Last Thursday was mostly spent setting up my new room so not much else got accomplished. Friday I got up and out and changed my address with a few places I missed when I did my rounds on Wednesday. After that I took a long walk around Harbor Land. One interesting find on this walk was a confirmation of a rumor that they build nuclear submarines at the Mitsubishi boat-works located next to Harbor Land. Another find was a brand-new 100 yen store. I think if you had told me 5 years ago that I'd one day be a connoisseur of dollar stores today I'd have laughed in your face... but, here I am. Later I was going to go on a "splash tour" of Kobe (some might know it as "duck tour") but it was a bit expensive, the course was only so-so, and I showed up right after a tour had left (meaning a long wait.) In the evening the roomies and I watched movies until one of us remembered the Olympics was starting, so we switched over and watched that instead. I think one roommate summed up Olympic opener's over-arching theme the best: "Hi, we're China, we have a LOT of people." Good show though.
Small amusement park near Harbor Land.
Tower thing (light house?) near Harbor Land.
Conning tower of a submarine in dry-dock.
Yet another picture of Port Tower (from a slightly different angle.)
Random picture I snapped.The big building is the prefecture police HQ.
Saturday I was invited out to Juso (just north of Osaka) to watch the annual Osaka fireworks. One of the new roommates and I headed over mid-day and proceeded to imbibe several adult beverages. After realizing we had both skipped breakfast we decided to put grocery-store-sushi in on top of the already consumed beer. Come evening a group formed up and we all went to the riverbank. Sitting and chit-chatting while waiting for the show to start was great until it started to rain. Hard. Just as we were deciding that it wasn't worth sitting around for, the fireworks started (in amongst the lightening that was flashing all around.) All in all (aside from getting thoroughly soaked) it was a good show: on par with Kobe but put to shame by the Olympics opener.
Some impressive clouds above Osaka.(Could we have had a BIGGER hit it was about to storm!?)
Sunday I endured a long hot day in my heat-box of a room. I was trying to get through the heat of the day without A.C. and I succeeded... but it's not something I'll be repeating until autumn arrives (my clock's temp sensor read 35c on my desk.) In the evening I headed to Osaka with one roommate and we hit up conveyor-belt sushi before meeting up with the group from the previous day to go see "Dark Knight." (Fabulous film, the late Mr. Ledger made a really good Joker.)
Monday was spent laying low for reasons of heat as well as being the last day before payday. In the evening (shortly after sunset) one of the roommates, his language partner (from this cool language exchange program), and I all headed down to Suma beach where we sat, enjoyed the ocean breeze, and chatted in a combination of English and Japanese.
Yesterday was also spent laying low, but for no particular reason, as the temperature was almost manageable for the first time in months. In fact, there's been an almost cool breeze blowing about for the past three days. Could this be the first indicator that summer will end one day? Who knows. In the evening one of the roommates (Hmmm... need to come up with aliases cause "that one roommate" is getting to be a pain to type) and I went downtown to a foot-spa which is a free service of a big spa-hotel-thing in Sannomiya. The near boiling water cooked the heck out of my feet, but felt really nice after I took my feet out.
Today's adventure was a mid-afternoon trip to Costco in Amagasaki. This was a kick for several reasons. First, getting there involves a trip of 20 minutes by train and 10 by bus. Second, the store looks just like they picked it up out of any-town USA and dropped it in Japan. Lots of 'foreign' merchandise and the exact same layout as a "normal" Costco (right down to the snack counter with those oh-so-delicious Costco hot dogs.) Thirdly, the place was a mad house. Carts everywhere, people in the spaces un-occupied by carts, two speeds: not moving and standstill.
I think that about raps up this week. One more week of vacation left. No promises, but I'm working on getting over to both Nara (to see deer and a giant Buddha) and Shiga (Sparks' old haunt.) I also have plans to meet up with the people in my training group to go sing karaoke. So, until next time:
Jaa Mata Ne.
Oh, and here are some pics of my new room:
Monday was spent laying low for reasons of heat as well as being the last day before payday. In the evening (shortly after sunset) one of the roommates, his language partner (from this cool language exchange program), and I all headed down to Suma beach where we sat, enjoyed the ocean breeze, and chatted in a combination of English and Japanese.
Yesterday was also spent laying low, but for no particular reason, as the temperature was almost manageable for the first time in months. In fact, there's been an almost cool breeze blowing about for the past three days. Could this be the first indicator that summer will end one day? Who knows. In the evening one of the roommates (Hmmm... need to come up with aliases cause "that one roommate" is getting to be a pain to type) and I went downtown to a foot-spa which is a free service of a big spa-hotel-thing in Sannomiya. The near boiling water cooked the heck out of my feet, but felt really nice after I took my feet out.
Today's adventure was a mid-afternoon trip to Costco in Amagasaki. This was a kick for several reasons. First, getting there involves a trip of 20 minutes by train and 10 by bus. Second, the store looks just like they picked it up out of any-town USA and dropped it in Japan. Lots of 'foreign' merchandise and the exact same layout as a "normal" Costco (right down to the snack counter with those oh-so-delicious Costco hot dogs.) Thirdly, the place was a mad house. Carts everywhere, people in the spaces un-occupied by carts, two speeds: not moving and standstill.
I think that about raps up this week. One more week of vacation left. No promises, but I'm working on getting over to both Nara (to see deer and a giant Buddha) and Shiga (Sparks' old haunt.) I also have plans to meet up with the people in my training group to go sing karaoke. So, until next time:
Jaa Mata Ne.
Oh, and here are some pics of my new room:
Desk and closet. Desk faces North(ish).
Closet and sliding door to living room.
Bed with West facing window (sliding door at right, below AC.)
The 4th corner of the room (facing NW.)
View out the North window.
View out the West window.
Looking into the living room (with kitchen at right.)
1 comment:
Your place looks good - sounds like you're having a great time.
DMoll
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