Quote:
Originally Posted by cyth
That's part of the nostalgic appeal. Even rural places used to have more children and populations big enough to sustain local railroads and bus routes, nowadays not so much. Japan is still known to have the best and the most underutilized public infrastructure in the world. Too many railroads, highways, tunnels and hotels everywhere, and useless businesses like theme parks that have opened up during the 80's economic bubble. To have a candy store, a business with such a specific product, still open in the middle of nowhere, is short of being called a miracle. Perhaps it is artificially sustained by the locals who believe in the power of infrastructure.  Perhaps it just carries sweets that have high expiration dates.  Maybe the business is just some wife's hobby.  In some way, that sort of eeriness is Japan's biggest appeal. It doesn't have to make money, but it's still there as part of the whole infrastructure package, or what is expected for every village to have, and it doesn't need to make sense. |
The curious thing is the Japanese have a crazy-prepared mentality that they do everything in advance - just in case the areas or buildings ever need to be used by a larger amount of citizens than they are catering to at present moment, so I'm actually not surprised about that.