Lately I have been watching a lot of programming from NHK, the Japanese broadcaster. Amongst my favourite shows are Document 72 Hours, in which a film crew spend three days in the same location, just watching and talking to people as they come and go. On one level it seems terribly mundane - for what could possibly be interesting about hanging out at a noodle vending machine, or a car yard or even a tobacco shop, to name just three of the locations?

But interesting it is, and on many levels. There is no way of knowing what lives people bring to these ordinary places, but somehow the film crew coax stories of joy, hope, sadness and longing from the most prosaic of daily transactions. One woman newly-divorced, a son re-living a childhood memory, a man getting a truck license just for the heck of it, the tales are unpredictable and insightful. Perhaps this speaks to the way we attach special significance to place - or the sense of place that somehow reorganises our thoughts and brings forth memory and meaning.

Here is a link to the NHK site: http://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/tv/72hours/

and two photos, one of the soba noodle machine (one of my especial favourites) and the most recent one, about Hachi the cat and the tobacco shop.