Japan Times

I'm looking to upgrade.. My rental term in my apartment expires next month so I'm looking for something that gives me a bit more bang for my buck, since the place that I'm staying in right now is about 120 sqft and costs nearly $700 a month.. not cheap.. so I've waded into the arena of Japanese real estate agencies. But you may ask yourself, why does he need a real estate agent if he's not buying anything? Well, this is Japan and the old rules no longer apply. Apparently you need to go through a real estate agent in Japan. But wait, if gets weirder. The real estate agents are allotted apartments to rent by unit, not by building, so for a given apartment building, there may be 4 or 5 real estate agents all renting apartments out.. at different prices..
So what else could possibly be more confusing? Well the rents for one; I said that my place was about $700/mo, well that's not entirely true. My place actually costs about $500 a month.. Where's the extra money come from? Well, I need to pay about $200 for a "negotiation fee", $260 to the real estate agent for services rendered (which to date has consisted of filling out the contract, collecting my money and saving me $2 on a train ride by driving me here on my first day), add on $100 deposit and probably a cleaning fee, or lock replacement charge and voila, instant rip-off.
So I've decided to move, not exclusively because of the cost, because I knew how much it would cost before I came here, but more of the size.. I don't have space to put a desk in, which I would really like to, cause I'm tired of studying on the floor.
In any case, watch this space for more exciting adventures of the habitationally challenged.

Labels: japan, osaka

Now that I'm on summer break, I decided to take a little trip back to where it all started for me in Japan. In 2003, I spent 3 months studying Japanese in the relatively small (for Japanese standards) city of Okazaki. I still have a friend or two there, so I decided to go back for a visit. Not much has changed really; I mean it's only been 3 years. The grocery store I used to shop at is gone, and so are a few of the other things that were in front of the train station, but for the most part, its all the same. Which is good, 'casue no trip down memory lane is much fun if that lane has been turned into an expressway.

So my trip down the lane begins, where my trip from Osaka ends; at the Okazaki train station. From there, I met up with one of my former teachers, and now friend, for a stop off at my former school and a bite to eat. Miso katsu was the order of the day. So I'd imagine that most people are familiar with miso soup, well this isn't really like that, but miso is a main ingredient in both. The miso in miso katsu is miso sause as opposed to soup, and the katsu is standard tonkatsu, which is a deep fried piece of pork. Of course no dining experience is complete without a view flaming torches, so we went somewhere that provided that.

After leaving Okazaki, I headed towards Nagoya to find the capsule hotel that I had booked for the night. I manged to locate the place on the seventh floor of a buliding above a pachinko parlour, not far from the station. When I arrived at the reception, I was given a key to my locker, where I was to put all my stuff. Inside the locker, a change of clothes was provided. For an additional 900 yen (~CAD $9) I was able to use the sauna/public bath on the 4th floor of the same building and given a breakfast of coffee, juice, toast, and an boiled egg (man I could have gone for some Honey Nut Cheerios in there). Now the hotel consists of more than just capsules, there's a common area where everyone can sit around and watch TV (and smoke of course), and a vending machine area where you can buy anything from ice cream to fried rice. You can also, if you like play electronic mahjhong and pachinko right in the hotel (y'know in case you wake up one morning and find out that you're a bored salaryman).

The capsules themselves were actually a lot roomier than I expected. I was pleased to find that my feet didn't hang off the end or something. Inside the capsule, there's a TV, a radio, a mirror, and a few other knobs and buttons to amuse yourself with. The one downside is that since there are no doors (just curtains) on these things, if the guy 3 caps down decides he feels like cranking the volume on his tunes, you've got no choice but to listen to it. Still though, all in all pretty interesting. I would recommend it, not only for the experience, but also for the price tag, which at 3700 yen (CAD $37) for the evening, including the sauna and breakfast, is bearable even for a cheapskate like me. If you're going though, make sure that you pack a healthy supply of testosterone, since most of the capsule hotels in Japan are for men only.

Labels: japan, nagoya

Now, it has often been said (by me), that if you've seen one Japanese castle, you've seen them all. I suppose I still stand by that assessment, but I suppose that I still can't deny the majesty of a 7 storey castle, moat and surrounding trappings. So on a 36C Osaka summer day, Son (my classmate) and myself set out to explore the wonders of Osaka Castle.


I think (but I'm not sure about this one) that Osaka castle is one of the biggest around this area, and there are quite a few in this area. Not only is the castle itself a good size, but the grounds are as well. Apparently its a really nice walk when its not hot enough to melt brimstone. Still, we struggled on. As I said, the castle has 7 stories (although the 6th floor is mysteriously missing, so they're numbered 1-8). From the top, is a view of the city. The castle is built on a bit of a mountain (think Blue Mountain) so, even though its not that tall, the view is still pretty good.

