Sunday Morning

So where did I leave off....? Friday after typing the last few entries it was starting to get dark and I headed down to Shinsaiban to try to find one of those sushi conveyor belt restaurants. Shinsaiban was very impressive at night-- it was packed with people and its talls buildings were glowing with neon lights.

I aimlessly until I got to Dotonburi, a street lined with flashy lights and big tacky commercial-looking statues like giant crabs hanging off store-fronts. This street is famous for its takoyaki (fried octopus balls). I haven't yet tried them, but fried octopus balls is apparently one of Osaka's most famous dishes, along with that poisonous blowfish that almost killed Homer Simpson back in the olden days. There was a statue of a happy colourful Japanese man who, I read, is supposed to represent takoyaki and it was surrounded by a crowd of what appeared to be Japanese tourists taking pictures of him.

I searched around for well over an hour for one of these fabled conveyor belt restaurants but with no luck. I've been surprised by how little sushi there is everywhere. Don't get me wrong, it's not hard to find, but I think because it's such a staple in Japanese restaurants in Canada I assumed that it was the majority of what people ate here and played a much larger part in Japanese society.

Anyway, I ended up choosing one of the many restaurants with a vending machine in the front. You walk up to the vending machine and press the button of what you want to order and put your money into the machine. It prints you out a ticket, then you go sit down at the counter, the chef takes your ticket and they make your food. I think that since there are so many formalities in speech here that busy people don't want to have to deal with all the exhaustion involved in a conversation.

I couldn't read what any of the vending machine's buttons said, but I saw a poster of tempura and miso soup priced at 580 yen, so I just found the button with that price and went ahead with it. Just like at the subway station, you could only put coins into the machine. Japanese people must walk around with pockets full of coins to get through each day. Japan is still a very cash-based society and stores and restaurants rarely accept credit card, so I have been having a lot of trouble having to carry lots of money around with me everywhere and especially running out of coins (though there are no bills below $10 CAD).

When I got back home it was after 8pm. "Hey!" I heard as I was about to walk into my building. Will (who I don't think has learned my name yet) was also on his way in, he had spent his day off in Kyoto. As we were going up in the elevator, I told him about my day and he burst into laughter at the end of most of my sentences. As we walked towards our apartment he said: "Hey man, I don't know what your stance is on drugs and stuff, but sorry if I'm acting kind of weird, I'm tripping out on shrooms right now."

He went on to tell me that shrooms are legal in Japan and readily available in stores. He says he sometimes goes to Kyoto to take them because their hallucinogenic effects are really mind-opening in historical places (Kyoto is full of history and was the ancient capital of Japan). I started to lose him in the next bit of conversation as he explained that while there he closes his eyes and sees words and images that give him instructions of what to do, but in retrospect that's not much crazier than a lot of the religious theory out there. Well maybe a little bit.

Will and I sat out on the balcony for the rest of the evening and talked. I was surprised to find out that he's a completely different character than I had originally thought. When I said the other day that I thought he may have had a learning disability, I think it's rather just an effect of frequent drug use. He says he's been accepted to start a Master's of Public Policy in London, England. By the sounds of it, his goal in life is to have certain substances legalized in the United States. He says he was getting all "A"s in his undergrad and his family was a little split on his achievements because his brother had gotten into trouble with drug use and his mother is from a small village in the Philippines (Will is half-Filipino) and is of the mentality that "drugs are bad", so he has a difficult time fighting his case for soft drugs.

Will also told me about the Philippines. He has been there for extended periods of time on a number of occasions. He indicated that while there he was approached by modelling agents for Coke and Nike, among others, since they're really into featuring people of mixed ethnicity in their advertisements. He said he stayed briefly after his family went home to potentially work towards some ads and that everything was being paid for by one of these companies, but he couldn't stand the materialistic nature of the industry any longer and left.

And, as an update on the towel situation, he agreed to take me to the nearby bargain store where he had gotten his the next day.

