On Friday night we took the train to Namba again for dinner with one of Mike's friends, Coby, another JET ("JET" is the name of their program that lets American college grads teach English in Japan). We went to an American block in Osaka, played darts, and watched Japanese pool pros. Drinks are so expensive here! 700 yen (about $7) for a vodka ( Read more... )

While Mike was at work on Friday, I rode my bike to the Kishiwada waterfront and mall. There is a very long, covered shopping street on the way there in Kishiwada; I bought a "Cafe au Lait" (translation: sweet coffee in a can) from one of infinity vending machines there and walked my bike, so that I could look at everything. A lot of shops are ( Read more... )

Baka dákara shogunai.

"Because I am a fool, it can't be helped."

This is true in English and Japanese.

After Mike got home from work yesterday, we rode our bikes to the waterfront in Kishiwada. There is a MALL and a huge bridge over the bay, both of which corrected my original impression of Kishiwada as a relatively small town. In fact, there are about 200,000 people here, but it still seems so clean and quiet to me ( Read more... )

I arrived yesterday afternoon into Osaka. It was cloudy and cold- but the fog in the mountains when I flew in made the place seem beautiful and mysterious. Mike came and picked me up at the airport- a brief and wonderful reunion. We got on a commuter train to Kishiwada (where he has been living for the past six months) after a few minutes ( Read more... )