Neighborhood Nagao

    When you move into a new city, you feel so many different sensations that you become lost. Trying to see all the details frankly makes you dizzy. Walking around Nagao for the first time, made my heart pound and my hands shake. Overwhelmed because I wanted to explore every narrow street, my legs couldn’t possibly keep up with my eyes.  When I sat at the bus stop to relax for a while I rested my weary legs, but not my eyes. They became lost on every kanji symbol in every sign. Nothing looked familiar, but without question, everything looked pretty exciting. Then,  I turned and noticed a bright rice field among the tiny houses. Behind the bars, a blurry Japan was waiting for my eyes to be sharp enough to understand.  Suddenly, a bug flew right in front of me and also tired of flying , it stopped for a rest. I laughed to myself. 

Twenty minutes by bus from Kansai Gaidai University is Nagao, a neighborhood of Hirakata City.  I am experiencing many interesting situations by living with a host family in Nagao. Catching the bus everyday gives me a good opportunity of observing people. Most prominently, I have noticed that frequently japanese people avoid sitting by my side as many of them do with foreigners. Of course it is understandable , because often foreigners can be louder and more noticeable than japanese people.But as I have been taking the bus regularly I am starting to recognize some fellow commuters and they are likewise recognizing me. I know this because their eyes don’t seem to stare at me as they did previously. Now I can notice more friendly body expressions every time I try to interact.The “new” provokes different reactions in different people. 

    One day, I was on the bus, concentrating on studying for a kanji test and suddenly I had my arm grabbed. It was an elderly man shaking me and pointing at my papers, trying to tell me something but I had no idea what. He kept repeating the words that each kanji represented waiting for my response. So, at that point, I realized that we were studying together!  He gave smiles back at every correct word repeated. This small gesture made me feel guilty for ever having judged  older japanese people as closed for foreigners.

   
 If you ever ridden a bus in Japan , you know how quiet, monotonous and predictable it is.  But sometimes particular situations arise and your ride can be very special.In another bus experience, along side of a  middle aged lady that I previously met,while we were  talking , she took a piece of bread out of her purse. I thought it was odd, because normally, “Japanese people” don’t eat inside of the bus.  She looked at me and asked: “did you know that is impolite to eat inside of the bus? “  And I answered ”yes” , but not quite understanding why she proceeded  to un-wrap her bread.  Then she replied: “but I cant help it, It tastes much more delicious inside of the bus”. That was a second slap on my face , but woke me up to the fact that before being Japanese, they are people, exactly like people anywhere else in the Planet.  This demonstrates that the rules of a whole country don’t necessarily match the wants of every individual. And we can not guess who people are by the rules they have.