Closeted in!

So here’s an interesting spin on closets… It wasn’t too long back when somebody told me that in parts of Japan it’s considered quite de rigueur to live in one. And yes, I do mean a closet. 

I’m sorry but Tokyo Drift notwithstanding, try as I might I just could not wrap my head around the idea! How in the world could somebody live in a closet? I had all these strange images in my head of coming home to a closet in somebody’s bedroom like it was no big deal. Just smile, wave and say just passing through! And plug in your earphones the instant u were “home”. But of course living in a closet would also get rid of your smoking habit pretty fast for several reasons not least of which would be the danger of losing your home tout de suite. I mean who would want a smoking closet? On the up side if you lived alone you’d never lack for company. All you’d have to do is open your closet door! 

Unsurprisingly, curiosity finally got the better of me and I turned to that heaven of all questions absurd – Google – which very graciously informed me of the popularity of the trend especially around the time the economic crisis struck. Apparently living in a closet was the closest alternative to living on the road and Japan had people actually living in the amount of space which would just about suffice for an adult to stretch out in! In fact, the whole structure would be like one giant pack of cards where the sound of human beings breathing or snoring at night would resound like a prayer!

And then I came across the story dated a year before that of a homeless woman who’d apparently lived in a man’s closet undetected for a year in – you guessed it – Japan! And the first thought in my head was still ‘how big was that closet’? 

Alas, for most of us a larger closet space wouldn’t bring joy because we could rent it out and make more dough. I, for one, would just be thrilled to finally be able to find a home for all my stuff!

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