Spatial awareness

One of the main things I noticed about the Hirakata neighborhood, is the people's amazing awareness of their environment and each other. I suppose it may be a byproduct of so many people living in such close proximity to each other, that one would have to take others into consideration when performing any noisy or possibly harmful activities, such as playing music in your own home, or driving anything bigger than a mini in these tiny streets. I also find the respect for others, in terms of keeping noise levels down, is amazing. The attitudes of most of the neighborhoods I've lived in are usually 'they piss us off, so we piss them off' or 'this is my home so I can do what I want'. All the respect and consideration, may be a result of the influence of Buddhist religions, on Japanese attitudes towards each other. The very Zen, complete focus on quietening the cacophony of noisy, fast paced thoughts, Westerners like myself live with everyday also brings about a certain focus on individual action and movement.

This makes me ponder the ridiculous attitudes of most western governmental, and legal policies towards public liability. I feel so frustrated when I hear things like 'a local carnival was not allowed to set up a ride because the public liability costs are too high' or 'a public artwork is not allowed to be installed because people may try to vandalize it and hurt themselves in the process' or even when a beautiful view of a river is ruined by an ugly looking barrier stopping people from falling down the hill. It seems to me their attitudes towards the public are that people are stupid, so we have to save them from themselves. Which may be true but it also stops us from learning to be aware of and respect our environment, even if it is just a footpath.

This is an exciting gutter!!!!

It's hard to tell from the photo but this gutter/ditch/crevasse is quite deep, and could do some serious damage if you were to lazily glide your jitensha(bike) into it. It wouldn't have a hope in hell of being built in most cities in Australia. The same goes for those metal poles every 20 metres or so, on most of the 'wider' footpaths around here. You can also see in the first photo, that most of the roads don't even have a sectioned footpath, you are lucky to get a painted line marking off the half metre of road your supposed to walk on, which you usually have to cross over anyway because there are electrical poles blocking your way (forget about walking side by side when it's busy). These simple little differences are exciting because they seem to imply the people here are aware of their environment. It also requires concentration on your own actions to walk side by side with trucks and motor bikes zipping past at 60 Km's. Maybe they learn from experience (is one, knackering yourself on a pole, going to be enough to teach you not to do it again?) to focus on what they are really doing, whether it be socially or physically. I believe this to be an attribute which is lacking in a lot of westerners, (including myself) and one which could solve a lot of social problems and tensions.

A Beautiful Morning on Top of the World!!

Ive only been in japan for just over two weeks now, and this place manages to amaze me everyday. On the weekend, my roommate Frank, another seminar house III friend Simon, and I hiked up Fujisan. It was absolutely shinjirarenai!!! (unbelievable) We caught the night bus on Friday night and started hiking Saturday morning. It was so foggy that we couldn't see 10 metres in front of us, but that only made the hike even more exciting. The wind came in heavy gusts which gave us little sneak peaks of the surrounding countryside, that quickly disappeared when we were enveloped by the eerie mountain clouds. We slept in a hut with about 50 other people, all of us tired and packed in like sardines. The wake up call came at about 2:30 the next morning and we walked outside to a beautiful clear night sky. The lights from the cities below were glowing and it was the first real impression of how high we actually were. The last 2 hours hike to the top were fraught with peril, our guide told us that sadly, two people had been killed earlier this year from bad weather conditions. As we were ducking down, shielding our faces from the volcanic rocks flying through the air, I could'nt help feel excitement and anticipation for the summit. It was worth the wait!!

I couldn't help but feel that this mountain trip was the perfect metaphor for my initial experience of Japan. I'd only had brief exposures to Japanese culture, mainly through Anime and movies, but nothing could ever prepare me for the actual experience of this country. I thought that Osaka would be a bustling metropolis and was so surprised at how quiet and peaceful it can be. One thing that really sticks out about Japan for me is the way it takes its time. I'm used to the instantaneous, spontaneous and reactionary, western lifestyle, but everything here seems to be a bit more considered and contemplated. I notice it in the way people respond to being asking directions, everything seems to be thought about in depth and elaborated on, rather than just skimmed over, as would be the case back home. I felt it was a little difficult to develop any comradery with the locals on the hike, and really felt like a bit of an outsider. But by the end of the bustrip back home, and after a lot of smiling and waving, broken Japanese and english, we seemed to be making some headway, and I did feel a little sad saying sayoonara to the people we had shared an amazing experience with. We even got a smile and a wave goodbye from the cute girls who had totally dismissed our previous attemps at starting a conversation. The fog of the unknown was lifted only after the experience and interaction with Japan and its people. I still have a lot to learn before really getting to know this place, and it's going to take some time, but it's definately going to be worth the wait.