Oncoming Bicycles

Thursday 29th October 2009

AM

Least: At nearly 11:15am, I rode down to the Kohyo supermarket to buy some lunch. On the way, I groaned audibly as time and again I had to swerve to avoid oncoming and erratic cyclists. I'm not sure why, or if it's actually true, but people seem to ride on opposite sides of the footpath to where they ride on the roads. I wish that someone would make a cute cartoon about it to teach people to at least be consistent.


Most: At about 11:25am, I waded through the mothers to the fish section of the supermarket. To my joy, they had a special on sashimi. For a paltry 500 yen I bought two trays of incredibly good fish. I'm still amazed every time I buy fish at the amazing quality and price. I wish that the same situation existed in Australia.

PM

Least: Just after 8:50pm, Rosie confirmed that pizza was to be on the menu. By the time I arrived home however, a dark uncertainty hung over the ordering process. We could not find a menu anywhere. Even on the Dominos website, it was impossible to find a number to call for delivery. It seems that in Osaka they still require customers to call the specific number of each store. After a forensic look at the site we did find a number, however it seemed to be for some other service. Thankfully, they gave us a number for the Sumiyoshi branch and the evening was saved.

Most: By 10:00pm, the doorbell rang and the pizza had finally arrived. To my astonishment, the pizza boy proceeded to give me the pizza, take the money then bow continuously as he took off his at. This cartoonish display left me puzzled as to how to react. I just said thank-you and inhaled the pizza. The longer I stay here the stranger Japan and it's people seem to get.

The Market

Monday 21st September 2009


AM

Least: At about 10:45am, Rosie and I parked our bikes illegally at a Family Mart in Tennoji. As we walked towards the Shi-Tennoji market at the shrine, it seemed that thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of people had the same idea. The crowd was as thick and rude as it was old. I was elbowed and pushed several times as old crones desparately tried to reach the shrine where they could combine shopping for junk with a religious experience. The dirty looks I got as I waited at the entrance for friends was almost as surprising as the pornography for sale inside.

Most: By 11:25am, I had walked around perhaps fifty stalls selling incredible amounts of Japanese cultural refuse, including millions of figurines and endless pottery. The most interesting items, though included and ancient bear skin rug, carved ivory, fossils and medical equipment from long enough ago to make it terrifying. The surgical stall, included horrifying syringes, bone saws, pokers of some kind, and two bronze gynaecological devices - I wonder if anyone bought them. The thousand and something year-old shrine was kind of interesting too.

PM

Least: By 7:00pm, it was becoming clear that during my several attempts to install a wireless router, I had destroyed our computers ability to connect to the internet. Apart from trying to read Japanese instructions, I had lost some crucial papers that included a precious password. Being a public holiday, it was impossible to contact the service provider and therefore impossible to reconnect to the lifeline of the interet. On unexpected side effect was that it further reduced the certainty of our impending trip to the Hokage festival at Tamagawa by preventing us from checking train times. Boring times.

Most: Sometime after 3:00pm, I was escorted into Den Den town by our neighbour in search of electronics. Within minutes, we had bought a new high definition monitor and various cables. It was incredible to see the number of shops selling items to allow people to construct their own computers. Other shops sold thousands of figurines, swap cards and computer games, while others had girls dressed as maids trying to entice lonely customers. Within an hour the spending spree had ended, but it was interesting to see how massive choice, flashing lights and placards could put me into a ruinous fianancial frenzy. Fun.

Duel or Wheels of Terror

AM

Least: At nearly 11:15am I stood in the the supermarket struggling to find a place to pack my bags and being buffeted by a series of incredibly rude old crones. I'm not sure if it's me, or the old bags are simply in mission mode and are not willing to let anything get in the way of their target. The first collision occured after a shopper discarded her trolley and rolled it towards me with little regard for my safety. The second incident was as I was packing my shopping into my bike-basket when a heavily osteoperosised old lady flashed past on her bike with her umbrella open. The edge of the frilly sun-umbrella struck me in the side of the face - luckily causing no injury. The bike rules discourage umbrella use and offer jail time for other bike offences. This morning's experience suggests that Japan's famous manners are concentrated in the younger age-brackets and non-existant among decrepit old ladies.

Most: At about 11:40am I sat down to have a look at the cycling rules for Japan after my brush with the maniac at the supermarket. The laws were revised in 2008 and seem to be quite harsh, especially in terms of the jail terms given for some offences. Some big penalties apply to the most common bike riding habits seen in Japan, such as dinking, riding on the wrong side of the road, failing to stop at signals and riding while drunk. The last crime can potentially send a person to the slammer for five years - as long as the rider doesn't crash and die first.

PM

Least: Between 3:20pm and precisely 9:35pm, I spent no less than four and a half hours staring out over Osaka's north-eastern skyline from the twenty-fourth floor of the Hankyu32 building (see rectangle in the centre of photo right) As night fell, the lights of the city made it slightly more interesting but soon became part of the same trance-like drone before my eyes. The HEP Five ferris wheel was not even turning and was covered in cloth for renovation. A rare highlight was seeing sparks from a welder fall from about thirty storeys up into the depths of the street. Having little work to do made a boring day drag on even longer.

Most: At about 9:50pm, I stepped onto the Midosuji subway train at Umeda. Within thirty seconds I had run into the barman from one of my favourite bars Jokerman (right). Takao had been eating Mexican and drinking vast quantities of tequila. His eyes were bloodshot and he admitted to being incredibly drunk. We talked about grindcore and the upcoming Brutal Truth show in Osaka. It was nice running into a familiar Japanese face in a sea of strangers.

Empathy vs Sympathy

AM

Least: I stepped onto the JR Rapid to Hineno to find that precisely every second seat was taken up by someone's bag. There were people standing with only half the seats filled. Whats wrong with people? Half of the people are too rude to want to sit next to another human being and the other half are too polite to take a seat!

Most: While hurtling down to Wakayama I thumbed the pages of Paul Auster's Oracle Night. I was gripped by the prospects the story offered. How would Bowen get out of his booky tomb? Who robbed Sid n Grace? What the hell was Mr. Chang up to? Some lustre in a lacklustre morning.

PM

Least: Sometime between 5.30 and 6.15 I finished Oracle Night after a 4 or 5 day stint. I was disappointed to find that very few of the questions I had at 10.00am were satifactorily resolved. A real let down - the review in the link is spot on - a bad bood by a good author.

Most: Between 12.15 and 12:55 I was with a student who wanted to know about the etymology of the words emapathy and sympathy. Why couldn't impathy be a word? As it turns out the work emapthy was created not long after the turn of last century after a translation of the German 'Einfuhlung'. The word Empathize was coined around 1924 to assist with a theory of art appreciation.