Photo: Mark Schreiber
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Outgrown or unwanted?

21 Comments

The door to a "pencil house" in Tokyo's ritzy Takanawa neighborhood is blocked by dozens of bags of discarded clothing. It is uncommon for a gomi-yashiki to specialize in only one type of refuse.

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21 Comments
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Looking at the picture, the police or local government should do a wellness check. The person who originally placed the clothing outside could have possibly passed away inside the home. How can the resident exit the house?

Quite often these "gomi mountains" created by a gomi-yashiki are usually exacerbated by the various neighbors who realize that they have an easy and fast way to dispose of their own garbage. They just wait late night/early morning and throw their garbage on the pile. It would obviously be blamed on the original culprit. I would post some cameras and start embarrassing some neighbors.

22 ( +26 / -4 )

Wakarimasen. Is this stuff recycled or just left there to rot?

6 ( +8 / -2 )

In America,lots of time people are evicted,their stuff is dumped on the curve, people come by and take what they want,in America people trash is considered public property,and people have a right scalvage through it,I was walking home,a man found a computer curbside and loaded it in his car

5 ( +10 / -5 )

Two words.

Charity shops.

8 ( +10 / -2 )

Lots of people love the things ,they have when they living ,when you die, people consider you stuff,why I do not collect stuff,it will be thrown in the garbage

-2 ( +2 / -4 )

Your stuff as junk

0 ( +4 / -4 )

It seems like it was done by someone with mental issues.

6 ( +9 / -3 )

Two words.

Charity shops.

Not sure about Tokyo but there quite a few of them in Kansai. One type will buy your stuff for their shop then send the rest to SE Asia or Africa. Another shop takes donations and money goes to charity. The last one takes clothes donations for their own profit. There are plenty of ways to get rid of old clothes here.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

Hard off? Vintage clothes shops? Back in the day we used to go to soodai gomi piles and take the things we could use from them. Many in the neighbourhood did this. It was a place to get rid of unuseful things and find other useful things. Too bad these recycle values have gone by the wayside.

5 ( +7 / -2 )

That is one tiny house not big enough for a hoarder.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

City hall's are zero pro-active on stopping this kind of stuff.

0 ( +3 / -3 )

Yrral --not sure of your point however in Japan once anything is set out as garbage it is common for others to take a look and take an item (or two, or more) home. This amount of gomi is a bit frightening, as some as said perhaps one of the residents is unwell.

1 ( +3 / -2 )

",in America people trash is considered public property,"

Depends on the state and sometimes, even the city. Here in Columbus OH it's illegal for people to go through trash because of the worry of "dumpster diving", i.e. computer hackers looking for information they can exploit. Though to be honest, there are homeless who periodically go through trash to find recyclables they can take to the local recycle lot and make some money. That's why we take our aluminum cans and put them in a separate bag and sit them by the trash, so they can get them without going through our trash.

4 ( +5 / -1 )

It has been noticeable in photos of residential areas of Japan . . . as well as in past personal observation . . . such trash needs to be conscientiously picked up on a regular basis . . . .

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

I think that an owner just feels it bored to these away old clothes regularly (like on every Thursdays).

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Taxes in arrears on that 'pencil house' will be the deciding factor irrespective of accumulated vinyl bags of discarded clothing...ultimately, the 'Shiyakusho' tax office will end up owning the property.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I can just imagine how dirty it still is inside.

I remember watching a show on TV here where the hosts helped clean up the home. In many of the rooms the trash reached the ceilings.

As the dumpster was about to be hauled away, the owner came running out and said there was money in one of the bags. Needle in a haystack, but they found it. I can't remember how much, but it was a LOT!

I hope this person gets some help.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Here where I live almost weekly we get a charity bag in our letter box collecting for lots of different charities its a convenient way to dispose of unwanted cloths books etc. You place the bag on the kerbside on the day of collection. We also have a growing number of charity shops as traditional shops disappear due to online only stores growing.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

What happened?

Maybe there are many cockroaches and mice.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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