(thanks to Thea for the moleskine)
Nov 27
Off to Japan. This is my first time on Korean buses without someone guiding me. Luckily, the airport is an easy enough destination to find. It's the one at the end of the line with all the planes. The bus drivers in Korea are crazy. Dudes are always running reds. At least five of them on the way to the Airport.
The flight to Osaka brought a whole new meaning to the word "turbulent." It was delayed to begin with, and since I'm on a short leash as far as time goes once I get there, a delay stirs at my nerves before I'm even in the air. The flight was rocky right from the start, so the pilot was trying to find an altitude where we could fly smoothly . But there was no smooth flying to be found, so it was up and down and side to side the whole way.
The Osaka airport is about as bland as buildings get from an arrival standpoint. The Canadian ones on the way to Korea were quite nice, and Incheon airport in Seoul is spectacular. Kansai in Osaka on the other hand is uglier than Charlottetown and I don't know if anyone outside PEI even really considers that an airport.
Japan
--they're still farming. this is a picture from the train on the way to the Korean consulate where I'm to get my work visa.It seems like the folks are packed in just as tight as in Korea (which is similar to the way sardines are packed into tin cans). Although there are many more houses here, compared to almost no houses in Seoul. But of course, there is still a great many apartment buildings. The Japanese are seemingly less concerned with their appearance than Koreans. Appearance is everything is Korea. As my pal Jeff says, in Korea "it's more important to have all the hiking gear and look like you're going to go than to go and hike without any of the gear." In Japan, they have their whites hanging off the patios of their flats to dry, which I've yet to see in Korea. And it does kind of give Osaka a sullied look as compared to Seoul. The Japanese are still much more concerned with appearance than Maritimes though. They're very concerned with fashion (just as in Korea), but it seems that Koreans care more about the appearance of everything rather than the personal appearance the Japanese take so seriously.
Edit:
Japanese Casinos are about as common as elbows and are almost completely slot machines. There are a few tables here and there, but no poker-- and so I don't sit down. I couldn't find any chips at the department store or games store either. I think its just totally frowned upon in this continent.
my lovely hotel room. That protrusion ciming out of the ceiling is a television.Doug Boyd was right-- stay away from the Sake, Jonathan! I had a glass with my dinner after I checked into the cubby hold hotel and it was FUCKIN SICK (pardon my french, but I cannot overemphasize the sickness... I couldn't even finish it). The octopus pasta was very tasty, however. Good thing I learned how to use chopsticks in Korea, because pasta and no experience with the oversized toothpicks would mean a hungry night alone in a small hole.
This country is much more difficult than Korea, for me. The language barrier was never really a problem in Korea as I had learned some before I left Canada and obtained a phrase book for reference. Not to mention the wonderful guides who picked me up right from the airport. But I wasn't about to go out and buy a Japanese phrase book for a one-day trip. And the language barrier is rediculous as a result. There seems to be much more English speakers in Korea as well. The Korean script is much easier to understand. It is simple compared to the complexity of the Japanese script.
My hotel room is a closet. Not even a closet, its a tube about 4 feet off the ground you have to climb into. Cheap though-- I'm spending less on the room than I spent on a Jim Morrison tshirt I picked up. The chaps working at the front desk don't speak a word of English. And so I thought they were the perfect folks to use my limited, but valuable, Japanese language skills: "Domo Araigato, Mister Roboto."
Speaking of the Morrison shirt, there is some pretty bad ass stuff in this country. I'm staying in a fashion district of Osaka, which I have to assume is one of the main parts of the entire city, as there is a 6-lane one-way boulevard, the end of the train line is very near by, and a picture of the district is on a postcard I found. But I didn't have a chance to explore, so I cannot be sure.
About the size of a walk-in closet, this one store carried only Western popular music parefenalia, mostly tshirts. The owner of the store was one of the only fluid English speakers I came across, and in looking for directions around the city, I asked lots of folks.
The funny thing about no one speaking English is that the only music I heard playing out of shops as I waslked by was American or British Pop Music, and each store was blaring it. So they either had no idea what they ere listening to, or were all just lying to me about it. It was bad English music, too.
This British fella I met on the train from the airport to Namba Station and I had an Amazing race to the Korean consulate. We got in late because of the flight delay from Korea and then got on the wrong train from the Airport, so we were really hurting. There were two trains going to Namba Stn from the Airport: a speed train that would give us plenty of time, and a subwau type train that stopped at every station alond the way and took far too mucho minutos. Obviously, we took the slow one, otherwise the race would not have been amazing at all. The internet said the consulate closed at 4PM, meaning we had to book it once we got off this train. So off we went, following a fairly crude internet map and trying to find an English speaker with directions. It was much more complicated than it needed to be, as we walked right by it, but didn't care to noticeas we were on the wrong side of the busy 6-lane boulevard. When we doubled-back, still not knowing that we walked right by it, we took a wrong turn, and got lost. We finally found it by asking a ton of people. It was raining like mad, so the ink on that crude map ran, rendering it useless. We arrived at 10 to 4, but it actually closed at 430, so really we had time.
a lovely site to see. a little bit of back home in Osaka.
I'm big in Japan. Notice the leaves still on the trees. It was 25 degrees that day. Sorry Calgary.
Yaaarrr. There be a pirate ship in that land vessel, Yar
Sushi.... The sushi bar at in the Airport had some good jazz on the radio, so I hung around for a bit, finishing my beer and listening contently. An old man sits at the table across from me and keeps giving me the evil eye. Living in Korea I got used to this very quickly and realized that I was not eating according to a certain custom, whether it be leaving my utensils in my bowl or on my plate or not passing out the food to older people at the table or whatever. But here I was dining alone in a place with many foreigners for this chap to send distastful looks at. I guess in Japan, sitting at a table with no food is rude, because this is when I started noticing the looks, whenever I was finished eating and just sitting, drinking, and listening. He on the other hand, gluttonously ordered several courses one after the other, drank more than any man would need to drink before boarding a plane, smoke about seven cigarettes at the table when no one around him was smoking, and farted loudly numerous times throughout his meal. He also sweats profusely and wipes himself down every few minutes. I don't care much for Japanese eating customs, certainly not by this fella's example.Here's another odd Japanese thing... I ordered a coffee and it was given to me ICE CU-HOLD! It was gross.
The inflight Budweiser, I'm sad to say (and I cannot stress my despair enough that I'm about to say what I'm about to say, so I won't even bother trying) is the best beer I've had since Canada. Sorry Olands.
(I just have another picture to upload and that's the end of my japanemia)
