.png)
General Unwritten Rules of Space
What is in this Section
Introduction
Youth’s constant prevalence of Miyashita has created general unwritten rules that would otherwise be considered disruptive or not meaningful in non-youth dominated space. These rules were discovered through time spent observing youth’s behavior in the park and representations of youth activities on social media. Although there is no definitive categorization of these rules, the rules presented usually fall under things that can occur within crowded spaces as opposed to isolated ones. These rules reveal how youth exist with a high level of comfortability within spaces at Miyashita and they speak to the generational differences between youth and adults in Miyashita as well as the dominant status of youth in the space.
Rule#1
Youth are free to do activities that attract attention and
may disrupt the peace enjoyed by others.
Most privately owned public spaces uphold a basic, mutual respect and consideration for the space and privacy of others. In fact, George Simmel suggests that it is the “mutual reserve and indifference, and the intellectual conditions of life in large social units are never more sharply appreciated in their significance for the independence of the individual than in the dense crowds of the metropolis” (Simmel, 1903). That is, people can even share a mutual reserve or indifference for one another in an urban environment due to its overwhelming density. The opposite is seen in Miyashita Park amongst young people.
Youth can dismiss this basic mutual respect and consideration for the space and privacy of others, especially in crowded areas. Youth can be seen running, chasing each other, yelling, dancing erratically, laughing absurdly loud, and invading others’ personal space on a daily basis in Miyashita Park. For example, one Disruptive Tik Tok on Miyashita lawn shows a young boy standing in the middle of a seated, crowded group and aggressively ‘dancing’ by waving his hands around and screaming to music. Since nobody stopped this individual, this was acceptable behavior that disturbed the peace of many. Additionally, a group of boys once ran through the packed food court on the 3rd floor and seemed to be drunkenly playing a game of tag. They were red-faced and sprinting after each other while screaming at the top of their lungs. The reaction of the packed crowd to the loud disturbance was almost non-existent, and people were smilingly entertained. Older adults seemed to understand that youth dominate the space and were therefore undisturbed by the nuisance.
Another example is the action of laying down in a crowded space such as a lawn or even a concrete area. It is expected in most public spaces that people conserve space to make room for others. However, in Miyashita, youth take up more space than they need which intrudes upon the personal space of others or prevents others from sharing the space. These activities are accepted at Miyashita but would likely be considered transgressive or disturbing to members of other privately owned public spaces like the Parco Shopping Center or Kitaya Park. Youth have developed such a high level of comfortability at Miyashita to the point where disturbing or transgressive behavior is seen as acceptable and even entertaining.
(Individual laying down on the Starbucks lawn, taking up space)
Youth are free to do activities that attract attention and
may disrupt the peace enjoyed by others.
Rule#2
Youth can drink and smoke cigarettes
(actions that may be looked down upon by others) in crowded spaces.
Youth, even underage youth, can be seen smoking and drinking in crowded and isolated areas without judgement or interjection by others. Although the Starbucks lawn is consistently the most populated area on the roof, its location behind the Starbucks building itself provides a cover that may make youth feel more inclined to drink and smoke in more of a closed off area. The sheer presence of so many young people prevents one person from standing out while doing transgressive behavior such as smoking or underage drinking. This is more likely to take place in a space large and communal enough for many people to sit in close proximity with each other. However, youth still have no problem drinking and smoking in plain sight of park employees. Youth take advantage of the dominance that they have in Miyashita to take part in behavior that they would otherwise not do in adult-centric spaces such as their home or neighborhood park.
Rule#3
Youth with similar fashion or appearance are more permitted
to interact with each other.
Although new connections among youth can occur between any two types of individuals or groups of people, youth gravitate towards visual appearances that align most with their own. Youth use “clothing, hairstyles, and accessories... [as] recognition of not only one’s individual identity but also of one’s place in the larger peer group. Preppy, Goth, or Geek, each group is marked by specific consumer choices that identify their members not only as individuals but also as members of these social networks” (Deutsch & Theodorou, 2010). At Miyashita, youth appearances can generally fall into categories such as gangster (baggy, graphic clothing), monotoned (simple, uniform colors), posh (dresses, makeup, collared shirts), and flexers (luxury brand name apparel, obvious display of jewelry) to name a few. This attraction to similarly looking people is used to signify in-group status and to mark difference from out-group members. For example, a group of gangster boys looking to interact with a group of girls used the similarity of having the same black Adidas shoes as a shared characteristic of identity between the two groups to spark an interaction.
This mode of interaction is specific to Miyashita, as opposed to on the streets of Shibuya, because youth perceive Miyashita as a space specifically to meet other youth. More than the streets, Miyashita is a place where a ‘preppy’ dressed young person would approach another ‘preppy’ dressed young person because there is a larger concentration of youth, and the dominance of youth sociality and identity expression as Miyashita’s defining characteristic makes approaching a similarly dressed person a desirable activity for young people.
(Images of the prevalence of similarly dressed people in Miyashita)
Conclusion
Youth have provided meaning to Miyashita Park, and have defined it as a youth specific space, through the unwritten rules that they have created as an expression of their identity as youth. Places are “interpreted, narrated, perceived, felt, understood and imagined, so that meanings are not only experienced, they are learned through personal discovery” (Abbott-Chapman & Robertson, 2009). The rules that have emerged from youth’s constant presence and use are learned and re-shaped by their experience of the space. These rules have emerged because Miyashita is a place where young “experimentation, play, and leisure activity are part of [their] process of discovery, socialization, and the expression of emerging identity” (Abbott-Chapman & Robertson, 2009). Youth have created rules that allow them to express their identities and maximize socialization that may be transgressive or unallowed in other areas different from Miyashita Park.