People

Whether dodging the grandmas walking down the street, or being passed by an elementary school student while boarding the train. The one thing that always seems to come to mind when thinking about Japanese people is how independent and self sufficient they are. In the supermarket rather than the cashier bagging the groceries or the all American bag boy, each shopper is given a certain amount of bags and they move to tables to bag their own groceries. Each person is responsible for taking care of this task themselves, which in turn speeds up the entire check out process and helps everyone else as well. So as children grow up helping their parents with the bags they are learning to take care of themselves and also do what is needed to help the community. A simple restaurant also shows the independence of each individual because some rather than having tables to sit at and converse have just a long counter. In the above picture each person is there by themselves and the only interaction I witnessed was with the employees. While some might think of such a meal as slightly depressing everyone their was enjoying themselves and it seemed rather a place to take care of your own needs as you are on your way somewhere, just a pit stop. So while Japan is often thought of as a homogeneous society each person can identify themself as an individual.

Neighborhood Hirakata

Hirakata has been my home for a couple months now, due to the fact that I have been a student at Kansai Gaidai. Being told to write about Hirakata I realized how little I actually knew about the neighborhood. The one thing that really stood out in my mind was how this somewhat smaller city in Japan had the addition of around four hundred foreign students every semester; a fact that seems like it would have an impact on the city itself. Has the city integrated certain foreign aspects or have the foreign students just been grafted into the city like a branch that grows different fruit onto a tree? On the road to get to the school there is a shrine that has probably been there longer than anything else in the city, but what seems strange about the shrine is the fact that in front of the shrine has become a small playground. There are often groups of children playing there, usually ignoring the playground equipment to instead play with their video games, and every so often a group of children being supervised as they clean the area. I mention this shrine to show how something that seems out of place and from a different time landed in this residential area has been integrated into the everyday function of the lives of the people who live here. Maybe it is a bad example, but if a shrine that the Emperor once worshipped at has an added playground and is now at times just a place for youth to spend time together it would make sense that for as long as Kansai Gaidai has been in the area and having hundreds of foreign students come that some western ideas may have made a transition into life here. However being tall and white on the same bike ride that I pass the park I have some students say a quick "hello" to practice their English, but more often am just met with stares. Then I noticed the fences around the school and the seminar houses where the students live, and wondered if theses were only to keep people out or maybe to keep some things in away from the city. Was there no integration, no grafted on branch, and rather just a potted plant sent over every year. Besides shop owners having English language menus and specials for haircuts, there was integration and a much better integration. Japan and Hirakata had made themselves part of my life. Knowing which side streets to take, lining up with everyone buying the vegetables outside of Fresco, crossing the street where it is not marked, and many other things from the day to day life in Hirakata have ingrained themselves into my person; I have grafted another branch onto my tree. Just like the older shrine made itself part of the modern city, the older city has made itself part of my life. Hirakata has incorporated itself into all of our lives out here and isn't that what being part of a neighborhood really is not leaving an impact, but rather letting it leave an impact on you? Sorry its so long and my camera battery is dead right now so the pictures will go up tomorrow after its had a charge.

Early Impressions of Japan

Well... just as the little prince crash landed on the Earth in the now famous story, I have arrived in the seemingly alien world of Japan what is often thought of as the land of contradictions and where today is tomorrow. Fortunately and unfortunately this is my second semester here at Kansai Gaidai, I say fortunate because I get to spend more time in Japan, but unfortunate because it makes writing a blog post about my early impressions of Japan rather difficult as they happened back in September of last year. However coming back after a brief respite in the states has allowed me to view some things with fresh eyes so here we go. While some people think of the adjectives small, little, tiny and so forth when describing Japan I now prefer space efficient, if that makes sense. Biking from one location to another I pass by many condo like houses cramped together and then when there is open space there is something useful like I don't know tons of tiny gardens. They seem to litter the landscape, but a good kind of litter not destroying the Earth kind of litter. Every square inch seems to have a purpose here, even vertically like the double decker trains where on the bottom level you are sitting beneath the train platform, with just as many people above you as there are around you. While some place can be empty at times like the campus is for now, it can quickly become overrun with people and the need for the amount of sidewalk space becomes clear, and on some crowded city sidewalks you will wonder why there is not even more space. So having come to Japan gone back home and returned only to continually notice the use of space and at time complete lack of space, sorry to not have a picture of this will get one up in a future blog, I thought I would just share my two cents on the subject.