Where Everybody's Crazy

I live in Kansai, which is geographically the west of Japan. It may be geographically the west, but culturally, it's very much the North. As the Doctor put it, lots of planets have a North. Kansai is in the North.

We know what the North means. People in the North are more friendly, and more relaxed. Dialects are thicker and people are more proud of them; precise language and the strict rules of politeness are less important. And your beer gets topped up with several inches of head.

People appear more friendly in the North, but actually are more reserved about their family life and what they really feel. It's much more of a rural, closed community, although more of a welcoming one than the cold, individual South.

I enjoyed living in the South of England, but I'm really a Northerner, even if the cultural North of Japan is in the west; it's in my blood. It's a harder community to get into, but a much warmer one once you're on the inside.