Japan - Day Five

A photo free entry today, just wanted to document what I've been up to as it was a semi-eventful day yesterday. I had a job interview back in Namba which was scary because I had to give a demo lesson to two tutors. My lesson was targeted at young children so it was kind of embarrassing hamming it up to two Japanese adults. They were good about it anyway, and in a weeks time we'll find out if I have a job! I hopefully have some work on Tuesday assisting a friend of my uncles who is a teacher.

Apart from the job interview, one funny thing I noticed was in the toilets - I pushed a button thinking it was the flusher; it was the SOUND of a flusher but it didn't actually do anything. I soon worked out it was for women who wanted their excrement sounds to be modest :-/ found the flusher in the end. Another thing of note, most bathrooms don't have paper towels or hand driers; people carry around their own towels for this!

I've been watching a little bit of Japanese TV. It's quite intense, not the relaxing mind numbing experience I am used to. There are beer ads 24/7, and I saw one today for a company called Kirin in which a man is showing beer to a class of children...
I was watching the news as well - the presenter actually bows to the camera while seated before he starts his newsread.

My uncle took me out for dinner last night and introduced me to a guy called Robin who is married to a Japanese lady. He is German and informed me he used to be in a semi successful 90' rap group called "Hoerzu". He's the tall one with the glasses by the way. Here's the video:





Everyone's famous in Japan!

I also was introduced to a Japanese girl called Azusa Tougo. Cool name. She wants to show me around etc, so that's really nice.

I have a new cellphone too, it can receive email and cmail - I don't think they call it text here. The number is 08061557939, and email is darlenebrown@ezweb.ne.jp incase you want it. It has a good camera, internet, tv, music etc but all that stuff is in nihongoo so I can't read it. It costs to use anyway so at this stage it's off limits!

After dinner Azusa, Glenn (my uncle) and I did Karaoke. It was so cool, great song selection - Smiths, Ramones etc. I did a great rendition of Blitzkrieg Bop. I was introduced to "chuhi" I think that's how you spell it, that's the Japanese version of alcopops so I'm told. It's flavoured soju- with flavours like lime, orange and grapefruit. Not as sweet as Cruisers so I tried them and feel fine!

That's about it for now, blog soon.

Japan - Day Four

First things first:

http://www.mustlovejapan.com/howto/howto_restroom/

My purpose for today was to do a dummy run into a town? city? area? Not sure exactly, but a place called Namba which is just under an hour away. I have a job interview there tomorrow so needed to practice taking the train to Umeda/Osaka, transferring to the Midosuji line to get to Namba. The train stations are massive, kind of like our biggest malls, so the practice was necessary. I made it, and thought that Namba was cool so took some snaps!!

A view from my uncles place, today was such a clear and beautiful day that I saw the port for the first time!!

My train arriving to my local train station, this is the one taking me to Umeda where I transfer. About a 40 minute trip, seems to go fast when you're a gawking tourist.

View from the train, took this photo to show the green mountains that surround Kobe. Apparently locals would never live there, preferring to cluster near to the train stations for conveniences sake. Atop those mountains there are lodges etc that hold weddings. You can cable car up there.

This girl was dressed like Little Bo Peep, she got on the train that I transferred to. Couldn't get a good enough photo without feeling like a stalker.

I think this street is what I thought I'd see when I imagined Japan. This is in Namba.

A cool colourful building.

This building blew my mind, don't know why. Probably the sheer size and minimalism of it!

Everyone here rides bikes, from the elderly to the young, and they're all awesome bikes that you wish you had. This is just one of them, took it for the Marks and Kits out there.

Biking.

After I found my job interview place, went for a walk and found this park. It was a little bit grotty but it was really nice to sit in a big open space.

Couldn't resist this sunset shot, took it when I got back to Rokko.

OK. So I made some food purchases today which are noteworthy. Number 1 - Corn Flavoured Doritos, which really turned out to be Corn Soup Flavoured Doritos. Not that nice; think chicken and corn flavouring from 2 minute noodles on corn chips.

An Oreo Bar - just tasted like a Milo Bar.

POCARI SWEAT is a healthy beverage that smoothly supplies the lost water and electrolytes during perspiration. With the appropriate density and electrolytes, close to that of human body fluid, it can be easily absorbed into the body.

It tasted like sweat.