Rhinos versus Flamingos

AM

Least: When I woke at 10:00am, it became clear that the morning period would produce no activity. Aside from lugging the vast bags of plastics down to the road, not much happened, and with only two hours left had little chance of doing so. Every night, I plan to rise early and go for a walk, or do something useful, but recently its promise has never been realised. If it wasn't like daylight outside the balcony all night, I could leave the curtains open and rise with the sun. No hope.

Most: By 10:20am, I had scanned all of the relevant websites and television channels in search of analysis of last night's historic change in government. Like most Japanese, I have spoken to there was general hope for change, but with little indication of what change is required. Perhaps the change is an unknown unknown and people just haven't been conscious of what they might possibly be missing. Maybe Japanese society will be able to climb out of it's weird post war funk (although sometimes I feel like it could be 1905 still). The trains still ran on time and the tram still shook our flat every five minutes - so it goes.

PM

Least: At exactly 12:54pm, I had finished the gruelling process of paying the rent through an ATM down at MUFJ Bank. Aside from the insurmountable language barrier, there seems a ridiculous number of options to choose from. Being the end of the month, the queue was especially long as people spent many minutes feeding cards and booklets into the machines, paying bills and such. It's been seven months but rent day has never approached being easy or interesting.

Most: Sometime after 9:35pm, I sat on the Midosuji line between Abiko and Tennoji thoroughly drained from a day of slicing flash cards. My minor cheer came from reading the subway courtesy posters (photo right). The theme of the advertisements is to discourage people from rushing onto the train and forcing the doors. Rather than use graven images of human beings, the Osaka Municipal Transportation Bureau chose zoo animals to drive the point home. Cartoony drawings of a gorilla, a herd of Rhinos and a snake are depicted barging onto the train  terrifying a spectacled dog and several flamingoes - it's a jungle out there.

The Shouting Van

AM

Least: Not long before 9:00am, I was dragged from my slumber by a the racket of a bespeakered van on the road below. While I cannot be sure of the shouting topic, I imagine that it was begging for unwanted electrical goods. Another shouting van asks for newspapers - I recognise this one because the volume is far lower and less cutting. Election time is going to be a shocker! The noisiest country in the world?

Most: Between about 10:20am and 10:45am, I had a hilarious time sifting through the readers' comments from the Courier Mail for my other blog. The level of hysteria, bitterness, conservatism, fear, paranoia, misinformation, barrow pedalling and thinly veiled racism is incredible. The poor spelling is another story altogether. The best comments always hang beneath stories on taxation, multicululturalism, law n order, global warming and the State government. Any comments that are thoughtful or show common sense are howled down. Comedy gold!

PM

Least: By about 3:00pm I was once again slightly lost on my way to the Hankyu-32 building in Umeda. I have never been able to get there by the same route twice. I repeated my circuitous route upon my return home.

Most: Just after 9:30pm, I reached the ground floor of the before-mentioned Hankyu-32 building in Umeda. After some tooing and froing I finally rediscovered the Midsuji subway station. The platform was filled with sweating, red-faced Tigers fans. The crushing train ride briefly quelled the flow of sweat down my chins. By the time I traipsed up to the Nankai platform in Namba, the salty flow had returned. On the train, a big 'n tall man drenched in sweat yawned into his fan. During the walk home, I saw that people had been watering the road again, and that the poodle stylist was still cutting and grooming. I arrived home to a cooked meal at approximately 10:18pm.