Rubbing elbows

I've often said that houses in Japan don't have any elbow room.  As my family took a walk today through a neighborhood (instead of a park), I couldn't help but once again notice the closeness of people's homes.  While we are still advised to stay at home, we decided wandering around smaller streets with next to no foot traffic was a smarter decision than going to the park on this day with glorious weather.  This way we would get our Vitamin D with reducing the potential of crowds.

We currently live in a townhouse, but many stand alone houses are less than an arm's reach from their neighbors.  My apartment in Osaka (back in 2002) was approximately 7 inches away from the building next door.  I'm not joking.  I could stretch out my thumb and pinkie and touch both buildings!  I often wondered about fire codes when I lived there.

The closeness of buildings didn't bother me a bit today.  Instead it reminded me that I was in Japan.  It has actually been easy to forget at times since we've been at home for the majority of the past month.  In fact, I've been jolted back to the reality every time I've been to the store.  It really is the most stressful part of my week.

As we wandered around, I smiled at the familiar architecture.  All these various styles of homes stacked upon each other, creating a quilt of sorts that just screams Japan to me.  The tiny yards, the building materials, the cars squeezed into parking spaces... it all comes together.

Tiny yard filled with a tiny garden that will bring 

so many wonderful vegetables to this family!

It would be odd to me if people had American-sized yards in the major towns of Japan.  It just wouldn't be right.