One might think that Hirakata is just a small suburb of Osaka, but in reality there is alot more there than originally meets the eye. This picture is an example of one narrow street with many families, of which there are many. Not only are there many Japanese families living here, but also many foreign students come in and out of the city every semester. This creates a sort of outside connection in this small town. I feel as if this gives Hirakata its unique charactor, as well as many "Gaijin-friendly" restaurants and stores.

Another interesting aspect to the city is the dog park. Whenever I walk or ride my bike past the small area, there are always many people interacting with eachother, walking their dogs, and playing sports. In hot weather, there are young children running around in the water fountains and getting cooled off. This is the sort of place I think about when picturing daily community life because everyone is there for the same purpose, and the city residents can share in it together. In an article from Japan Today, it describes that dog parks are becoming more and more popular in Japanese society. http://archive.japantoday.com/jp/feature/1141 Hirakata seems to be the kind of city that you can find all over Japan, but to us Kansai Gaidai students, it will become our home away from home.

Japan: First Impressions

Although I have only been in Japan for a short time, I have experienced two sides to its culture. First is the more traditional side which can be seen through shrines, temples, kimonos, and cuisine. I experienced this when visiting Kyoto and other cities such as Nara. This is what I thought of when I thought of living in Japan, as was described to me by my Grandma who had lived here over 40 years ago, as well as many tourist guides. http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e638.html After actually arriving here I experienced alot more than just temples and sushi! Activities such as karaoke (http://www.karaokescene.com/history/), purikuras, and anime are overwhelmingly popular in Japanese society today. I think that so far what I've seen of Japan has shown to be deeply rooted in the old customs, but also expanding out with these more recent trends.

I'm sure that in future posts I will discuss some of these topics more thouroughly, but until then I will have to investigate a little more.

Here is a fun website for kids (or anyone) devoted to familiarizing people with Japanese culture: http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/