Synapse to Synapse

A Hole To Nowhere

Once we arrived, my former roommate, Ryo-ichi, met us on the other side of customs, took our larger luggage, and showed us off to the J.R. line train that would take us into Osaka. The first 45 minutes or so of the trip into town felt like we were riding a ghost train, with a few odd people getting on and getting off as the conductor slurred name stops over the intercom and brilliant advertisements for anime films that I couldn’t begin to read swung softly from the fluorescent-lit ceiling. I was just about to wonder whether Japan’s reputation for being so crowded was vastly overrated when the mechanical doors slid open at Osaka Station and I experienced the crush of thousands of people trying to get onto a train that you are simultaneously trying to get off of.

From Osaka, we took another train to a suburb called Senrioka. Once arrived, we took our shoes off at the door, left our luggage downstairs and took a flight of very steep stairs up to the living-room level. My camera failed to do the stairs justice, but let’s just say that as you ascend, you can easily touch the stairs in front of you without having to bend your back. The house itself, however, was very nice, with wooden floors and a kerosene heater (there is usually no central heating in Japan) that warmed the house up veeery slowly. There was also a very nice traditional Japanese room with a tatami reed floor. That was the room I slept in. I went to sleep quickly, because by the time I went to bed, I had been awake for over 26 hours.

Saturday
I awoke to the strange sound of heavy panting and wood creaking and looked over to find Andy, our violinist, wide awake and doing push-ups at around 6 in the morning. My blurry eyes focused in on him in an awkward position, with his hands arched backwards and supported by the chair behind him. He was huffing and puffing and highly motivated. I rolled over and went back to sleep.

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Today was one of our free days, time taken out of our trip to rest and recuperate from all the traveling we've done. We decided to go visit Osaka Castle, which once was the seat of power for all of Japan during the Shogun Period. As such, it had been set on fire many times before eventually being burned to the ground and then finally rebuilt to its original proportions in 1931 by modern architects who had studied Shogun-era watercolors and diagrams in detail. (The fact that they were able to reconstruct it exactly to the original form certainly seems to say something for the abilities of ancient Japanese artists.) Although the building did suffer some damage after its reconstruction when Allied aircraft flew in to bomb the city during World War II, it has long since been repaired and stands as a beautiful relic of a time long since past. The stateliness of its design also seems to cast aspersions upon its more recently erected neighbors, a steel-and-glass assortment of skyscrapers and modern office buildings, none of which can rival Osaka-jo (as the locals call it) for its beauty and ingenuity.

The interior of the castle has been converted in recent times into a modern museum with typically Japanese high-tech animation and holographic videoscreens (the installation of which is highly controversial among the residents of Osaka). There are elevators (also controversial) to whisk visitors to the top floor, which is open around the perimeter and good for panoramic views of the city.

The area surrounding the castle is a large plaza-type area with all kinds of food vendors hawking takoyaki (fried batter encasing octopus meat), which is reputed to be an Osaka delicacy. There were some young workers on the plaza who were exhibiting a product that looked like some kind of cross between stilts and pogo sticks. The resulting invention allows people to bounce and jump along at about 3-4 ft. higher than they usually stand. The style of walking allowed by this invention looks pretty peculiar, since the curve of the “leg” is in the back rather than the front, which makes the walker look like a gazelle bounding across the African savannah.

I took a few pictures of the human gazelles before getting sneaky and playing the part of the innocent tourist, while I was secretly shooting a lot of good candids of passersby with my camera and a good use of its zoom lens. Thanks to team-leader Bob for showing me how to "click from the hip."

After I was done shooting photos, I noticed there were a lot of people looking down through a grate that covered what looked like an old well out in front of the castle. I walked over myself and peered into the hole. And saw nothing. I spent the rest of my time walking back and forth between the steps and the hole, trying to understand why everyone who entered the building was coming over to look into a seemingly empty grate. Was it a wishing well? An old dungeon? A tunnel to China? I guess I'll never know. I couldn't ask anyone and they wouldn't have understood me if I had. I wish I could have, though. Parents were holding their children up to the ledge, speaking soft Japanese words into their little ears.

"This is a very deep hole, Aka-chan. If you go all the way to the bottom and dig deep enough, it will take you all the way to America. Don't ever try to do that, though, Aka-chan. Gracious, we all know what they're like, don't we?"

Confused, I spent a few more minutes shooting pictures of all the onlookers before finally arriving at the conclusion that the whole thing was just a subtle form of peer pressure –- the mysterious power of seeing others doing something you haven’t yet done. After all, didn’t I just say that I did it, too? Several times? See, I must be right.

posted by John Adams @ 9:59 PM