下北沢
Nothing here is new
A neighbourhood built entirely on second-hand, and what it has in common with a formula revised three times and never once relaunched.
Shimokitazawa is small, low, and awkward to drive through, which is most of the reason it survived. Two train lines, a grid of lanes too narrow for chain stores, and several hundred shops selling things that somebody already owned. Vintage denim, army surplus, sixties glassware, records, and a great deal of clothing that has been repaired at least once.
The economics are unusual: value goes up with age rather than down, provided the thing was made properly to begin with. A jacket worn for thirty years is worth more than the one made last season, and everyone involved in the transaction knows it.
There is a word attached to this — もったいない, mottainai — usually translated as “what a waste”, though it carries more regret than that. Closer to: this still has use in it, and you are about to throw it away.
The skincare industry runs on the opposite principle. Reformulate, rename, relaunch, present it as new. It has always been easier to sell a new product than a better version of one that already exists.
The 500x Tremella Moisturizer has been revised three times. It has never been relaunched. Same name, same number, same jar, a better formula inside it than the one that first shipped. There is no marketing moment in that, which is more or less the point.
改善 — kaizen. Keep the thing. Improve the thing.
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