Gag-reel

Okay, just a brief post this week with a few pictures I took with the 'ole iPhone while walking around. Some things aren't worth pulling the SLR (big camera) out of the bag for, but still warrant a picture.

An Osaka based curry place.

Mediocre restaurant with a name that wouldn't fly back home.

Found under a bridge in Osaka.
This is a great example of whatever it is.

McDonalds menu.
We'll smile for free... but you have to ask us to do it?

The Umeda Sky Building skydeck.
Even if the love is gone... you never get over the handrail.

Somewhere in Osaka's back alleys.
Most. Evil-looking. Pig. Ever.

Again, somewhere in Osaka.
The cat is sitting just beyond the dog's reach.

In housing news: I lost the first apartment I found because of some hassle with the paperwork , some error in data entry, or some other (probably benign) reason. This house hunt has taught me much about the difference between conversational fluency in a language and TRUE fluency... and I have a long way to go towards the latter. Anyways I went back on Tuesday and found another apartment. It's more or less in the same "neighborhood" but is on the other side of the main street. Looks like I'll almost certainly be living in Daikokucho starting from late march.

Picture A of the new building.

Picture B.

There's a park kitty-corner and two supermarkets within 4 blocks. It's 5 minutes walk from the closest station and only 15 minutes from the downtown Namba area. I've got my fingers crossed for this one to work out.

That's it for this week. Until next time:

Jaa Mata Ne.

When the land is unstable it's time to get on a boat.

It has been brought to my attention that I've neglected my blog for nearly three weeks again. Both work and home life have been pretty busy which doesn't leave a lot of time for adventuring, photographing, or writing. As I think I've mentioned before (golly, I hope I've mentioned this before...) I've been thinking of moving to Osaka for the next "contract year" (starting in April.) I've been doing a lot of internet research along with reading some good old-fashioned maps and doing a bit of leg work. One of the places my search took me was a neighborhood called Bentencho which is home to the Osaka's transportation museum (sponsored by JR [Japan Rail]) which is oddly biased to rail transit (Hmmm...) The plan for last "weekend" was to take a break from my search and visit Mt. Koya (Japan's holy mountain, mentioned in previous posts.) Unfortunately the trip was canceled at the last minute as the snow we wanted to see turned out to be a cold rain instead.

Last Friday and Saturday saw temperatures in the 60's (F) for the first time this year. The warm weather was short lived as it flurried snow on Monday.

I think that brings us up to the interesting part: the last three days.

Tuesday morning I woke up somewhat early and walked downtown to get a much needed haircut. Afterwords I rode the train into Osaka without really having a destination in mind. In Umeda (all train lines lead to Umeda) I switched to the subway and headed south. Staring at the map I decided to ride one stop past where I usually get off, just to see what was there. Coming out of the subway station I immediately came across an apartment rental office. I decided to have lunch before going into the office. After lunch I thought I'd walk around the neighborhood to see what was what. In my wandering I came across a "Mini-mini" real estate office. I'd tried to use the "Mini-mini" website but was beaten back by a ridiculous amount of Kanji. Taking a deep breath I entered the office and was warmly welcomed.

To make a long/boring story short I was shown a few apartments on paper, chose two buildings that looked good, then was taken by car (though both were walking distance) to see said apartments. In the end I put a deposit down on a nice 1K apartment in Nanbanaka, close to the Namba (one of the two hearts of Osaka) and only ten blocks from my company's headquarters. I ended up picking the smaller of the two apartments (even though they were the same cost/month [$100 cheaper than I'm paying now]) because it has location, location, location. I'll be moving between the 24th and 31st of March.

Yesterday I was jostled awake by a 3. something earthquake at 7am. I had been thinking that I might like to get up early so as to take pictures of the Giant Buddha of Hyogo with proper lighting (it faces East so the sun gets in the picture if you go in the afternoon.) So I took this as an opportunity to get some adventuring done. I started my tour in the port/harbor district where the temple with the Buddha is and eventually wandering over near Meriken park and Harborland. Since the weather was nice and I had the time, I took a harbor cruise (something I've been meaning to do since I moved to Kobe.) It was a quick 45 minutes and I took a Lot of pictures (mostly of ships in the harbor, and mostly off-kilter as the boat was rocking.) Here are some of the pictures I took:

The Giant Buddha of Hyogo, bathed in mid-morning light.

The draw-bridge in Harborland (in an unusual "down" state.)

Kobe Port Tower from a slightly different angle (from the deck of the boat.)

Kobe as seen from the harbor.

And that, more or less, brings us up to now. I'm taking today (Thursday) off (using a personal day) to create an artificial "three day weekend" in the middle of the long holiday-less period between winter vacation and the beginning of the new contract year. The Japanese holiday calender really has me spoiled.

Until next time:
Jaa Mata Ne.

Adventure fulfilled

I'm a week behind again, but oh well. Wednesday last week I decided to give the Umeda Sky Building's Sky Deck another shot. With a great turn about of luck they were open! It wasn't the clearest day, but I got some nice pictures anyways.

When I finished at the Sky Building I decided to walk over to Osaka Castle (a kilometer or two.) The weather was in the mid 50s and it was a great day for a walking tour of North Osaka followed by a walk around the Osaka Castle grounds.

After Osaka Castle, I went across the street to the Osaka City History Museum. While it had a nice layout (you start on the 10th floor and continue down to the 6th - chronologically) but it was a little light on content and had mediocre English language support (as compared to the Edo-Tokyo History Museum in Tokyo.)

On my way out of the museum (which happens to be connected to the "NHK Osaka" TV studios) I got to see part of a live variety show being "taped". Kind of a fun end to a fun day.

The Sky Deck at the top of the Umeda Sky Building.

The "central ring" in the center of the Sky Deck.

Looking across the Yodo river to Juso (North of Osaka.)

Hankyu trains cross the Yodo river.

"This apartment as easy access to the freeway"

The main tower of Osaka Castle seen over a forest of plum trees.

Osaka Castle tower with time capsule in the foreground.

Tree trimmers repel down the outer castle wall, clearing brush as they go.

That about does it for last week. Today was a rest day so we'll have to see what excitement I can find tomorrow. Any-which-way, until next time:

Jaa Mata Ne.