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.
As you suggest, little available land and a high population density make for a need for spatial awareness. I am not sure if this is a buddhist or zen thing (I think those kind of assumptions are made far too often and might boarder on orientalism) but there is a kind of consideration that one doesn't find at least where you and I are from.
ReplyDeleteThese are interesting observations - I especially appreciate your warnings about the narrow gutter and dangerous utility poles - but I don't get much sense of the specific area where you live, your neighborhood in Hirakata-shi.