What you don’t expect in Japan…

Probably like most people I view Japan as a well developed first world country. And don’t get me wrong, it is. However yesterday a friend of mine drove me through Nishinari. Nishinari is a ward (subdivision of the city) south from Namba in Osaka. So have you ever heard about the therm yakuza? The Japanese mafia? This is where they are based. Well, that there was yakuza in Osaka wasn’t a surprise to me. However finding out that there is a slum 5km south from my house was a surprise.

It isn’t like the slums I have seen in India, but it are definitely people living in self-made shacks in a park. Most of the people that live there are day-laborers that can’t get a job at the moment. Nishinari is were most of the day-laborers of Japan live. Sometimes they can afford to live in flophouse, but because the construction business is not the best at the moment most of them can’t afford this anymore. So they build there own homes.

Apparently Nishinari is host to 60 different yakuza groups and the biggest brothel district of Japan. Amidst all this there is a
real grindhouse cinema called the Tobita cinema. It is open 7 days a week, from 9 a.m. in the morning until 5 a.m. the next day. You can buy a ticket for 800 yen (6 euro) and watch 3 movies, straight. You can imagine a lot of day workers use the cinema as a place to sleep. And from what I’ve heard it is a place for gay men to meet other gay men.

Like I mentioned before, I don’t associate a “western” country with slums. However an American friend of mine told me today that San Francisco actually has slums as well. He wasn’t to surprised when I told him that Osaka has a ward like this. Maybe it is just because I’m Dutch this shocks me. If I would start camping in a park in Utrecht, I would be kicked out of there before sunset.

Although it rarely appears on tourist maps, Nishinari has recently become a tourist attraction and actually has some good restaurants. Some where next week I’ll visit this ward properly and give you another update! Probably I’m going to have a nice dinner, visit the Japanese hookers and finish the day with a movie.

This weekend I’m going to Hiroshima with my exchange program. I don’t know how that will make me feel like yet.