Takii Station

When we were each assigned a train station to visit on the Keihan line, I didn't have a preference as to what station to venture.  I did however know that I wanted to explore an area that I hadn't been to yet, so I kind of just closed my eyes and picked a random station.  The random station that I chose was Takii Station, located in the city of Moriguchi in Osaka prefecture.  I liked the name of it because it was short and simple to pronounce.  And also as simple of a straight shot it was suppost to be to get to this station with no transfers, I still managed to get lost.  I got on a limited express cart which did not stop at my station and took me beyond where I needed to be.  I always seem to make things more complicated for myself!  I realized that I needed to be on a local train which stops at every station so I went back the other way and did it right the next time around.  When I first stepped off at Takii station I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere.  There was no one around me and the station was so small.

There was actually one man sitting and waiting on the side of my tracks who looked foreign and I wanted to understand why he was at this what seemed to be 'ghost station.'  With some awkward eye contact I think he thought the same thing.  I said hello and after he replied with a hello in English I felt comfortable talking to him about my study of the station and asked him what brought him to Takii.  He said that he was shopping at Sembayashi Shotengai, which is a popular shopping street next door located right outside of the Sembayashi train station.  He went shopping to kill time before he met up with a friend for dinner at a ramen restaurant right outside of Takii Station.  When I got out of the train station to do some exploring on my own I was a little scared.  The neighborhood didn't feel safe and there was graffiti drawn all around the station.  There was nothing around except for a few restaurants and I could see that Sembayashi was right down the street.

Being an artsy person though, I really liked the graffiti and thought that it added character to the small city.  Japan has the reputation of being a very clean country so it was interesting for me to see that this neighborhood did not really fit the mold.

Pikachu

When filling out my housing application to live in one of the seminar houses at Kansai Gaidai, I asked if I could live with a Japanese roommate.  I figured that having a roommate from the country that I wanted to explore would give me a great source of cultural insight, so when I first arrived to Japan and found that my request was approved I was more than ecstatic!  Yuko Suziki greeted me with a smile and was eager to talk to me in English.  There is nothing negative I could ever think of when describing Yuko.  She’s polite, driven, kind, outgoing, and very organized.  She is always considerate of me and the rest of our suite roommates and goes out of her way to cook Japanese food for us.  It’s great that she’s enthusiastic about my interest in Japanese and get’s really excited when I learn new phrases from class and am able to add them to our daily conversations.  Yuko grew up in a Buddist temple, so as you can imagine she had a very traditional Japanese upbringing.   

But my roommate has broken all of my stereotypes about what exactly a typical Japanese person may be. Yuko is one of the funniest people I have encountered in Japan.  She is always laughing and making jokes and everything about her is silly.  She surprises me everyday with her awesome sense of humor, especially because cross-cultural jokes don't always go over well.  When I brought home a Pikachu mask and explained to her that it would be my Halloween costume, we both cracked up about it and continued to joke around about our share love for Pikachu.   

Easygoing is a perfect way to describe her, yet at the same time she manages to be extremely driven.  She commits countless hours to studying, to oncampus clubs, and to her part time job. Yuko is an exceptional human being and I consider myself very lucky to count her as one of my best friends here.  The fact that she’s Japanese helps me appreciate the culture in a more personal light and gives me the opportunity to learn through her emic view of her own country in which she grew up.

In the Hood

The neighborhood in Hirakata that I've been living in has a name that is quite difficult for me to pronounce.  But I can say that Katahokohigashimachi has been a very inviting community and I feel safe within my surroundings.  When I ride my "Jitensha," or bike around, I find that it's almost impossible for me to pass a civilian without wanting to say 'o ha yo go za i ma s,' good morning, 'co ni chi wa,' good afternoon, or 'kon ban wa,' good evening.  One of my favorite places to ride my bike is the path along the canal right near our seminar house.

 

When you follow this path it leads to Makino train station and also to one of my favorite parks.  We call it cat kingdom park because there are wild cats that hang out everywhere.  It has one of the biggest lakes in the area and the scenery is beautiful when the sun sets.

This is a picture of my friend Tommy petting one of the cats at the park.  

It shows that they are comfortable inviting us into their "kingdom."

Where ever I go in this neighborhood even if it's just on the way to school, I can appreciate the simple differences like the architectural styles of Katahokohigashimachi buildings to what I'm use to back home.  The only thing that concerns me is how narrow the roads are.  It's difficult maneuvering around cars when you are walking or cycling and have no room to the side of you. 

 

This picture is of one of the main roads leading up to school from the seminar houses 

Despite this, I am impressed with the precision of the drivers; they always seem so close to hitting people or things but never actually do.  All in all, I know that I'm in a comfortable area and this helps me with my overall adaptation process here in Japan!