City or Country

By Emika Uetake

If I imagine the view of Tokyo, like Aoyama or Shibuya, which are famous and popular cities in Tokyo, I picture that there are a lot of buildings, shops, stuff, and people. These kinds of cities in Tokyo are lighted up all day, so we call them “a non-sleeping city.” On the other hand, my home town, named Koshigaya, in Saitama prefecture, which takes about 30 or 40 minutes from Tokyo city by train, is totally different from Aoyama or Shibuya. There are some rice firlds, many houses, and a few pedestrians. I think this depends on which city you’re are living in, but I prefer to live in the country because there are three better points than city’s.

When I go to Tokyo to shop, I am tired the moment I arrive there and see the number of pedestrians. It is difficult to walk smoothly like in my home town. I’m always pinched by “pedestrians’ wall” one after another. Until I enter a shop, I am exhausted because I broke lots of the “walls.” Although I go there on weekdays, I have to fight with the “walls,” which were made by rich housewives with free time. In contrast, I never feel tired when I am walking on my home town streets. I pedal my bicycle, seeing green rice fields and old Japanese traditional style houses. This is a way of getting rid of stress for me. Places with few pedestrians makes me calm.

If I lived in a city area, I wouldn’t be able to sleep very well because of the noise and bright lights. It is uncomfortable for many people including me to listen to lots of noise. When the bright lights are added to the noise, I am more annoyed. In a city area, they keep on being until every midnight. A country area like Fort St. John, in which I have been, is very quiet at night. I sometimes catch a sound which is a freight train running, blowing the train whistle. In addition, there are enough lights to keep safe exept some events. These lights do not affect us badly and everyone doesn’t feel uncomfortable. Just a little sound and a few lights which need to keep us safe are better point than a city’s.

I like country areas because they aren’t filled with lots of buildings or products. I think this is the most favorite point. In Japan, basically, there is a big shopping mall like WalMart in each town, so we don’t have to go to the city with spending a long time. Moreover, we no longer need to go to the city to shop. There is a huge number of stores on the Internet. We can even buy a tank. The Internet has everything we want, and sometimes cheaper than a shop that we go out to. The stuff you ordered reaches you soon. Even if the stuff, for example, clothes didn’t fit us, we can change the size or take it back smoothly. This great invention gives people who are living in a country area a comfortable life.

I like to live in a country area due to the three points. Which do you want to live in: places which there are lots of people, lights, and stuff, and these are always shining or places with a few people, quiet and calm?