Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Neighborhood Hiraka

 This first picture is of a river that runs straight through parts of Hiraka City and appears in my neighborhood. I am not sure on the purpose, but I assume that it protects people during rainy season or typhoon season when water levels may pose a threat to the neighbor hoods and city areas.  I also think it serves as some kind of drainage for house water, but not polluted water.

I really like this river though because it is peaceful with lots of wild life. People can easily access it at some sections with stairs to walk their dog, throw their kid into the water, or to sit on the edge and relax. It is clean and enjoyable for everyone. Some parts are not pretty, but river represents city life: flowing peacefully yet always busy with work, school, or izakaya.

The spider's picture was taken at school. I think spider has a remote connection to the river because river contains many bugs, insects, toads, and other wild critters. I am not even sure where the spider came from. The point of the spider is that Japanese people don't harm bugs out of fear. Japanese people seem to gaze at them endlessly and work around them. When I ride to school through Hirakata, sometimes Japanese people are staring at spiders living in the branches of trees. "It's just a spider," I want to say to them in Japanese, but I think that they appreciate it like the river because it can protect them from other bugs, and like the river, protect them when it floods. It is hard to say what the Japanese mind thinks about.

1 comment:

  1. When I was in Frankfurt, Germany over the summer, I was able to walk along the Main River every day. It was beautiful and very accessible. No concrete boundaries or other things that seem to separate humans from the nature. Rivers in Japan are problematic to many people because they have been modified with concrete so much and often times have protective fences that make appreciating the beauty of the water difficult to say the least. So I find you focus on the river as your examination of your neighborhood to be very interesting.

    I would ask that you be careful with your assumptions. Rather than assume, can you ask someone and/or do some research? It would make for stronger posts. Talking with people looking at spiders by the river would be a good start.

    The spider picture is nice. The reflection of your lens is interesting. And is that Gaidai in the background?

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