Recreation in Japan
Walking around Kyoto one weekend, I was fascinated by the view of Kamogawa (Kamo River). Besides beautiful nature, I saw many Japanese people enjoying their time on the river-bank as illustrated on the first two photographs. Some were fishing, some were on a romantic date, and some were riding bicycles. Some people also go out to the river for a picnic with family and/or friends or just to spend time outdoors. 
I asked some of my Japanese friends if family activities were popular in Japan, but they said, "no." When children are little, maybe until to middle or high school age, families often spend weekends together. They go to picnics and sometimes play sports together in the parks. The ones you would more likely see are baseball, badminton, jump rope, and catch ball. When children grow up, however, it is more common for them as well as their parents to spend weekends and travel with friends. Such an explanation definitely confirmed my observations. I haven’t seen many families with high school age children or older out on a picnic or doing other family activities. In such a way, on Komogawa bank I mostly saw elementary school children with their parents or couples, which is also reflected in the images.
Nice post - I actually found myself in the same spot in Kyoto over the weekend. Great place to take photos. I'm not sure about where you are from, but I don't find it so surprising that as kids get older they don't hang out with their family so much. So I am always happy to see such scenes in Japan.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure how your third photo relates to the rest of the post.
I am from Ukraine. I would say that is the same in my country, after children grow up they don't hang out with their parents that much. However, in the U.S., where I live now, it is more common for families to travel and spend time together, but still maybe not to much. In Western Europe, in contrast, families and family time seem to have more value. To be honest, based on observations from my homestay and taking in consideration that Japan is a collective society, I expected it to be the case here as well, but aparently it is not. Apart from this, already knowing about family lives in other cultures I find it interesting to explore this topic also in Japanese society regardless of whether answers will be surprising to me or not.
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