"It has been reported that Tanuki fell from the sky using his scrotum as a parachute. " Tom Robbins

This opening line of Tom Robbin’s novel, Villa Incognito, doesn't specify where Tanuki landed, but this pot-bellied invasion hit Hirakata city hard.  I spent a lot of my first weeks in the neighborhood around the seminar houses wondering why the hell this big-balled canid was posted sentinel in front of hundreds of homes and shops.  It took some questioning and a little old fashion ググるing (Googling) to discover that, unlike the American ‘lawn gnome’ the tanoki isn’t popular for his good looks alone.  The tanuki, a wild badger-dog, is part of Japanese folklore.  He is depicted as a shape-shifting troublemaker, and was historically placed in front of Soba shops that sold tanuki soba noodles.  When I asked some Japanese students, they told me that tanuki is a symbol of luck.  However, like many cultural symbols, his image seems to have many meanings.  His image represents mischief, virility, and overindulgence on sake. A veritable shape-shifter, Tanuki is both comic and heralding, linked to the traditional and the commercial.

Of course, this is only one facet of neighborhood Hirakata.  It was difficult to narrow down my description of the area to a more intimate and individual experience in such a short period of time, so what I write now is still very much based off of first impressions. I can at least describe my neighborhood through individual experiences.

Early morning Ambassadors

To do any complex anthropological study of my neighborhood, I knew that I would have to speak to the people who lived there.  My challenge was to break through the barrier of language and wariness with the residents and shop owners around seminar house one.  I easily see 15 people on my way to and from school every morning, but there is no easy way to make strangers want to give you their time.  By the end of last week I was beginning to get desperate for a patient translator and the courage to politely harass strangers around my house when a man confronted me one morning, to my surprise, in French.  He told me that he always tried to greet gaijin in French, in case he got a response.  He had lived in Paris for four years for work, and now lived down the road.  Our ability to communicate in French was enough to hear his reasons for living in France, for work, and a bit of his life story, (although hardly enough for a personal narrative).

This was my first challenge dealing with visual anthropology ethics, but I explained to him the purpose of my blog first in French, and then translated in Japanese.  He was happy to take a picture with me, and took over the set up of the photo.  He explained that we would pose shaking hands- to show the relationship between Japan and France.  Through a series of chance and observation I am beginning to discover more about the area I live in.