Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on June 2010

© Shinsuke Kamioka

The gift that keeps on giving

Regarding “Uniqlo Recycle” (Global Village, June 11): Yes, this is good to see. Like others, I have looked for places to donate clothes in Japan (not that hard, mind you), but they do not seem very common compared to Canada and the US. On the other hand, I hate to be the party pooper here, but you know [Uniqlo is] also trying to retain customer loyalty and maintain sales by getting people to return clothes at the stores, then having them conveniently find something else they like in the store to buy…—Tahoochi**

This spring I visited a small country in Western Europe: the Netherlands. Even the smallest village has its collecting points for recyclable goods. The town I stayed in has a population of 20 thousand, but containers for glass, footwear and clothes are found in at least three different locations. There are separate containers for white glass (transparent), green glass and brown glass. No need for the local authorities to dispatch trucks for collecting; citizens do the work themselves—very efficient. The containers for clothes and footwear are painted green and belong to the Red Cross. When you have to dump something, you pack the items in tied plastic bags, open the hatch near the top and dispose of your items. Japan can learn a thing or two here. There are enough large shopping centers now that have the space for such containers, and even if these spaces aren’t evenly spread, they can be created using the money that is saved by eliminating those noisy, polluting trucks running around all the time.—presto345**

Yokohama recycles clothes! When you throw away clothes here, they ask that they be clean and in good shape when placed at the pickup point—any worn or dirty items must be thrown away with burnable trash. They have a large recycling center near the city hospital on the Seaside line. Yokohama loves to recycle, almost to the point of madness!—Davin**

Sofa Sports

Regarding “No Wii Can’t” (The Last Word, June 18): Some points to consider:

• Playing Wii Sports resort made friends of mine try table tennis for real.
• My Grandma is not strong enough to lift a real bowling ball.
• Fat people who sit on their sofas all day playing videogames are now (fractionally) more active than before.
• People who get tired/stiff from playing Wii might realize they aren’t as healthy as they thought and might try and do something about it. (It happened to me.)
• The ridiculous costs of joining put people off even attempting to join a gym in Japan. Now people have a chance to buy something for their videogames console that lets them do it at home.
• Also, gyms are stuffy places with fluorescent lighting and little fresh air.
• Lots of people are putting off exercising because it looks hard. The Wii tries to make it fun, which is great motivation. Exercise is all about motivating yourself to get fitter, is it not?
• Games like Wii Fit and the walking trainer thing for the DS encourage you to do outdoor activities and let you input data on what you’ve been doing in the great outdoors, keeping a diary of your fitness in an engaging manner.

Maybe the next article should be one about the lack of lovely green parks filled with trees, grass and free public sports courts, because that’s the main thing that keeps me from going outside to exercise, even though I want to!—Charltzy*

* Taken from the Metropolis online comment threads
** Taken from the Japan Today online comment threads