It's hard for an outsider to know much about a neighborhood, even if they happen to live there. Not being familiar with how Japanese neighborhoods are marked, I did not even know the name of my new neighborhood until I asked my host mother about it. She told me that the neighborhood is called 田口 (Taguchi), which I now realize should have been obvious given the fact that there are signs saying just that on almost every street corner in the area.
This one is on the corner of the street I now live on. I have passed by it every day since I got here but somehow didn't realize what it meant. There are so many signs scattered all over Hirakata that it's hard to pay attention to them all, and though I remember looking at this one and wondering what it meant, there were always other signs for me to wonder about so I never paid particular notice to it, until I found out from my host mother that 田口 is the name of my new neighborhood.
While I was talking to my host mother, I also asked her about the rice fields I have seen around 田口 and all over Hirakata. There are a good number of them and -- though they are not large for rice fields -- they take up quite a bit of space in such a compact city.
She seemed a little surprised that I would ask, but told me all about how much work goes into taking care of rice plants and how they grow for 6 months and must have the correct amount of water the entire time. It was hard to tell if she was impressed by the rice growers or thought they were foolish as she told me that she could never take care of rice because it is too much work.
She seemed a little surprised that I would ask, but told me all about how much work goes into taking care of rice plants and how they grow for 6 months and must have the correct amount of water the entire time. It was hard to tell if she was impressed by the rice growers or thought they were foolish as she told me that she could never take care of rice because it is too much work.
When I asked if they grow the rice to sell it, my host mother nodded, but then immediately started telling me about how rice is very precious and that's why they work so hard to take care of it. She told me that rice is very important to Japanese people, and that long ago they would always eat all the rice they were given, and leave no rice in their bowls. Maybe that's not strictly true, but it does show something about how my host mother sees rice. I don't know if the people who actually grow the rice feel that way, but I think in some way my host mother thinks it is important to keep growing rice in her neighborhood, not for the money, or so they can eat it but because rice is "very precious."
Host mothers are a wealth of information for visual anthropologists. I might like to read about the people in your neighborhood who grow rice.
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