⚠️ This post contains a rougher cut of my thoughts on the topic and may be updated in the future. Please forgive any mistakes or lack of polish!
Hirayama cleans public toilets in Tokyo, lives his life in simplicity and daily tranquility. Some encounters also lead him to reflect on himself.
There are 301 words in this article, and it will probably take you less than 2 minutes to read it.
This article was published 2024-02-23 00:00:00 -0500, which makes this post and me old when I published it.
It took an estimated to develop this article from conception to publishing.
is he lonely?
he isn’t super close with his family, but his niece does look up to him
he has social connections by being a regular at various places
to me it seems like he doesn’t seek out friends and is closed off but will be polite and entertain connections because it seems like he does deeply care about people
this is only a slice of his life so i imagine trauma of some sort that prevents him from being able to commit to a stable attachment
is he aromantic?
he is currently unmarried and there is no reference to a past marriage or children
dignity in work
he likes his job but doesn’t want to spend all day cleaning
he gets up early as a result of his job but that allows him to do other things during the day which he enjoys
the zen of bathroom cleaning
his younger co-worker asks him why he works so hard to clean the bathrooms when they’ll just get dirty again
it’s an odd balance of the futility of the cleaning work, but also the importance of keeping the bathrooms hygienic and pleasant to use
the importance of rituals
less routine, more rituals
taking photos blindly and sorting them at the end of each week
has his morning rituals
listens to his tapes in the morning after he sees the sky tree
he is a regular at many establishments
he eats and drinks mostly the same things
he has the items ready by his entryway to take on and off
he respects religion/tradition as he bows as he enters the gate each time at the park
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