small sites and the clever use of space comes from a lifetime of living in small urban apartments.

I've included a photo of some new friends I made. These people are very happy - doors are always unlocked and the residents often go for a walk on their own despite varying degrees of dementia. There are 3 floors of homes each housing 9 people with two further floors above are day centres. Local people come in the morning for a bath, have lunch and then every day they are taken out somewhere in the afternoon. The ground floor manages a local home care service.

Meals are all prepared in the individual homes and residents are encouraged to participate. Discussions take place with relatives over risk levels and those that partake in food prep/ laundry /cleaning activities are apparently always sustaining minor injuries, often small cuts etc which is seen as being part of ordinary life.
 
Impressions of Japan? - Incredibly friendly and polite people. The train ticket inspector turns at the end of the carriage each time he walks through and bows to all. Not seen that on Virgin.

Tokyo is huge huge huge. It just goes on and on with multi storey development. This urban area is of course the largest in the world. 20 million people in one extended built up area. Every now and then, wedged into a lower rise housing are is a 100 foot high net surrounding a multi-storey golf driving range. Talk about "Not in my back yard"!
 
The cultural approach to gender is interesting. Today was the annual national Girls day. Everywhere we've been there have been elaborate doll displays which are brought out every year in houses with young girls to wish them well with their lives. (see picture). However a man would not normally consider letting a woman out of the lift first or giving up his seat on the train for a pregnant woman.
 
After a visit to a shrine and a temple this afternoon I delighted in a trip to a museum specialising in "Ukiyo-e" prints. What we would recognize as traditional Japanese art but incredibly interesting – so skilled and delicate when you see it up close and fascinating to hear how it developed in the 19th century.
 
Off to the far north tomorrow for a real treat - looking at Dr Kikowadas development but need to be up at 5am to catch the Shinkansen again. The train service here is absolutely fantastic and you wonder if we will ever get close to such a quality transport service.
 
Sayonara
David