A recent nearby restaurant location has seen a rapid succession of new restaurants that fail fairly quickly.
This is a gay neighborhood and there are many restaurants. A few at the high end succeed, very few. There are a few that are good for a meal once every two weeks that do well for the many people who don’t cook for themselves.
This photo is of a large rock in front of a new Japanese expensive restaurant, in the high failure location. Also high foot traffic and high vehicle traffic.
What struck me was how beautiful the rock was initially. It was promptly peed on by dogs and probably homeless. Since then to make it easier to clean, the bottom half has been painted.
Sadly, it was a beautiful rock. The kind that the Japanese, Turks, Finns and Hungarians love. But we Americans don’t love rocks. It was a beautiful addition to our neighborhood. It can’t survive long in our society; there are few locations private enough to avoid being covered with graffiti, or pee in this case. A rock isn't meant to be painted over regularly and still be beautiful.
For me rocks are part of a brilliant and powerful esthetic. That is what I have learned from over 45 years of regular visits to Japan.