© 2010 Ko Nakatsu

You throw away the outside when you peel an orange. It’s what’s inside that counts.
When you meet a stranger you judge them on their character. It’s what’s inside that counts.
“Guns don’t kill people, bullets do”. It’s what’s inside that hurts.
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”. It’s the strength of what’s inside that protects me.

When it comes to singular things like fruits, people, and guns, what’s important is what’s inside. When it comes to Ideas in our culture, or inspiration in our culture, it’s what’s outside, what’s on the fringes that counts.

The tourists travel along the Yamanote Line (the green line) in Tokyo. Plenty to see! It’s a train system that travels in a continuous circle around the center of Tokyo. There’s no need for a tourist to venture out of this circle. The Shibuya stop has all of the trend-of-youth, Akihabara stop has the bizzaro otaku-meets-radioshack culture, and Hiroshi Fujiwara‘s Harajuku is where the “Fruits” of fashion bloom. When I went to Japan last year, a couple of local friends guided me on the fringes of the Yamanote line. They showed me what’s outside of the main-core.

If you go out too far from the core, it’s a barren land of residential buildings and convenient stores (“combini”). There’s an area on the edge of the core though, the crust, the rind, the fringe, the right distance from the main core, where all the good stuff happens. This is where the interesting locals live. Fascinating-people don’t live in the heart of Tokyo, they live on the fringes, the people living the creative life, the stores that support a niche group, the restaurants experimenting with tradition while respecting it, can’t afford to live in the main-core of inflated prices, but they can’t live without that culture. So they live on the fringe.

Life-Size Gundam Bigger than Paul Bunyun © 2009 Ko Nakatsu

On the fringes of Tokyo is where they built a giant life-size anime mecha-robot, Gundam. The 6-story gargantuan robot was built in Shiokaze park. Why? Do you need a reason to make a life-size space robot? And People who live on the fringe are allowed to build a gigantic robot for no reason.

On the fringe of Tokyo, lies an ex-fashion-center the size of a typical American Mall. It housed all of the high-fashion brands in the 80’s. Once abandoned, it’s now replaced by every collector-related store imaginable from rare books to rare comics and ofcourse, rare robots. It’s like eBay walked in to this building and exploded into a million carefully dusted goodies with a sprinkling of double-rainbow. The collector’s paradise attracts old people from the outside of the fringe, and young people from the main-core. They mingle together on the fringe and bring ideas from the opposite generations. My friend explained that the popularity was nostalgia for the older generation and the younger generation seeking an imaginary time of innocence.

On the fringe of Tokyo are the real Fashion Fruits that party ’til 8AM and too busy to hang out in Harajuku and care less about being photographed by tourists. On the fringe are fresh raw chicken dishes, sashimi style, killed to order. On the fringe is where lives intermingle, and experiments happen, pulling people in from the main-core and from the Outside Lands.

The fringe has the good stuff, the necessary stuff, so look carefully before you throw away the peel and rind, because you just might find a 59 foot robot and the neglected-inspirations.