This is a quiet street in Ikenomiya. I am doing a home-stay further down the road, and this picture was taken during my morning cycle to university.
Hidden away down a slight hill, 2 distant corners away from the main road pictured below, this area may appear a little isolated. However, in the evening, all of the houses on this street cover their windows with metal shutters in addition to windows and wooden sliding doors to keep out overnight noise. There are a surprising number of motorbikes racing down this road very fast at night, although in my opinion the shutters are an excessive measure.
This busy junction can add 5 minutes onto my journey depending on the lights. This main road is straddled by car and bike showrooms, bridged in with a repeating cycle of restaurants, karaoke and convenience stores.
During my time in Japan, I've found the strong consistency of chain outlets help make it easy to lose direction, certainly in the big cities, but the same applies here on a more spread out scale. It sometimes feels like a maze of 7-11s and Lawsons. I got completely here on one of the first nights at the home-stay, and managed to keep the host family waiting for me until ban-gohan had gone cold.
Behind the roadside outlets, industrial sites and storage facilities mingle in with residential areas. More memorable is the solitary patch of farmland pictured below.
As of yet, I feel that I am not too familiar with the neighbourhood outside of my cycle route. My view of the area hasn't really developed beyond first impressions; which are that of a quiet, residential area with light industry and the usual entertainment facilities located nearby. At present, I can scarcely tell it apart from other similar districts; but hopefully through further exploration, independently and with my host family, I can learn to appreciate some distinctions and characteristics that are individual to this area.
Apologies in advance! This post is rather dreary...
ReplyDeleteThis weekend the neighbourhood is holding a sports games event in which my host parents have volunteered to help manage. I'm going to tag along and hopefully will have some photo opportunities that show a more lively side to Ikenomiya.
This post doesn't seem so dreary to me. You have some good photos and observations that quite nicely illustrate the interesting residential zoning in Hirakata and Japan. This is a common theme that many of your classmates wrote about as well.
ReplyDeleteBut how are you defining your neighborhood? Is it the space between your house and Gaidai that you experience through your bike ride to school?
And why do you feel the shutters are excessive? Have you asked your host family about them? In my first home stay in a quiet area in Nara we used to close the shutters every night - as did most others in the area. But now in my neighborhood in Kadoma-shi people seem to close shutters only when there is an approaching storm or typhoon. The shutters don't seem to do much about with noise.
Anyway, looking forward to your more livelier photos.
Thanks for the comment.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I'm defining the neighbourhood by the bike ride to university. Anytime I go somewhere to do something with my host family, it's a long drive out of the area; and if I've gone for a local walk, I just find more of the same.
My opinion on the shutters is probably due to cultural differences.
My host parents instructed me to close the shutters at night to keep the noise out.
The area is quieter than anywhere else I've lived in my home country; where shutters are only used if the window behind them is expected to get broken... Not entirely sure if the reason of 'noise' is a euphemism for that; but if this was my own house I wouldn't bother with the shutters.