FDOC 02-04-2026
Hello! This post is coming from the study lounge on the first floor of the Center for International Education on Kansai Gaidai's Nakamiya Campus. I just finished this week's Japanese homework and have some time before my next class, Culinary Tourism. This is my first semester with classes on 5 days in a long time and while they're all fun, handpicked classes, days are long. Luckily, so are the nights! This past weekend, some friends and I ventured to Osaka for a concert. Because the trains to and fro are out of operation from midnight to 5 AM, the night followed suit and we were out from 10 PM to around 6 or 7 in the morning. I always enjoy exploring new cities but doing so with a fun group of people is different than wandering the streets of Boston or New York City on my own. That's not to say I haven't had my share of self-exploration; I have been trying to get a feel for where I am in Hirakata by walking in different directions until I get tired and turn around. Of course, I do so safely and even though it is often dark, I have yet to feel unsafe or that I was in a place I should not be. Maybe that's just what they want me to think.
The presence of video games in culture here is something I am learning to appreciate, retro video game shops are similar to record stores in the US except instead of paying 45$ for Thriller and Father of the Bride, you can get a 2006 PSP console and several games (albiet in Japanese with no English option) for 4000 yen, or roughly 25$. I grew up with a Wii and Nintendo DS, transitioned to a PS4 in 8th grade, and have been absent from the video game space for quite some time after the feared 'blue light of death' appeared on my console rendering it useless. Because my PS4, and I, have been broke for quite some time, I have not been logging the dozens of hours alone on Minecraft and MLB The Show weekly that effectively shortened every day. That's not to say I don't miss playing Fortnite with my friends in the waning hours into the early mornings of each Covid night, it deserves credit for many of my closest relationships to this day, yet it's insane how much time I spent pushing buttons to beat the computer in a baseball game or creating a middle linebacker with the name of a teacher and a resemblance to Ray Lewis.
I am not at all regretful of this time, even if it was 'wasted', because it really wasn't. I love interacting with all sorts of media; watching movies, reading books, watching more movies, I think it is the first thing that someone should know about me. Actually the first thing should be that I can dunk a basketball, my affinity for media of all kinds is a close second. Because these things; making movies, writing books, coding video games, beat-reporting news are difficult, they take skill to do. By interacting with as many of these, as unique and different as possible, you gather something every second. Everybody has their niche interests, and discovering what that is parlayed with what one is good at sharpens all of the important tools in the toolbox. Even if I am watching a movie about something I could not care less about, gangsters and a boxer and a hit man duo, or a 1970's summer with shark attacks in an affluent beach town, I am equally awed by Pulp Fiction and Jaws as I am Moneyball. I think that is one of the cooler things I have come to appreciate since starting college where everybody is there for a reason, completely different than mine, yet not really. Everyone is doing their best to devote their life to something that they think is awesome, even if someone's idea of awesome is Russian Literature or Physics (I guess), they think about that thing the same way I think about baseball. Hopefully we soon live in a world where everybody worships Shohei Ohtani and Felix Bautista and Gunnar Henderson and Manny Machado, but if not that's cool too! More for me!
Attached are some pictures from my treks throughout Hirakata, including a concert in Osaka and some more really good food. The issue with the member sign-up button not working should be resolved, by signing up you get notified when a new post comes out. Thank you for reading.
Oliver