So one of the things that do distinguish some of the castles at least is the ornamentation. Osaka's is these big golden fish.

And of course, no Japanese castle would be complete without a very European building hanging around for good measure.

For the rest of the pics, click here.

Labels: japan, osaka

July and August in Osaka are the months for lots and lots and lots of fireworks festivals.. The biggest festival (although not the biggest fireworks display) during this period is the Tenjin Matsuri, which is apparently over 1000 years old. The fireworks are ok, but nothing to really write home about (despite the fact that that is exactly what I'm doing now). The real highlight of the season is called the PL Hanabi (fireworks), which claims to launch 120,000 fireworks over the period of about an hour and a half. Its wicked. It would be much more wicked if there weren't about 10,000 buildings, banners, signs and fences blocking out much of the view. A lot of these look like they were specifically erected to prevent people from stopping in major streets to watch, which is a bit of a pain. Still, we managed to find a place where the stars aligned, and the buildings didn't to watch the show from.

 
 
Couple of the fireworks, complete with a sample of the banners that were put up to prevent people from seeing them..
 
Here's me getting down and standing at the Tenjin Matsuri

One of the parade of boats at the Tenjin

Labels: japan, osaka

It's my first (to date) up to the minute (ok day) blogger post.. My across the hall neighbour was nice enough to share some of the food he made for dinner tonight with me. He's Thai, and he made some Thai food that he learned to make at the Thai restaurant that he works at, and "Oh my (non-denomination-specific-deity)", that was some awesome food. It was great to get something that tastes spicier than a bag of no name BBQ chips, cause when it comes to Japanese cuisine, there's a lot that I like, but in the spiciness department, it's yellow bag and black font city.

Labels: japan, osaka

Osaka is Japan's second largest city (I think), site of Japan's first airport atop a man-made island, birthplace of Okonomiyaki (roughly), and home to the Hanshin Tigers. That's a lot of links for one sentance, but it fits with the general theme of the Kansai area, which seems to be, "Kansai: A lot of stuff, in not a lot of space". The "not a lot of space", part is quite relative (when referring to places other than my apartment), since Osaka and the Kansai area are both pretty huge, but the size does nothing to reduce the density. Within an hour's train ride of each other, there are the four huge centres of Osaka, Kyoto, Nara, and Kobe.
The trend continues into my neighbourhood, which has within a 10 mins walk: 1 liquor store, at least 3 grocery stores, about 15 restaurants, four score and twenty convenience stores, and a post office.
The heart of the city has got at least 3 or 4 major entertainment districts, but only 1 is within riding distance from my place, and as far as I know, doesn't have anywhere to dance, which is a bit of a shame. Since the trains don't run past 12am, its either back home by midnight, 35 bones on a cab, or party 'till morning... decisions, decisions....

Labels: japan, osaka

If you were to ask me what time I moved into my Osaka apartment (which happened over a month ago), I could pretty accurately tell you. It was about 5:15pm. How do I know this? Quite simple really; about 15 minutes after I moved in, I was introduced to what would be my new best friend for the next two weeks or so.. the alarm clock from hell. Seems that someone from down the hall turned the alarm on their alarm clock on, and conveniently went on vacation, or died or something, because every day from 5:30 to 6:15 the alarm clock rang continually for about 2 weeks. The story, of course, gets better.. this isn't one of those fancy clock radio alarms I'm talking about here... this is oldskool, two bells and a hammer and a little stick to set the alarm time on. These bad boys don't care if its AM or PM. 5:30 is 5:30, so every morning for the next 2 weeks, Damian woke up at 5:30 and of course couldn't get back to sleep until after the alarm automatically deactivated at 6:15.. What a great initiation to a new environment. After complaining to the super and being essentially told, "Um, yeah, that's gonna continue for a while; I'm gonna need you to be patient", I figured that the best thing to do would be to pick up a pair of earplugs, which worked pretty well.. until of course I got an ear infection. At least I got to experience going to a Japanese ear, nose and throat specialist.

Medical specialists have walk in clinics here, its so weird and great at the same time. This one is set up like a dentist's office. The specialist has the chair that you sit in with his tray of ear, nose, and throat probes and swabs and whatnot, as well as a harem of hygenists (I swear that's the proper collective noun.. I checked.. somewhere) to hand him his stuff and those paper files with the multicoloured number stickers on them that are only used in dentist's offices to keep patient information .

Anyways, I'm much better now, and I think the batteries in the alarm clock have died, so I can sleep in peace. So now you know... "Yo, Joe".

Labels: japan, osaka