Popular Culture at Night

It feels a little strange  writing about a city I only live in for a month. Since arriving at  Hirakata, I have seen so many interesting things but it still feels  like I haven’t seen half of it yet. Every day, I discover a new place or a new restaurant simply by wandering  in the street with my bicycle. At first, Hirakata seemed to be a very nice and quiet Japanese city with its temples and parks to be found hiding behind house or trees, but I soon discovered that a lot of young people live here. There are more than 14 000 students enrolled at Kansai Gaidai University. Although not everyone lives in Hirakata city, most students spend their day on  the campus or in Hirakata city before returning home. One late afternoon, as I was walking near Hirakata station, I came upon  some young people breakdancing and skateboarding near the station.  During the day, you can’t really tell this space would be used for this purpose because it is simply  a waiting area with shops on one  side but when the sun goes down and the shops are closed, teenagers will come here  to practice and show off their moves. A few days later, I met someone from Kansai Gaidai who sometimes goes there to practice  during  week nights. He is a member of the dance club at Kansai Gaidai. I asked him if it was OK for people to  skateboard there because in Canada, you would normally have to go to specific area to do skateboard. I wasn’t really surprised when he told me it was against the rules but that nobody would actually stop or arrest them.  The second or third time I went there to watch people practice, I saw a security guard walking near. He didn’t seem to care about what people were doing but he spoke with some skateboarders because they had installed  some cones to practice their jumps. I can’t really blame the security guard, I wouldn’t want to be the one having to tell them to go home.

Skateboard at Hirakata Station, 2010

I also think the population from Hirakata is now used to see teenagers  there at night. People from all ages were  simply passing by without really being concerned about it. Since I haven’t really been there on many  occasions, I can’t tell for sure if the population really doesn’t  care about a group of skateboarders taking over the space  or maybe  simply don’t want to  get involved.  Although some skateboarders were openly drinking beers in a public area, the security guard didn’t really do much to stop them. I don’t really like making assumptions but it seems that as long  as they didn’t hurt or bother other people, the security guard would  not interfere.

Breakdancer, HIrakata Station, 2010

I found this observation  very interesting. During the day, Hirakata seems like a very nice and quiet place with everybody acting very proper and following the rules, but at  night, those young people would meet there to practice and talk without really a care about those  around them. I was quite surprised when I discovered this. Back  in Canada, I really didn’t care that much about skateboarding and breakdancing. The truth is that I really didn’t see much of it. People usually have to go to designated skate parks to practice it so I didn’t  really have the chance to see them.  But now, I find it very interesting to see those young people assemble in a very public area,  basically take ownership of the place and do what they love without being concerned about the rules or  about other people.