Saturday morning I think I woke up at around 4:30am, though just relaxed in my bed for another couple of hours. I still can't seem to get the whole sleeping more than 5 hours thing straight. I showered and dried myself off with a t-shirt and around 8:30am went to Shinosaka station to have a McDonald's breakfast for the third day in a row. It's so disgusting and I hope that that was my last, I just haven't found any other appropriate place to get breakfast. I guess I'm going to have to find a grocery store to make things myself (though my apartment somehow doesn't seem sanitary enough to keep food). I went to a nearby hotel and asked them where the nearest internet cafe is, hoping to find something new, but they just directed me to the same one I had used the other night.

Luckily, Saturday morning I looked through the packet that NOVA had given me upon my arrival. I was surprised to see that there was a lot of information there that really would have been helpful had I read it on my first night. They had a map of the Shinsaiban/Namba area explaining some good places to go (ie attractions, restaurants, cheapish bars and internet cafes). More importantly, there was a meeting at 1pm that day for newly-arrived teachers who are interested in meeting up, scheduled to meet below the big metal ball near Namba Walk.

Will had been attempting to cook nachos that morning. He said that he had never cooked before coming to Japan and it had become a new hobby. Just as he started eating them at noon he realized that if we wanted to make it to the bargain shop before my 1pm meeting we'd had better leave right away .

He had hurt his knee somehow the day before so he biked while I walked briskly alongside to the neighbouring area around Juso station. It seems now that Will has the personality of a Californian Shaggy from Scooby-Doo, minus the chronic paranoia, he's a pretty funny character. We stopped at a 7/11 along the way so he could buy a box of koala-shaped cookies filled with chocolate that he carried in the basket in the front of his bicycle (they all have them here). He biked slowly and ate cookies as I jogged alongside. We had to cross some railroad tracks into the next neighbourhood and at one point he stopped and looked at me in a really confused manner and said "Wait.... where were going again??"

At 12:30pm, before we found the place, I told him that I had better get on the train to Umeda because I still had to transfer to the Midosuji line to Namba and find this big metal ball for 1pm. He pointed to where the discount store's sign was so that I could return later and then headed home and I jogged down to Juso station. I arrived in Umeda at 12:40pm and was on the subway towards Namba around 12:52pm, hoping to get there in time. Well I didn't. I was a few minutes late in Namba and then had no idea where to go. I saw an Australian guy that I thought was probably going to the same meeting, but he said he wasn't and didn't know which direction it was in. Most of the busier areas of Osaka seem to have at least one level below ground everywhere, like an entire layer below the city where everything is connected via a giant mall. It's very, very confusing. I thought I would have the most success just getting out of there and went up to ground level. I showed my map to a man who had also just climbed the stairs and asked "Koko was doko desu ka." (Where is here?) He seemed eager to help me and knew a couple of words of English. He got the point across that we were in West Namba and he was heading to the OSAT building and would show me the way. We walked for a number of blocks and I wanted to run because I was already 15 minutes late and the other teachers would probably be leaving soon if they had even waited for stragglers, but had to politely keep my pace to his level.

He was really friendly and got the point across that he was a Japanese teacher to Chinese students at one of the local universities. At first I was scared he was going to ask me if I was looking for a Japanese teacher, but it didn't happen. Every time I've told someone here who can speak English that their English is good, they always say "No!" instead of "thank you", which is kind of funny.

When inside the OCAT building, he walked me right down to where I was going which was awful kind of him. As soon as he left I started running through the mall. By chance, I saw Zoe, the British girl from the airport, walking with two other girls. They were just leaving the big metal ball area and apparently, they had all gotten there early and no one else showed up. I couldn't believe that only four of us had bothered to show up for this since there were at least 20 people who arrived this week. I guess a lot of other people may not have read through the whole booklet (like me) and others may have experienced similar problems of getting lost that I did, but still, four people?!

