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you got me hey, hey, spinning around
Jul. 7th, 2008 11:32 pmSo, today is Tanabata. I realized it when the wallpaper of my keitai changed to commemorate the event. I asked around my school today and found out that it used to be common to write your wishes on pieces of paper and hang them from bamboo today; I don't have any proper pieces of paper and I'm allergic to real bamboo, but I am definitely holding a wish in my heart.
What is your Tanabata wish?
So, my apartment is less than a minute away from Daikokucho station, on the red line of the Osaka City Subway. But it's also about ten, fifteen minutes (depending on your shoes and traffic) from Namba, which is home to just about every possible train service in Osaka (excluding the Hankyu, Hanshin, and -- most noticeably -- the JR Shinkansen.) I am cheap, so I have a habit of walking to and from Namba instead of taking the subway to Namba station whenever I have to travel in that direction, which means that I'm very well acquainted with the walk there and back.
It is the walk back that is most striking for me. I almost always walk home at night, since my shifts usually end around 9:30. I think, if I had two days to show somebody Osaka City, I would take one day to show them all the awesome, touristy things -- the huge shopping arcades, the Glico Man, the Sky Tower, whatever else Osaka is actually famous for -- and then I would take one day to just show them the rest of the city, where the glamor fades away but not the glitz.
It's often remarked, especially on the Internet, that Japanese pornography is, well, weird. And it is. But for some reason, whenever I walk home from Namba, I can entirely understand exactly where the specific kinks the Japanese are famous (infamous?) come from. I can't explain very well, but there is something about city culture in Osaka (at least, southern Osaka) that just oozes the desire for lack of consent and extreme power dynamics.
Daikokucho is... well, it's not quite a slum, but it is very close to areas that I would consider slums. I often hear people making fun of the desire for Japan to have their own brand of hip-hop, citing the idea that Japanese people, with their robots and anime and space age technology (never mind that the space age is over) have no need for hip-hop. There can be no authenticity in Japanese hip-hop, people feel.
But Japan isn't one big suburban paradise. And the massive cities aren't entirely wealthy, healthy metropolises. There are a lot of places with a lot of problems in Japan. Daikokucho isn't one, but it's close. The southern edge of Daikokucho qualifies, in my opinion. Shin-Imamiya definitely qualities. Parts of Tennoji would shut the optimistic cynics up immediately.
Let me take you to my neighborhood.
( Welcome to Minami. )
Today I became a real teacher since I mercilessly teased two obnoxious boys in my Junior High class.
I will save the long story for another time, but there were two real obnoxious boys in the class I was covering today, and they would not shut up or stay on topic. So, instead of passively taking it, I just kept jumping into their shit, and I broke Crucial Rule of my Workplace by responding to a comment they made about me in their thick Osaka-ben in even thicker Kawachi-ben.
The looks on their faces were just priceless; they can tell my SD if they want, I would defend my decision to the end of my life, ahaha.
On a funny note, though, one of the vocab words was "lead refills" which, of course, one girl pronounced "RIIDO refills," prompting Obnoxious Boy #2 to start singing TE NO HIRA WO TAIYOU NI by, uh, Lead.
He was on my nerves, so I embarrassed him by singing the song loudly over him.
OH GOD THE LOOK ON HIS FACE WAS SO PRICELESS. I wish you could have all been there.
Okay, now I need a shower. Long post is long! And boring.
What is your Tanabata wish?
So, my apartment is less than a minute away from Daikokucho station, on the red line of the Osaka City Subway. But it's also about ten, fifteen minutes (depending on your shoes and traffic) from Namba, which is home to just about every possible train service in Osaka (excluding the Hankyu, Hanshin, and -- most noticeably -- the JR Shinkansen.) I am cheap, so I have a habit of walking to and from Namba instead of taking the subway to Namba station whenever I have to travel in that direction, which means that I'm very well acquainted with the walk there and back.
It is the walk back that is most striking for me. I almost always walk home at night, since my shifts usually end around 9:30. I think, if I had two days to show somebody Osaka City, I would take one day to show them all the awesome, touristy things -- the huge shopping arcades, the Glico Man, the Sky Tower, whatever else Osaka is actually famous for -- and then I would take one day to just show them the rest of the city, where the glamor fades away but not the glitz.
It's often remarked, especially on the Internet, that Japanese pornography is, well, weird. And it is. But for some reason, whenever I walk home from Namba, I can entirely understand exactly where the specific kinks the Japanese are famous (infamous?) come from. I can't explain very well, but there is something about city culture in Osaka (at least, southern Osaka) that just oozes the desire for lack of consent and extreme power dynamics.
Daikokucho is... well, it's not quite a slum, but it is very close to areas that I would consider slums. I often hear people making fun of the desire for Japan to have their own brand of hip-hop, citing the idea that Japanese people, with their robots and anime and space age technology (never mind that the space age is over) have no need for hip-hop. There can be no authenticity in Japanese hip-hop, people feel.
But Japan isn't one big suburban paradise. And the massive cities aren't entirely wealthy, healthy metropolises. There are a lot of places with a lot of problems in Japan. Daikokucho isn't one, but it's close. The southern edge of Daikokucho qualifies, in my opinion. Shin-Imamiya definitely qualities. Parts of Tennoji would shut the optimistic cynics up immediately.
Let me take you to my neighborhood.
( Welcome to Minami. )
Today I became a real teacher since I mercilessly teased two obnoxious boys in my Junior High class.
I will save the long story for another time, but there were two real obnoxious boys in the class I was covering today, and they would not shut up or stay on topic. So, instead of passively taking it, I just kept jumping into their shit, and I broke Crucial Rule of my Workplace by responding to a comment they made about me in their thick Osaka-ben in even thicker Kawachi-ben.
The looks on their faces were just priceless; they can tell my SD if they want, I would defend my decision to the end of my life, ahaha.
On a funny note, though, one of the vocab words was "lead refills" which, of course, one girl pronounced "RIIDO refills," prompting Obnoxious Boy #2 to start singing TE NO HIRA WO TAIYOU NI by, uh, Lead.
He was on my nerves, so I embarrassed him by singing the song loudly over him.
OH GOD THE LOOK ON HIS FACE WAS SO PRICELESS. I wish you could have all been there.
Okay, now I need a shower. Long post is long! And boring.
