4:08pm:

I think I know why I like seeing drying laundry on balconies. Alex was talking earlier about a national attitude/trend towards conformity, school and other uniform and the like. I saw a huge apartment building out the train window a moment ago as we left Kobe. Almost every apartment had something on their balcony, plants or clothing. It was colorful and wild and it made me wonder if this was like exhibitionism – what can you learn about someone based on what’s drying on their balcony. Perhaps that’s my own American upbringing forcing me to try to find some way in which each person is acting to be an individual.