We have already met Zoe and she was as fun as always. The other two were Suzanna, a spunky girl from New Zealand who had arrived on the same day as us, and Australian Claudia, who had obviously just arrived the night before (I think she was still lingering in that angry/scared state that we had all experienced our first day). It was interesting, though, to note how different each of our situations and experiences had been so far.

Suzanna lived really nearby (within a half-hour walking distance to the west, she claims). She said her roommates had both arrived in September and that she was replacing another New Zealand girl who had been really helpful to the other roommates when they first arrived, so they were reciprocating the welcome and she said it was really great. My initial impression of Suzanna was that she talked way too much and was too uppity in terms of what we did. She didn't have any ideas of where she wanted to go, except that she refused to go anywhere not fully Japanese that was mentioned, such as a renowned local British-style pub called the Pig and Whistle. In theory I think many people would agree with her, but you have to think of the situation that we were in... None of us could understand any Japanese and had absolutely no idea of where to go, so somewhere vaguely familiar would have been a good place to sit around and have some food and drink. Instead, we ended up wandering around four literally hours looking for somewhere suitable and just ended up in a Japanese-style restaurant where she went on to boldly order fried chicken and potato wedges. Anyway, beyond my first impressions Suzanna ended up being a friendly person, though maybe a little bit insane.

Autralian Claudia was a little reserved though nice. As I said she had just arrived the night before and I think she was starting to regret having come, so it was good that she got to meet up with the rest of us right away. And her living situation made the rest of us feel much better about ours. She had requested to be placed in Tokyo but had thought it was alright when she found out that they instead placed her in Osaka. That is, until she arrived and found out that she's not in Osaka at all. She lives an hour and a half away by train each way, out in the middle of nowhere, in an apartment across the street from, as I recall, some kind of junkyard. She said her roommates were horrible and although she seemed very mild-mannered, she's going to give NOVA hell at our orientation on Monday and demand to be moved somewhere better.

What's kind of strange is that they seem to not necessarily place people in apartments near their schools, so long as their on a major transporation route. Suzanna, for example, despite living in the centre of town, has been told that she has a 1 hour transit to work (by subway/train). I won't find out where I'm working until Monday, though Yvette (the NOVA rep who had taken me to my apartment) had indicated that I'll probably be somewhere between Osaka and Kyoto. Kyoto is supposedly only a half-hour away by train so that doesn't sound too bad, as long as wherever I'm going is fairly accessible.

Zoe seemed to have been having fairly positive experiences since her arrival. She has a boyfriend (also from England) living near my station who has been here for a few weeks, so although he's been working every day he's been able to show her around a bit. She said one of her roommates has been living there for over two years and one has just recently arrived. One of them is very unsociable.

So we ended up eating in some Japanese restaurant on top of what I think was a Baskin Robins ice cream parlour. I read that ice cream is the only food that is socially acceptable to eat as you're walking, otherwise the elderly might glare at you.

The restaurant menu had pictures and I pointed to a plate of noodles reddish sauce and sausages on top, and the waitress said something that I understood to be Japanese for "Spaghetti Napolitana". Afterwards we walked around the neighbourhood because Suzanna insisted she'd seen shops that would sell me towels. And she was right. You would think that after finding towels I would be willing to settle for anything, but I was very picky. I think my long search would have been in vain if I didn't pick up the perfect towel and I wasn't ready to be ripped off.

The first towel was in a big department store called Muji and listed at around $21. Muji, I have read, targets the "fashionable minimalist", meaning good quality merchandise that's not over-the-top, and from what I've seen it's a good store. I have to say, they were good quality towels and it would have made a fine drying device, but I was looking to pay only half that. Next we found some really nice towels in a market, but they were $26, and if I hadn't bought Muji's, I wasn't buying some street merchant's for a higher price.

