The Story
The protagonist of Dai-Tokyo is Kōsuke, a college graduate who decides to live a simple 'no frills' lifestyle on little money in the Greater Tokyo Area. He has no full-time employment, and instead works only part-time jobs and does chores around the neighborhood in exchange for goods and services. He spends his free time enjoying life's simple pleasures, reading, conversing with neighbors, and going out with his girlfriend. In this way Kōsuke breaks many traditions of Japanese society, such as not taking on the role of salaryman and striving for personal economic betterment. Despite this, Kōsuke is well respected and liked by his neighbors and friends, even if they do find him and his philosophy a bit peculiar. In the end, Kōsuke's philosophy of mixing 'poor' living with intellect and traditional Japanese values affirms much of Japanese culture and its traditions, rather than tears them down.
Read more about this topic: Dai-Tokyo Binbo Seikatsu Manual
Famous quotes containing the word story:
“... if there’s a house, then there is a wall ... between them and the outside world. The ideal is to stay inside and to never have to go out, and the whole idea of staying home is really important. I think men do get out, but it is not glamorized the way it is here in America, where the big story is to ride out and go someplace and to travel.”
—Gish Jen (b. 1956)
“Personal beauty is then first charming and itself, when it dissatisfies us with any end; when it becomes a story without an end; when it suggests gleams and visions, and not earthly satisfactions; when it makes the beholder feel his unworthiness; when he cannot feel his right to it, though he were Caesar; he cannot feel more right to it than to the firmament and the splendors of a sunset.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)