When I was in Tokyo for Golden Week I visited several districts.  Shibuya, Shinjuku, Harajuku and other famous areas I was able to explore and see what Tokyo had to offer.  One district I personally had a lot of fun at was Akihabara.  Of course this is known by some as the otaku capital of the world, however I was curious to see if this was actually the case.  To my great surprise, it was exactly what I expected it to be.  People looking in shops that were plastered with pictures of AKB-48 members, talking to their friends or themselves about how cute they looked in their school girl uniforms.  The streets lined up with young looking women dressed in maid costumes beckoning people into their café.  I had always had a stereotype that maid cafes were visited by creepy otaku Japanese guys to be served by young girls dressed in reveling maid costumes in a completely sexualized atmosphere.  In order to confirm my suspicions I decided to try one out. 

 When I walked in I was greeted with the usual “welcome back master” and was showed to a seat at the bar.  Looking around, I saw young girls dressed in maid costumes and middle aged men sitting at tables clutching their newly bought manga of some sort.  At this moment I realized that I was the only girl customer in the entire café and immediately ordered a beer.  The maid washed my hands for me with a cloth and brought me my beer.  Relaxing slightly, I began to listen to the conversations around me.  To my great and utter surprise they were completely innocent conversations.  Of course somewhat socially awkward in their execution however, just a normal conversation talking about their favorite anime characters or problems that they were having at work.  It actually caught me off guard.  The innocence of the actions around me was almost appalling.  By ordering anything at the bar you could play one game with one of the maids. When one said game, I was almost afraid to see what the game was. But when I asked to play I was showed a list of games that consisted of Jenga, Uno and several other board games.  I wondered to myself how can something that I expected to be so sexualized be so innocent.  However because of this experience I was able to realize that maid cafes are made for people who are not respected in society, who do not have people to listen to their conversations about anime and games.  I could almost say that I felt as though this sort of place was not a bad thing but something good to help these people feel respected and encourage them to talk and engage in other people.  All in all it was a good experience. 

What do Japanese people do?  Of course they do a lot of different things.  They cook different foods, they work different jobs and they practice different religions.  However regardless of the age, type of person or upbringing, Japanese people love sports.  Soccer, Baseball, Rugby, even Ultimate Frisbee; the collective exciting atmosphere really appeals to the Japanese.  In general they also love outdoor activities, especially hiking.  Japan, being a mountainous region allows for a large range of different hiking areas and trails.  In general the Japanese find the mountains to be somewhat of a tranquil place, untouched by society. Therefore, we can assume that Japanese people spend time in the mountains to get away, to think, or to take a break from the stressful life that takes place in the cities below.  Coming from a region that has no mountains at all, hiking was also a personal first for me.  I was always curious why people, especially my Japanese friends love to do it so I decided to try it out myself. 

A friend and I had decided to go to Hoshi no Buranko, a local hiking spot that is about a 30 minute train ride away from Hirakata station.  Upon arriving to the entrance to the trail leading into the mountain, I was surprised of range of different people that had decided to go hiking that day. There were the people that I had expected to be there, the people with the full hiking getup who looked like they were a cutout from a magazine.  However there were also families with babies and children, groups of college guys just having a guy’s day out and even the couple on their Sunday date.  What really got me was the girl was wearing heals even for a hiking date, which I personally could not help respecting because the terrain was not smooth when winding up the mountain. 

I suppose what was the most famous part of this trail was the large bridge that connected the tops of two small mountains.  Standing on it was definitely pretty and as for the couple that strayed behind I suppose that was the goal of their date.  Continuing on with the trail we reached the top of the mountain and had a perfect view of Hirakata and some of Kyoto.  All and all I was not only able to see the different types of people that participate in hiking, but discover for myself why Japanese people consider the mountains to be such an important part of their culture.