Exploring my kingdom

Before I get into my blog post today can I just say something? It's the day after Setsubun, and already the stores have decorations up for Hina Matsuri! What is this world coming to... :P

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm going to have to be on guard against ogres this year. In case any of you were wondering what a Japanese ogre looks like, here's a picture:



That's a bag of dried soybeans, by the way. In addition to hurling them at ogres, Japanese tradition dictates that on Setsubun Eve, you eat exactly as many beans as your age, plus one. Before you go ahead and eat the rest.

I spent most of my day today continuing my home improvement projects, particularly on the electrical (rerouting an extension cord and a ground cable to my fridge's new location) and plumbing (fixing a leak in the spout of my sink faucet so I can try to affix a water filter attachment) fronts. After that, I went up and biked around Kyobashi a bit, to try to get a feel for the lay of the land.

Kyobashi is a very confusing area, with a subway station, a JR station, and a Keihan station, each with shopping malls and the like growing out of them, connected and divided by crooked little streets. I'm starting to get a feel for the way it's laid out, but I think it'll take a few more trips before I can navigate it confidently.

The great thing about Kyobashi, besides the fact that it's like a 5-minute bike ride away, is that it's full of little restaurants, bars, and izakayas, as well as plenty of shopping and of course little takoyaki stands on the street (yeah Osaka!). A couple turns down the wrong streets, though, and the sushi and kushi-katsu signs are quickly replaced by sketchy storefronts with photos of sexy girls and charts listing hourly rates. Not just a few of these places, either... street after street is lined with these "service establishments", and the interesting thing was that I saw a number of shops with big signs saying "free information service"... ostensibly to help prospective clients find the shops that offered the services and the price ranges they were looking for.

Interesting neighborhood.

Anyway, without further ado, today's T3A list.

#3 - Home Improvements.

I finally came up with a decent-looking solution for my aforementioned rerouting of electricity through my kitchen. The tricky thing is that they don't really do 3-prong plugs here, so you need a separate ground wire for the microwave. Instead of having cables dangling all over my kitchen, I chose to go with a more elegant approach, using plastic cable-routers. Here you can see the final result:



I'm pretty happy with it. It's out-of-the-way and also visually unobtrusive.

#2 - View from Dylan-Jo.

I've named my new apartment "Dylan-Jo" (in kanji: 侍嵐城 - the third character, "Jo," means castle in Japanese) because not only is it right next to Osaka-Jo, but because the regal view from my balcony makes me feel like I'm gazing out over my kingdom. All the cars that pass below are my loyal subjects going about their daily business, and my dominion stretches from the Hirano-gawa below, all the way to the Ikoma ridge in the distance.

Tonight, though, as I looked out over my kingdom before embarking upon my adventure to explore Kyobashi, I was greeted by a beautiful orange waning gibbous moon hanging just above the horizon. Like the Eye of Sauron, its baleful gaze swept across the plains below, my subjects all cowering in fear and awe. I rushed to get my camera, but try as I might I could not capture its presence and enormity. The moon always looks so tiny in photos...

Anyway, here is the best shot I could come up with:


#1 - Love at first sight.

I totally forgot to mention this in my post last night, but since it happened after midnight it can technically go into today's list. Yuka and I had just gotten onto the Loop Line platform after running all the way to JR Osaka station from the Blarney Stone (where The Native Tongues were (was?) playing). She was having some trouble with one of her contacts, so we slowed down so she wouldn't run into any walls or anything while she poked and prodded at her left eyeball.

Just at that moment, stumbling up the stairs behind us were two very cute Japanese girls in their early 20's, one of whom was absurdly drunk and could barely stay on her feet as her friend shuffled her up the steps. Extremely Drunk Girl finally managed to clear the top step, and let out a shriek when she saw me! The two of them stumbled over, and she grabbed my arm and, with a dreamy look in her eyes, "I love you!!"

I just gave her a knowing smile and said, "Nice." But she went on, professing her love to me several times and declaring that foreigners were SO wonderful and how she LOVES foreigners.... By this point Yuka had like three fingers in her eye at once and was veering dangerously close to a wall, so I bid farewell to my lovestruck admirer, who heaved a wistful, heartbroken sigh as I left to go back and check on Yuka.

Anyway, that kind of thing happens every so often. Japan is a wacky, wacky place.