Neighborhood Hirakata枚方市の近所

A window into society
Our enviroment
Public and private spaces
The world that surrounds us
Recording social interaction
People's perceptions
Special moements...

After living in Hirakata-shi (枚方市)for the past 6 months I have come to realize many unique and interesting things about this small suburban type area. It is a very tranquil and peaceful place to live in. Coming here for the first time, everything looked so new and unfamilar to me but, as the months rolled by I started to appreciate and notice some things about my surroundings. If one would come to Hirakata, one would notice all of the houses and apartment buildings that are scattered around the place. Even though Japan around the world has the reputation of being one of the most modern and technologically advanced country in the world, this place still manages to keep its traditional aspects intact, such as their traditional Japanese houses. Even the apartment buildings still manages to have some kind of Japaneseness to them. Hirakata has this type of homely atmosphere when walking down the narrow streets.　You can see kids playing in the park with their familes and friends, (in which the name of the park till this day I do not know the name of. We ryuugakusei(留学生international students) call it beer park) Obaachans (おばちゃんOld ladies) carrying tons of plastic bags coming back from grocery shopping, junior high school students racing their friends on their bicycles (自転車), and even the occasional loud and fashionable daigakusei(大学生college students)rushing to class from getting off the bus. Hirakata is a modern and yet traditional community. On the other hand, sadly for me Hirakata as I know it does not celebrate festivals here unless, one might count the little fairs that randomly spring up in the beer park from time to time. Comparing this to my busy city life in N.Y.C, Hirakata is a very calm and sort of close-knit community. You can see how this might be a small problem for us excited and adventurous ryugakusei（留学生international students). One example would be respecting the community by being quite after 10:00pm on any night, especially after coming home from drinking from karaoke or coming back from partying in Osaka(大阪). However, there is a place where we ryugakusei can be more loud and ourselves. If you head down to Hirakata-shi eki (Hirakata train station枚方市駅), you can see more young adults and teenagers there. For example,　you can see young people breakdancing at all hours of the nite, shopping at saty(a mall), friends going or coming from the infamous ringu (Karaoke place), or friends laughing and talking from coming from a local izakaya(bar).This area is more popular with us ryuugakusei to talk with each other and the local residents. In all, Hirakata is a good place for one to focus on school or their daily lives and relax in. It has a certain charm and like I stated before, homelyness to it. Even with us ryuugakusei, whom have come thousands of miles away from different countries from around the world, after a few weeks I honestly think that we can genuinely call this place 'home'.