A young man plays a song about the weather on the bridge over the roads separating JR Tennoji Station and Kintetsu Abenobashi.
There are a lot of things I love about Japan. I love the language, I love the food, I love the karaoke booths and I love the fashion, for starters. But one of the things I love so dearly about Japan, especially the area I live in, is the vast number of street performers. If you walk around southern Osaka city, especially the area around Tennoji Station, you're bound to walk past at least a half dozen wannabe pop stars, all playing their acoustic guitars and wailing out songs about unrequited love, or, as the man in this picture was, the cold weather.
"It's cold," he sang to his audience of high school girls. "It's cold, and I want it to be warm."
We've all heard about people going to Tokyo for a chance to make it. It's the Subcultural Japanese Dream; it's heading to New York to be an actress, or to Los Angeles. But I think it takes a special breed of person to chase their dreams of stardom in Osaka.
Or, at the very least, a poorer breed of person, one who can't afford Tokyo's sky-high rent.
I like these guys. So much of Japanese culture has a (well-earned) reputation for being strict and orderly. I enjoy seeing people, for better or for worse, out on overpasses and in front of train stations, breaking the standard operating mode of society with their creative enthusiasm.
It's cold, it's cold. I want it to be warm.
"It's cold," he sang to his audience of high school girls. "It's cold, and I want it to be warm."
We've all heard about people going to Tokyo for a chance to make it. It's the Subcultural Japanese Dream; it's heading to New York to be an actress, or to Los Angeles. But I think it takes a special breed of person to chase their dreams of stardom in Osaka.
Or, at the very least, a poorer breed of person, one who can't afford Tokyo's sky-high rent.
I like these guys. So much of Japanese culture has a (well-earned) reputation for being strict and orderly. I enjoy seeing people, for better or for worse, out on overpasses and in front of train stations, breaking the standard operating mode of society with their creative enthusiasm.
It's cold, it's cold. I want it to be warm.
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