The Faint Smell of Burning Toast

AM

Since the fire on Monday, our apartment has smelt like burning toast. The mornings though, have been freezing and early on Wednesday morning, I noticed that the hills toward Mount Kongo were dusted in snow. Once again, it's as if a switch has been flipped from Autumn to Winter in an instant. Incredibly, the number of women wearing real fur seems to be in plague proportions. It is striking, how despite global opinion, Japanese people seem to be happy and confident enough to do whatever takes their fancy. Again on Wednesday morning, I read a Japan Rail travel advertisement for Tohoku that included a bowl of whale blubber soup as one of its attractions. Later the same morning, I spoke to three women about eating whale meat and they professed that it's smell made their stomachs turn - as school kids they had all been fed a steady diet of cetecean flesh for lunch. On a more boring note, this morning was essentially ruined by a trip to the immigration bureau. Although I got my three year visa smoothly, the sight of the 'crats wading through the overheated room a snails pace made my skin crawl. At least I won't have to go back for a while.

PM

The freezing gale that buffeted my trip home on Thursday night, was a crushing addition to my doldrums after finding that Brutal Truth had begun playing just as I clocked off at Nakamozu. All afternoon, I had been cold to the bone. Unusally, the school was barely heated, probably in an attempt to save money. As the year draws to a close, the business at work seems to be waning, and as a result, folding promotional flyers has again become a fixture to my days. A rare highlight on Thursday was being asked what I found embarrassing about Japan. I'm still not sure what the question actually meant, but my reply included the fact that nude bathing is reserved for oddballs in Australia. It's probably another example of Japan's collective neurosis that people are happy enough to show the world everything on the outside but nothing of their inner lives. Frustratingly fascinating.

The Early Lunch and Late Dinner

AM


Least: At about 10:20am, I found myself still bleary and in the Life supermarket bike parking area. For some reason, maybe micro-geographical, it is the hottest place in Osaka. As soon as I rolled around the corner into the sea of shopping bicycles, it was as if I'd stepped into a hot, boring oven. Downstairs in the supermarket, the competition for aisle-space was hot too - with the hoonish old ducks stopping at nothing to get their wares. There seemed to a run on horrifically filled crustless sandwiches.

Most:  At 11:40am, I began cooking okonomiyaki for an early lunch. Thankfully, the packet of flours, seaweeds, and prawn-bubbles made the job pretty easy - I just had to add chopped cabbage, eggs and flour. For the flavour layer, I added mushrooms for Rosie and leanish pork on mine (above). The real trick to to be able to flip them over without destroying thier structural integrity. Okonomiyaki is always in danger of being bland, so it is crucial to had plenty of worcester sauce on standby if another squirt is required. Bonito flakes are a must - mayonnaise is optional. Being a work-day it was a little disappointing not to be chugging down a beer with our meal - maybe tomorrow.

PM

Least: Approaching 11:00pm, I sat at Nakamozu atation and watched an Out Of Service train arrive, empty and depart. In the excruciating time between that disappointment and my train, no less than three trains passed me by. It felt like Melbourne, but with the trains clearly labelled, my rage was kept to a minimum. The most uninteresting of trials become far less enraging when their outcome is entirely predictable.

Most: Just after 8:45pm, I walk out of my pink workplace and down a flight of stairs to a vast barn of an izakaya. Despite the occasional whiff of oil and smoke, I had never contemplated that such a complex had existed less than a metre beneath my feet. The feeding trough catered for all tastes, ranging from repellent pizzas and bakes, to silky sashimi and three kinds of grilled offal. I settled for the grilled vital organs and semi-dried squid. The beer was great too. My new awareness though, will make working upstairs drag on that little while longer.

Mandai Ike to Nakamozu

AM

Least: At about 8.15 I took the bottles and cans downstairs and left them on the road. The rubbish collection process in Japan is complicated - plastics on Monday, combustibles on Tuesdays and Fridays and bottles and cans on the second and forth Thursday of the month. Most of the rubbish is incinerated.

Most: Between 8:35 and 9:10 I waded through the humidity around Mandai Ike. I walked 5 or 6 laps. I saw visored Tezukayama Queens warming up for and performing their fan-yoga - the opening fans sound like the crackle of carbines in a firing squad. I saw birds waiting for a luckless fish, a large bee, turtles loafing about, dragon flies patrolling, sparrows and starlings scavenging and crows waiting for a scrap. The old men were either fishing or simply wasting time - all were smoking.

PM

Least: I went to the ATM at our local UFJ bank. I called on the machine to give me instructions in English. It responded favourably to my request, however at a volume too high for comfort. People turned their heads.
Most: At Nakamozu, I had just finished reading a very strange letter from an obsessed student when I was summoned to the window to look at fire-engines. The fire-engines and police were attending an apparent suicide at Nakamozu Nankai station. I saw the sheet and the body bag being carried away from the tracks. Withing 20mins the trains were up and running again.

Nakamozu

AM

Least: I slept through my alarm until 10.22am. My phone was on silent.

Most: Opening a July 2008 edition of National Geographic to find a cracking article on Dinosaur fossils from Wucaiwan in China.

PM

Least: Between 3:55pm and 5.25pm I walked the steamy streets of Nakamozu delivering 3000 sheets of ECC junkmail. My walking partner Ann was incredibly adept at finding and filling letterboxes. I sweated profusely.

Most: Between about 1:40pm and 3.00pm I stumbled across 'Bend of the River' in English on BS2. Jimmy Stuart was woodenly great and Rock Hudson screamingly camp as a dandy from San Francisco. Men really are different to apples.