Every morning I make the twenty-five minute walk to the Kansai Gaidai campus. Normally, I do not have many thoughts about the neighborhood; being half asleep tends to make my mind work slowly. Occasionally, a passing moped or car (which is a little too close for comfort) will pass by and scare me awake. Reflecting upon this, I realized that Japanese roads are incredibly tiny… too tiny. Sure, back roads are never as roomy as main roads, but here a two lane road can barely fit a car and a person standing beside it. Now, these back roads are not just a few houses but a large community of people.
This brought me to another great discovery: this is my community. I live here (if only temporarily), and interact with the locals, even if it is only being in their way on my trek to class. I suppose that when you are not in way of the passers-by and can sit back and really take in what is around, you start to appreciate it all the more. Every morning I pass by children walking to school in uniforms, clay shingled roofs, people walking their dogs in the park, people on their bicycles and do not to forget my daily near death experiences. Even thinking about it now when I am safely tucked away in my room (nowhere near a moped), I’ve come to realize that maybe this community with its tiny roads has changed from an obstacle course to actually being home. Maybe tomorrow morning when I am walking to school I will be able to appreciate the morning wakeup call the locals give me. On second thought maybe I might ask them how to maneuver more agilely in such a tight space; they are pros at it.
I like the title of your post.
ReplyDeleteBut it seems that within a 25 minute walk you are walking though several neighborhoods. Or are you defining your neighborhood through your walking experience?
Are you a temporary resident or a visual anthropologist? How can you increase your interactions so as to learn more about Japan and make your posts even stronger?
Pretty pictures - I wish the second one was a little lighter on the bottom so as to see more details.
For me, I define community as people and places that I see and interact with on a daily basis. As for increasing my interactions, I do greet those I see walking passed but I just did not write about it. I was really caught up on my daily (seemingly) near death experiences. I don't see why I can't be both a temporary resident AND a visual anthropologist. One cannot really live in a country and study about the culture completely unattached to it. Thus I believe we HAVE to be both.
ReplyDeleteAs for the pictures, on my computer the bottom of the second picture looks fine. But now that I'm using a different computer I see that it is a little too dark. Thanks for the advice.