A young woman was waiting at a traffic light at an intersection and was holding a plastic umbrella

Young woman holding a plastic umbrella
Plastic Umbrella in Shibuya
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I really think that plastic umbrellas are very convenient. They are made of transparent vinyl, so they don't obscure your vision when you hold them up. And they are cheap. Recently, there are some one-touch vinyl umbrellas that are a bit expensive, but they cost about 500 yen at most. It is very nice to know that you can get an umbrella at a convenience store for only a few hundred yen in case of sudden rain.

On the other hand, the umbrella itself has lost its value. Even if a plastic umbrella is broken, most people don't want to fix it and use it, and even if they leave it on the train, they can easily give it up as inevitable. Plastic umbrellas, which are almost disposable, are the flower of the age of mass consumption.

When I visited Myanmar in the past, there was no such thing as a plastic umbrella. Many people in Myanmar use umbrellas, and when it rains, a variety of umbrellas are spread all over the city, but no one uses plastic umbrellas. Instead, I saw people on the street repairing umbrellas for a living, which is not common in Japan. Umbrellas are not disposable. Umbrellas are not disposable items; they are important tools that can be repaired and continued to be used even after they are broken, and their status is much higher than that of plastic umbrellas in Japan.

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May 2021 PEOPLE TOKYO

PHOTO DATA

No

11921

Shooting Date

Sep 2020

Posted On

May 29, 2021

Modified On

August 22, 2023

Place

Shibuya, Tokyo

Genre

Street Photography

Camera

SONY ALPHA 7R II

Lens

ZEISS BATIS 2/40 CF

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