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In the city
Osaka Metropolitan Chikatetsu (So you know, this blog is about 6 months backdated to last summer. Aso the photos were all taken by ethans far skilled hand and so thanks buddy!!)
Osaka
It’s a sprawling beast of a city to be sure, and although it will live forever in the shadow of Tokyo, I have always rooted for the underdog and was looking forward to heading off for a three week shock to the system in Japans most lively city.
After near enough 1 year living in the super inaka of the south of Japan, where you can find yourself without traffic noise or people almost everyday, going from 2000 to 10 million was, well, different.
However, every journey has a purpose and buried at the bottom of this 3 week splurge was a intensive, Japanese course, which has proven well worth its while in both Japanese acquisition, and escaping the countryside.
Having found a suitable base in the form of the Banana House in far away suburban Nakamozu.
These are somewhere between a hostel and an apartment, and have been created with the intention of providing long term accommodation for people looking for work and working in
Three Amigos
Ethan, Dave, Chaz Japan. Also, housing is a very hard nut to crack in Japan and still uses such as key money (massive sums of money in the thousands that is presented to the landlord at the beginning of the stay and never seen again, I can think of 2 words for that) and general hassles.
After catching the overnight ferry, I decided that things were running far too smoothly to be comfortable, so I decided to lose my wallet on the first night - nice.
After 2 days of searching the hallways and being depressed I decided that due to the fact tha we were in Japan and no-one had handed it in and also that these Gaijin Houses seem to attract a breed of loser the like of which had never seen before (I.e. the guy who had lived there for 13 years, gaining rather a lot of wait and was in all day everyday with little sign of work - to general kind of hostess hunting Kiwi weirdoes - to guys who possibly could not afford the ticket home) I decided to head to a Japanese police station to demand some answers as to whether they were going
Twist that steak
Charging out the Japanese barbeque at the fireworks. to call in the feds on this one and ho long it would take to interview everyone in Nakamozu district. I was happy in the mind that being in Japan, heads would roll and that the criminal would confess out of shear terror of being hounded to the ends of the earths in Osaka’s biggest crime of the century.
No such luck as, police seem to be just the same here as anywhere else. I interrupted the entire office eating some sort of cake in the backroom, and after a hour of looking at me like ‘like what the hell do you want me to do about it?’ and practicing her English, whilst here chief tried to set her up on a date with me (she…no boyfriend…..knows judo!....huh, huh??? Daito wa?!?!?...hahahah…) I decided that I had better make the horrible number of phone calls to card companies world wide and consulates etc. Balls.
Top cut a long story short my wallet turned up a week later, and I am still not sure where it was or how I got it back but,I was very relieved but I had cancelled a lot of the more important cards. Lets just say
Japan wasn’t on my side for the first week of my little excursion and when it decided to get back on my side it was decidedly too late, but either way a lesson in there somewhere that I haven’t really learnt at all over the last 10 years or so.
AAAAAAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway, the class consisted of an array of nationalities all of which for some reason or another had decided to brush on there Japanese. It certainly is interesting to see the people who end up here and why but safe tp say they were all pretty descent people and we all ended up getting along great.
During the time in Osaka I did all those things that I could only dream of on my island, like eating out, eating out and eating out. Along with some going to the movies, and clubs etc.
Often, when you are sitting alone on that little island, having cook yet another half arsed meal, and maybe afterwards wandering down to the sea to drink a beer with no-one, the dreams of the city become almost unbearably vivid and the idea of sitting down with people, drinking the night away and then on
to a restaurant, then to a club, only to return home at 8 the next day with a cheeky smile on you face, seem to be the greatest things in the world.
But as with my short skirt in Matsuyama a few months back, I returned to my quiet paradise island with the same feeling as before, that I live somewhere truly unique and all the high rises, capsule hotels, pachinko parlous, all night karaoke and beer vending machines in the world, can’t compare to the slow, content life of the Inland Sea.
You cannot not build these places, develop them, invest and hope they appear. They come from the one thing that Japanese are not very good at, leaving things as they are.
Long after I have gone, my supervisor will still sit in her office talking about high school baseball, the various islanders will talk about what they have caught over the weekend and the tanoy will still ring out the Go tournaments in the Hoken centre.
Just as traveling to Japan has made me appreciate my own roots, going to Osaka made me appreciate my Japanese home.
The city life in Osaka, was not
PL Fireworks Display
Biggest dispplay in Japan, Osaka suburbs. much unlike that of my life in London, I get up, I get a train, I stand all the way, I sweat, I work, I pass the time making jokes, I finish, I eat out, I drink, I go home, I do it again.
I love this life,the only problem is that a lot of time can pass you by and you realize you remember very little of it, and that is not because you were blind drunk, but because you need those strange, interesting, unique experiences to stand in you mind, or life can literally slip you by and you been very happy and very comfortable for a long time but you not really sure why or what you’ve done. Coming here was the first step in trying to change things and so far it has worked, I now feel I want to try new things and succeed as much as fail, but rather one than the other. As a year passed in Japan whilst I was in Osaka I had lot of food for thought and I think that being away form the island for a while gave me time to think.
Over the next year I while
Bustling
Busking? try and get a few more thing I have wanted to do before I move on, but I think having some time to sample the city life again has made me realize that I have a once in a life time opportunity that very few people get the opportunity to experience, and that I need to stressed much self out in trying to make the most of every opportunity, nor to sit back and feel I am missing out on things going on in other places, it is simply to enjoy what I have for a little longer and then leave with a few memories.
But as you can see I spend a lot of time thinking in Osaka, and have said little of the place. Go there and see for yourself, its not going anywhere.
I love and hate the city but overall, I think that it was a great experience and definitely cool place to spend time.
But of the highlights in an overall very enjoyable, needed break, were a large number fireworks displays, meeting some cool guys in Osaka and partying with them, our teacher who turned out be a good drinking
Smell the grass
A rare spectacul in japan, that attracted many people to come over see. buddy also as well as a lots of other funny nights out that I have forgotten, of course.
Along with this I made a few friends at the school who I will hopefully keep in touch with.
Anyway, again, best told in Pictures
Bye
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