"Half the fun of the travel is the esthetic of lostness." ~Ray Bradbury

 A few weeks ago, I moved from the seminar houses into an apartment.  I thought that this would be a good opportunity to put up an addendum to my last 'neighborhood post,' which I admit, which I used for a rather prolonged Tanuki rant.  Hopefully, here is a more methodological way to represent my neighborhood- outlined by our class readings of Ted Bestor.  Its interesting to see which method has worked best so far...

“Mapping the Scene”

To me, this took to be wandering aimlessly down the web of dangerously narrow streets behind our apartment block.  My apartment is located off of a main road, but much more interesting than the neighboring chain restaurants and parking lots is the mess of residential streets.  In an attempt to find a shortcut to the seminar houses, I have gotten quite impressively lost here.  This has given me a chance to get at least a superficial feel for my makeup of my neighborhood.

You can tell quite a bit from the size and design of houses, and the disrepair in my immediate area is telling.  I know for certain that most of the buildings surrounding mine are rented to other international students, which is often means a cheap steal. One of the first things most of my friends mentioned coming to my apartment was how humble the area was.  The house next to mine has a gaping hole in the front wall that reveals a spine of rotting boards.  The next question then, is usually about safety.  But, I have never really considered it to be a problem.  Initially this was simply because I am living in Japan, but I am beginning to get the feel for my small neighborhood.  I recently discovered my proximity to the elementary school, which may explain the number for young children who walk by my house every day.  

From what I have seen so far, almost all of my neighbors are students or families, which gives me the feeling of a very small community.  

“Studying Labels”

As we discussed in class, this is a challenging endeavor when one has a limited ability to read Kanji.  However, labels aren’t always written.  A lot of ‘reading’ is interpretation of surroundings. 

I may not be able to be able to tell 人(person) from 入(enter)  on a good day, but I do recognize the Real Estate signs that are dotted around many of the houses in the area.  I know for certain that over the past weeks since the earthquake, many international students have been moving in and out of the surrounding apartments.  And from all of the real estate signs, I can deduce that the rest of the neighborhood is in a similar state of change.

“Cueing up conversations”

So far I haven’t succeeded engaging my neighbors in much more than small talk; things about laundry, weather, why I’m asleep in the sunny parking lot behind my house, (apparently not done in Japan, especially when you are in someone’s parking space).  But when it comes down to it, so far, I have been most successful in Bestor's spirit of networking; taking advantage of both encounters established by chance and by effort.  My landlady has been the best source of prolonged information.  She tells me about the flux of international students who have rotated through her houses and apartments for tens of years.  She also has given me a window into her life, which I hope will allow for a more formal interview in the future.  She drops in (mostly unannounced) a few times a week to check in, and often stays to talk.  Although she doesn’t speak English, we can communicate enough to understand each other on a basic level and I am finding our brief conversations to be one of the best sources of japanese practice.  

And then, perhaps one of my favorite methods of networking so far in Japan- chance.  It has opened up doors to late night pizza delivery, unexpected french exchanges, and most recently... an invitation to watch an Aikido practice.  As I was headed to class the other day, the men who pick up our garbage stopped the truck and confronted me.   Orientation was successful in scaring me- I knew that they had caught me for not sorting my trash, and I was probably going to get an early field-trip to Japanese prison.  Instead they handed me a pamphlet to an Aikido school and asked me to encourage other international students to come watch the practices.  This could be an opportunity for an adventure, and maybe another blog post...

Headers from:

Bestor, T.C., P.G Steinhoff and V.C. Bestor, phd.  2003 Doing Feildwork in Japan.  Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press.  p. 315-334