Next, they all insisted we find a "100 yen shop". 100 yen shops are similar to our dollar stores, though the products are a bit nicer. But only a bit nicer. They seem to attract the Japanese equivalent of dollar store customers, which was unpleasant to see since the people here are usually so professionally-dressed and wealthy-looking.

In fact, I feel horribly underdressed whenever I'm about town and am excited to start traveling around town in suits (which I need to wear for work) because I think I'll fit in more. In the evening, I even see groups of Japanese people who appear to be younger than me who are dressed in business attire and seem to already have professional office jobs. That's something I would never see back home at my age.

I'm getting side-tracked again. Despite it only being 4:30pm, Australian Claudia had to go home because her baggage was scheduled to arrive at 8pm and she wanted to make sure she had enough time. The rest of us decided to go get drunk.

Zoe had been to a 280-yen bar/restaurant on Dotombori and we decided to go there. The day so far had turned out to be only mediocre since our legs and minds were tired from spending the entire day out walking and trying to figure out our ways around. This bar turned everything around, though. They had an English menu with food, beer and cocktails and everything on it was the same price, approximately $2.80 CDN. This was kind of strange because draught beer even came in different sizes (ie medium, large) but they were all the same price. We all ate a bit, drank a lot an experimented with menu items. It was funny to see the pictures and read the English names beneath them because things that we would usually order because the pictures made them look good, actually turned out to be disgusting stuff like "skewered chicken hearts". It's true that alcohol is always a nice social lubricant and really seems to open people up. The Japanese couple at the table next to us, for example, although they couldn't speak English, became enthralled with our conversations and we were able to speak a few funny Japanese phrases with the girls' Lonely Planet Japanese phrasebooks. There's a section for "come-on lines" which is immensely popular.

A little before 9pm we called it a night and headed home. We're all going to see each other again on Monday when we have our big group orientation.

The early evening always feels so much later when you get up at 4:30am. I went back to my apartment and continued watching the movie "Go", which I have been slowly working my way through in my free time since I got here. I went to bed at 10pm.

This morning I woke up at the pleasant hour of 3:10am. The five hours of sleep rule seems to be holding strong. Luckily, I was able to get back to sleep a little later and actually slept until sometime closer towards 7am. I wonder if this will affect my overall sleeping patterns. I'd like to make my days a little later since I will be working from 5-9pm and am always already exhausted around 8pm and have absolutely no trouble going right to sleep at 10pm for the first time since I was 9.

I cut myself loose of McDonald's chains and ate at a grilled cheese sandwich at a neighbouring restaurant in the station that I think is supposed to resemble some kind of European cafe. I think my orenji jusu was freshly squeezed. Next I went to Umeda and decided to try to see the city from the top of the Osaka Hilton, but the elevator wouldn't let me get up there. Today, every store I've entered with electronic sensors has gone off and I can't figure out why. An employee always comes over and apologizes to me in Japanese and makes it clear that they wouldn't possibly think that I could be stealing something, but it's still really annoying and I want to get to the bottom of what's going down.

The weather is still sunny every day and at night the sky turns kind of purplish. It's getting kind of cold, like it was a few weeks ago in Canada, and I'm starting to worry about my jacket situation (I only brought a light jacket). It's too bad that I'm so horrible at shopping because today I'd like to go buy some things in stores.

The shopping districts here are really exciting. There's such a commercial buzz in the air and it's no surprise to me that Osakans are reputed for their obsession with money and spending. In the olden days, Osaka was known as the big merchant city and its reputation has lived up to today and many Japanese businesses are based here. As the Osaka guidebook I purchased explains, (vaguely) "Osaka's position in the world economy should not be underestimated. It has greater purchasing power than Hong Kong and Thailand, and that's just the actual central city. The surrounding prefecture is more economically powerful than all of Taiwan." I am, of course, racking my brain trying to figure out business ventures that would send a fraction of that economic power to me.

Ryan

P.S. Please keep comments clean since this is read by both friends and family!