It took me a while to think through what I wanted to give attention to in this blog post.  Obviously, since we're all living in Hirakata City, there would be no point in me doing any silly city spread photos, as we all know what the city looks like.  Although, the view from the ceramics studio is really amazing, and if you haven't seen it, I recommend it.

I've found a website, actually, for Hirakata city, entirely in English and it looks like it's meant to be used for people moving permanently to Hirakata.  Linky thingy here:

http://www.city.hirakata.osaka.jp/freepage/gyousei/hpcontent/eng/index.html

This site has quite a bit of useful info, although when I was trying to find out where a movie theatre might be located, it was less than helpful.

Instead of focusing on what the city physically looks like, though, I'd rather talk about what cool things you can DO in Hirakata City.

I'll start with the area right behind Seminar House 4.  Did you know there's a Kofun-era tomb there?  Most of the locals won't walk on it, because it's a lonely area, but the area is wooded and peaceful, as shown below:



Yes, that's me.  I suppose I'm not being a very good anthropologist, sticking myself in pictures like that.  What surprised me most when we walked up there was that someone had left a scroll in the area underneath which the king (or whoever) would have lain.  I really wanted to know why someone would do that, but I have no explanation.

So, I recommend a visit to this little area.  There was even a sign next to the tomb, and I took a picture in the hopes of being able to read some of it.



So, besides the history of the area in which we live (for there are also several temples and similar things in the area...and I want to get to them when the weather gets warmer) what else is there to do?

Well, for one thing...karaoke adventures!

My friends and I had heard that Hirakata shi station area had several good karaoke bars.  So, Saturday night we all took the bus there to see if we could find them.  We did find one, but it turned out to be...very interesting!



This one-room karaoke bar was in the basement of a pachinko parlor, and was populated by the proprietress and three drunk old men.  The old men bought us (there were four of us) drinks and chatted with us in a mixture of English and Japanese (mostly Japanese) and while we were still in shell-shock trying to figure out what to sing (there were NO English songs!) these men (called our 'ojiisan' by the owner) paid for an hour's worth of karaoke for us.

All in all, it was fantastic!

I suppose my conclusion would be that Hirakata city, though small, really does have a few interesting place to go and visit.  I also have a small list of shops around the city station area that I would recommend:

Mister Doughnuts (the bitter chocolate rich doughnut is wonderful)

BookOff (your one-stop-shopping for cheap manga and discount CDs)

Vivre (which apparently has been going out of business for the last half-year.  I recommend the socks...I now have pink panda socks)

I guess that wraps up this post.  But I'll stick a link in for a very funny site that explains in greater detail the concept of Engrish:  http://www.engrish.com/faq.php  If you study Chinese as well, I highly suggest looking at the Chinglish/Qinglish section of this webpage.

OH!  I almost forgot!  If you don't want to do any of the above activities, you could always go shopping for ultra-kawaii products!  (Found at Vivre)



Or...



See what I mean?  Pink panda socks.

 

Tags: books, cds, history, karaoke, kofun, sight-seeing
Current Mood: amused