Vanishing Japan
Asian travel and geography
Synthetic audio, Automated braille
Summary
Pawnshops and handmade paper. shoe shiners and Shinto jugglers . money rakes and mosquito netting all these were once a familiar part of daily life in JapanMany elements of that daily life , like the Obon dances and oreiboko apprenticeships,… have no counterpart in any other culture : they are purely unique to Japan . But with the tremendous changes of the modern age, most traces of traditional life in Japan are fast disappearing, soon to be gone forever. Still, there are a few holdouts. especially in Japan 's shitamachi. or working-class neighborhoods, where many of the survivors of Japanese crafts. art forms, and festivals are making their last stand .