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Bicycle exporation
Out on the town with the bright lights of Namba! I am writing this entry sitting in my hotel foyer after my first day of teaching. After coming all this way, today is officially my first day where I made more money than I have spent since leaving NZ! Now to the story of humble beginnings in the Land of the Rising Sun.
I will start off with 10 not so PC observations about Japan:
1. The Japanese love paper work - it took me 3hours to sign up for a cell phone
2. The cheapest cell phone has a 2MP camera on it
3. Two onsens daily is now part of my routine and cleanses the soul
4. The girls where ridiculous mismatching clothes with mid thigh stockings with mini skirts??
5. The girls all walk pigeon toed
6. The boys spend hours on their hair and look like Dragon Ball Z characters
7. Japanese people say excuse me even when you almost knock them over on your bicycle
8. Raising your fingers in a V formation during photos is mandatory
9. Sleeping on futons is actually ok
10. Eating cereal with chopsticks every morning is actually ok (I have not invested in a spoon yet)
Osaka vegas
The busy paedestrian streets Leon and I arrived after our flight ordeal, several hours later. However, spirits were high. We had pocketed $200 in cold hard cash for being late to our plane. So arriving to the hotel at 9pm was no biggy.
However, the night before took its toll, so we both crashed hard in our little shoe box rooms in the South of Osaka.
The following day we both spent several hours on the internet applying for as many jobs as we could click on. The other achievement was acquiring JAG -my fantastic bicycle and soul means of transport.
JAG is equiped with the following:
1 x front mounted mesh basket - for carrying home my knitting
1 x bell - very important when gliding through foot traffic.
Dynamo/ light - for night cruising and being seen
1 x lock - there are 2 things that are not sacred in Japan. Bikes and umbrellas.
2 x wheels, black, round and rubbery
1 x 80s style kick stand
1 x Jaguar sponsored tan coloured seat
She is beautiful and so smooth to ride.
Highlights with JAG include getting lost on an overbridge, going down an esculator with
Our house
My temporary accomodation, JAG and me the bike and riding through the sea of people at the main station. Whoops!
Also, the shear ease of biking means less working, less sticky subways and of course a great way to see the city at pace.
Basically, I spent my first week looking for work and being interviewed. Fun fun. However, my efforts came into fruition as I was accepted into the Namba Branch of Berlitz - an English conversation school for mainly corporate clients.
So I was stoked to be overcome my first goal of finding work in less than a week.
The first weekend I had in Osaka (just before starting work) was a bit of a Birthday blow out. Saturday, I spent the day playing AFL with the Osaka Dingos squad. Me? Aussie Rules.
Actually, I was ok. That was until I took a tumble on the dirt pitch and smashed my toe (but took the catch). I managed to run it off though... but a week later and there is still some pain.
On the way back to the hostel I ran into Morgan Palmer Hubbard. A kid from my school days. He was coming to visit some people he
Homeless hangout
A short 5minute walk down the road! met, staying at my hotel. Just goes to show how small the world is.
It was Saturday after all, Leon and I headed out to a club called Pure. $40 all you can drink. We basically sat in a booth and chilled out. The best part was there was a lack of seats, so we managed to pull in a few girls to join us and I got to practice Japanese a bit.
The day after, whilst licking our wounds, Leon stumbled across some tickets to Japanese wrestling. Not sumo. WWF style. So that was the afternoon entertainment. Suplexes and 3 counts. It was insane fun and I now have a new respect for those guys as some of them do take a bit of a beating. Some of the fighters were distinctly Japanese, with some extremely odd almost sadistic costumes. Loving it!
I attended training Mon-Fri 9-5 for that week. Coming home to videos and sushi in the evenings. Quite an uneventful week. I had not used my brain for so long it was actually quite intense. The training was all about dumbing down your English and spontaneously spitting out questions which is difficult.
The
AFL tryouts
Nice grassy field. weekend was a welcome release. Saturday, we met up with the boys from AFL. Finding a local 7-11 Convenience store to drink in front of in Umeda. We then hit a rock club until around 5am. So that was interesting.
So I am getting stuck into work now and looking for a place to stay. So the hunt begins.
After 6months of mayhem, a little bit of routine is going to be fantastic!
I am planning on becoming the next Steven Seagal and starting up some Aikido classes. I have already sat in on some classes, so am amped up!
...life in Japan begins.
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the gravies
non-member comment
r u joking?
Ok so beer and rice from a vending machine?? oh my goodness that is super awesome. I want one IN OUR HOUSE! look like we are gettng married next year, so hope we c u sooner rather then later. miss u loads brenty bum. love Jess xoxoxoxoxo and Rob ooo