Day 1- arrival

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Arrive in Osaka Japan. One grimy industrial city. People ride bikes along the footpath, helmetless and on both sides of the street. Pedestrians walk on both sides also, and many of the roads dont even have footpaths! cars kind of weave their way through the middle. I wonder at the rate of accidents. For lunch I buy sushi from the local supermarket and some green looking rice ..somethings. The checkout girls talk non stop to you (I think they say things like how much the item is, how grateful they are for you to shop there) and I have to put my money in a container. The sush is really good though, equal to the best sushi I have had back in Perth, even if it isnt fresh, and it was vegetarian too.

The weather is cold and rainy and I'm glad I packed my trenchcoat. We walk to the train station later in the rain and a monk lends us an umbrella. In the central city, I visit Yodabashi, a nine level electronics store. Love at first sight. I could blow $1000 here easily.



On the walk home we give back the umbrella the monk lent us. Here is a pic of me freezing at the shrine there.



We go back to Chris's brothers place, where we are staying. It has the standard sliding doors and tatami matting on the bedroom floors. And we sleep on futons. It seems kind of cramped by western standards, but I assume its quite a spacious place for the Japanese, seeing as it was built to house the principal and his family of the school David works at.

First impressions of day 1: train system is confusing and complicated, with many train lines, subways, buses. Food is cheap and tastes great. There are not many westerners, and the Japanese arent used to seeing them considering the stares I get.

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