Minoh
October 30, 2005
Minoh Park proved to be a nice afternoon getaway from the city. Located about 30 minutes away from Umeda, the park has a nice waterfall and a few other points of interest. Admission is completely free.
Take a hint
October 27, 2005
There’s a lot of construction going on at the JR Osaka station. There are a lot of posters with cute characters like this fellow put up on the dry walls.
But on closer inspection, this cute character tells you this in English:
Might as well tell you to fuck off.
Twelve Months
October 23, 2005
I’ve been working on this for over a year!
On a random day in each month, I took a shot of the sky from my balcony at around 6pm to see differences in sky colors. Here is the end result: 12 pictures from my balcony that show an interesting gradual change in sky lighting and tones. Some of the days looked extra amazing so I opted for those pictures instead. I give you, the Twelve Months.
Secondly I’m trying to learn PHP and to present the twelve months, I’ve made a calendar that checks the server for the date and chooses the right picture. So if you’re ever stuck in a room without a calendar and your computer is unable to show you the date, you can always come over here to see the date. Well, at present it only shows the server’s date.
If you can’t wait a whole year to see all twelve pictures, I’ve also put the pictures up in the gallery.
Note: November is not ready. Last November, I just purely forgot to take a picture so I’ll have to wait a week to finish this.
A Sign At Work
October 21, 2005
Mike’s evil finger warning me. Too bad. The furniture and the tatami mats are really delicious.
Overheard…
October 16, 2005
[Nick] We were The Lawson Ninjas, but then realized that Family Mart’s selection of Man is far superior.
[Jerry] hhaah
[Nick] But you know that.
[Jerry] hey, i don’t judge
[Jerry] you can have man all you want
[Nick] Oh, I do.
[Jerry] pizza man, or pork man, or chinese man
[Nick] I have my fill of man.
[Nick] I often put man in my mouth as my first order of the day.
[Jerry] nice
[Nick] And sometimes, late at night, I crave a man, so I go out and get me one.
[Jerry] a big nice bite of man
[Nick] It starts the day off right.
[Jerry] i don’t like it when the man is cold
[Nick] Of course not.
[Nick] Everyone wants that hot meaty man.
[Jerry] yeah
[Nick] And the bigger the man, the better.
[Jerry] hahaha
[Jerry] yes
[Jerry] i find a firm, but soft man is best
[Nick] Sometimes, if a man just isn’t big enough, I’ll have two or three in the same sitting.
[Jerry] i don’t like a soggy man
[Nick] I don’t mind a soggy man as long as the man sauce is delicious.
[Jerry] sometimes a man has a pointy nip at the top
[Jerry] sometimes they don’t
[Jerry] every man is unique
[Nick] That’s true. Every man is indeed different.
[Jerry] it’s cheaper to get 6 of them at once
[Jerry] that’s one man after another
[Nick] I like to think, however, that I am extremely experienced. I have enjoy a lot of different kinds of man.
A link to man �?�ん or more properly, buta-man 豚�?�ん or niku-man 肉�?�ん.
The Crazies
October 12, 2005
Population: Osaka City - 2.7 million.
Population of crazies: 2.6 million.
In my 3 years in Osaka, I’ve seen my fair share of crazies. In my normal day-to-day routine I’ve run into a few regulars (and I use the term loosely) and a few I wish I had never seen. Maybe it’s because the crazies stick out of the general homogeneous population so much but I find very little trouble in remembering them. Here are a few of the more memorable crazies I run into:
1. There was the slashy gesture guy I wrote about a few days ago. I hope he hasn’t been beaten up yet.
2. On a subway ride, Daniel and I ran into the strangest fellow. He was sitting on the subway bench all by himself. In Japan, even at non-peak times, subways are generally busy. To see a whole bench occupied by one person while so many people were standing was odd. On closer inspection, we noticed he had two plastic bags. He was systematically taking out a small, torn piece of paper from one bag, thoroughly licking it, and then putting it in the other bag. Looking into the bag i could see a big pile of small pieces of paper. His tongue must have been drier than sandpaper and just as course. I understood why no one else was sitting on the bench.
3. On the subway I take to work, there’s a fellow who looks normal in all respects. The first time I met him, he sat down next to me and asked me for the time. I replied. He thanked me and then got up, walked to another person, and asked for the time. Watching him, he asked about 4-5 people per train carriage and moves onto the next carriage. He has a time obsession. I’ve seem him on three or four occasions and it never ceases to entertain to watch people’s expressions as they give him the time. Once I said I don’t have a watch and he was smart enough to ask if I had a cell phone to check. I again told him no and he seemed a bit distraught but he got up and moved on. A mere dent in his methodology.
4. At the OCAT building near work are many floor to ceiling windows. There is a homeless man who appears during non-winter seasons and often sleeps near the pillars by day, doing his homeless activities by night. On many occasions, I see him facing a window to see his own reflection and arguing with himself. He was not merely mumbling to himself, he was having a full blown argument, with strong body gestures, and a serious look in his eyes. I hope he got his point across.
5. There was the homeless guy from a long time ago but I don’t really think he was crazy. Maybe he just lacked adequate social interaction and therefore was unable to interact in a normal way.
Kicked
October 08, 2005
Why am I writing an update by phone when my computer is less then a meter away? Why can’t I channel surf or flip on Pikmin or Mario Party?
Why? Because the woman is here. The woman is ultra strong with a power level of 5000. The woman wants to both use the net and watch a show on TV. I am powerless to stop her.
Some may call it unfair or an injustice but I call it a crime against humanity to deny me of my only two portals to the outside world. Put it simply: I AM SO BORED!!!
Sod off
October 06, 2005
While us North Americans don’t use the word sod often, I do hear it at work amongst the Brits once in awhile. Here’s your chance to get some Sod Water to damn yourself. By the way, it does not say “soda” water - there is no ‘A’ at the end.
Asking for permission
October 02, 2005
One of the cultural differences between Japan and western countries when it comes to marriages is that the guy needs to ask the girl’s parents for permission before he can propose to the girl. So, when in Rome…
We invited the lady’s mother for dinner on a Monday in August to set up this occasion. It was for her birthday and since it was a month before the proposal date, it was the perfect time to ask her. We met at Kushi-ya, an all-you-can-eat place where you make your own kushi-katsu skewers (deep fried breaded everything), for dinner. I prodded my girlfriend and asked, “Can I do it now? I wanna ask now instead of worrying all through dinner.” She said ok so in my broken Japanese i made a little speech (completely unrehearsed).
Basically I don’t need to write what was said but it ended with, “Eri to kekkon sasete kudasai”, or, “Please allow (me) to marry your daughter”. Now during this whole time when I’m pouring my heart out in Japanese, her mother had this big grin on her face. I was thinking maybe she knew was what was going on. She said yes and we all had a moment of “Yay”.
I asked my girlfriend if she had told her mother about this beforehand but she said nope. When we asked her mother she said she had no idea it was coming. Keep in mind though, her mother had already been planning which hotel she was going to stay in when my girlfriend talked to her about having the wedding in Hawaii. I guess I knew what her answer would’ve been but it’s still always a bit gut wrenching.
A couple weeks later we visited the father’s grave and in a silent prayer I said the same thing and made some promises to him and to myself too.
There you go.
