But this neighborhood isn’t just about convenience but also safety. There are safety signs almost everywhere—from speed limit to warnings about drowning in the river. They’re all indicators of how a person can contribute to helping the community by following the signs.
While web-surfing, I stumbled upon a unique website about “thE qUirKY jaPan.” The author of this website has an interesting post about “useless people” in Japan—which are people holding unproductive jobs—and I found two of the jobs that fit the description here in Hirakata: the crossing guard and the University gate guard. Coming from the author’s point-of-view I can understand that these jobs aren’t beneficial to the economy and we can go on with our days like every day without someone waving and greeting us, and cars can enter and leave the Komat’su parking lot without any help from guards, but they are not entirely “useless”. Aside from following the job description, every now and then these guards become a 3-seconds photographer.
As an outsider with few words I can only cover the surface of this neighborhood while the heart of Hirakata is left untouched. But even with a million words, the heart is meant to be felt not described.