Neighbourhood Hirakata

My neighbourhood, in Hirakata, is a mix between Japanese people and the so called aliens- The foreigners. My Japanese neighbours may not like the fact that we are here, but we all live together as neighbours. One way or another.

The foreigners had some trouble understanding the
value of umbrella, when they first got here.

 

 

 

Japan is a place where a lot of people live, in small houses. So as you can imagine, you can find buildings and houses all around you. It's even hard finding a spot where there is not a house or something like that, although those places do exist.

Taken from my kitchen window

Taken from a bridge near my apartment.

 

 

 

 

 There is one street, which among us foreigners, has a lot of different names. It has been called by the suicide street, the rape street, the traditional street, and the really narrow street. You can't for certain know if everything which is being said about this street is true, but just by looking you can admit that it is narrow, it is dangerous, it is beautiful and traditional and I've also met some really strange Japanese men there, trying to get my cell phone number. 

A house in the street I mentioned above.

 Although you almost get hit by a car, and there's is a possibility for getting killed almost everyday, I think I must admit that it's worth taking this road, because you really feel that you are in Japan. It's almost like going on an adventure every morning you bike through this area.

Love that they have their own automate outside their house.

Not every house is old fashioned though.

I pass this place every day,
it looks so fantastic!
But what is it?

Is it a place where someone lives?
Maybe a samurai family?
Although they don't exist anymore.

Is it a place for kids, or where kids are
forbidden to enter? 

So while standing there, taking pictures of this mysterious place, a man appears in the doorway, sees my camera and invites me in to his garden. 

Some plants he's is working with growing.

As far as I understood, my neighbour spends a lot of time, taking care of his beautiful garden. This makes me wonder, are people in my neighbourhood rich? This would be expensive in Norway, as far as I know.

The owner of the garden

The reason why I'm so fascinated by my neighbours house is because I love nature itself. Trees, flowers, green. But the gardens of my neighbours aren't the only places that is rich of nature. Outside my apartment we have a park as well. 

Which is also called the Beer Park.
By the foreigners of course.

Right beside the park, is a liquor store.
Very popular.

As you might have understood, it's mostly foreigners who choose to love this park and this store. You see the automate? You can buy alcohol here until 12 in the evening. And it's quite cheap too. Our poor Japanese neighbours though, does not like this. Because the foreigners can't keep quite when drinking. So we have a little neighbour conflict here, which is not good. 

But this neighbourhood is fantastic and I love living here. 

Early impressions of Japan

As this is my third time in Japan, I can't remember very well what my first impression of Japan was 3 years ago. The thing I do remember though, was the overwhelming feeling of being an total alien in Japan, and how Japan in itself was Alien to me. 

 This picture was taken in Tokyo, the day after surviving the jetlag and the big shock. 

This sight was for me amazing, as in Norway you hardly have tall buildings.

 I found the endless shopping malls in the undergrounds.

I saw fruit which looked as it was handmade. 

Too perfect, and no bad fruit wherever you looked.  

 

I saw a man which actually were a fake doll. 

I found it terrifying how people were staring at me. I couldn't read their face expressions either. So was I hated or was I fascinating for the Japanese people? 

Of course, after a while I understood that to see people with white skin and blue eyes in Japan was a rare sight. As I found my self having a hard time finding them as well. 

  How to describe a country which is total alien for you? 

Where the girls wear so much make-up and dress so nice that the girls called "Bimbo" back home, 

are never considered "bimbo" ever again?

 And where the boys are so feminine that you believe they are gay,

but they really aren't?

 Where they have one of the fastest trains in the world,

but the bus seems to be pulled out of a 80's movie?

I bet you think this is a girl's gym? What if I say I've only seen boys here?

And what if I even tell you that these machines don't have weights,

but air pressure, where the highest level feels like 25 kg's?

 Japan is Alien, and indescribable. 

It must be experienced.