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My home
June 27, 2005
About my home
I live in the countryside. At first glance, my section of Minami-arupusu shi (South-alps city) looks a lot like a full sized city. After living here a few months I started to realize that my section of town is basically composed the intersection of Route 52 and Route 52 (This is not a typo, either they are two separate roads and or the Japanese road engineers have found a way to warp the very fabric of space itself!) On either side of the road(s?) are buildings. Beyond that save maybe a block or two is really nothing but farms. Now add the Japanese south-alps along the western boarder and Minami-alps city bears a striking and somewhat eerie resemblance to 'South Park.'
Located on the western edge of the Kofu basin,
Minami-Alps city was formed in April 2003 as a result of the merging of several smaller towns, villages, and yes, even a few mountains. (A point of pride, the second highest peak in all of Japan is technically in Minami-alps city.)
There have been people here for thousands of years. A friend of mine is an archeologist and showed me a map of Archeological discoveries in the area. He pointed out that the large clusters of sites are where they've been building the expressway. Other sites are from general construction. In short, dig a wide enough hole, and odds are your going to find something.
Much as one would expect in any small town, people tend to know and/or be related to a lot of other people in the area. (Just keep in mind that unlike America, many of the residents are descended from people who've been here for hundreds, if not thousands of years.) The result of these small towns is that people tend to know each other. I can't tell you the amount of times we'd be driving by a local restaurant and my girlfriend would mention she knows someone or knows someone who knows someone that works or worked there. This weekend, I pointed out a restaurant that I had been thinking of checking out and she said it was her Aunt's! Sadly, no luck on her being related to the owners my favorite local Yakitori joints. (Sigh.)
Of course with stationary populations and thousands of years to kill, it starts to get difficult to find someone who you're not related to. Hence over time, a little unintentional inbreeding is inevitable. I know several people with a skin disease that's a result of too much convergence in their family trees. (With that said, I can't stop thinking about an observation my father had involving my college girlfriend's last name that made Tay-Sachs act up.)
I don't want you to think I'm making fun of these people, more joking about the conditions they have had to deal with. Plenty of cultures have similar issues (hence my tay-sachs remark.)
I do want to say something about the people themselves. When it comes to the overlying personaliies of the average person, there is really only one thing I can think about saying; Never have I met kinder people in my life as I have here. The hospitality of these people is second to none!
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