my first thought was that this area looked... seedy? the lights were so bright and the locals mostly men, a few couples. a car drove by with two japanese men inside. "hello, hello!" shouted one of the men. which was strangely comforting. comforting in that it is familiar, the international pickup line of foreign men to english speaking women. i offered my familiar response to this line: feigned deafness.
dotonbori
i looked at a couple of restaurants. i admired the plastic models of the food offered. i caught some glorious whiffs of unidentified street food. but in the end i couldn't work up the nerve to actually try to get some of it. with my yen burning a hole in my pocket, i went back to my hotel. there i bought a large can of asahi beer from the vending machine and sat in my room watching a clippers/sonics basketball game on tv, with japanese commentary.
i managed to sleep a bit, until about 2:30 am. after that i was awake and restless until about 7 am, when i manged to fall asleep for another 2 hours. though i wasn't feeling very rested, and i had set my alarm for 10 o'clock, i decided to get up and start getting ready for our 11 o'clock departure from the hotel. as i made myself a cup of green tea i noticed that my clock and the room clock were not the same time... i started to panic a little. i packed up my stuff and headed down to the lobby. everyone else was waiting there, chatting in small groups. i was the last person to check out.
the people who were staying in osaka were off to be shown their apartments. the rest of us headed to the subway with our nova guide. from there we boarded the shinkansen, without our guide, and were told where to get off and switch trains. seemed simple enough, i have taken many trains in my travels. but i still missed my connection because i was unsure which train to take, what platform i should be on... eventually i figured it out and took the next train to marugame, where i was met by my flatmate, natasha.
natasha walked her bike as i lugged my bag. she explained the lay of the land - the 100 yen store, the supermarket, the bank. after 15 minutes or so we arrived at our building and took the elevator to the sixth floor. the apartment was larger than i had expected (i had been told many times how small things would be), with a large main room and small kitchen with three bedrooms, one too small for habitation and therefore used as a closet.
 the living room |  my room and balcony door |
after showing me around (which took about a minute and a half) natasha had to leave for work. i flipped on the tv and zoned out a little on the loveseat. i considered trying to find the town offices to get my alien registration card. but i realized that would mean finding a photo booth first and then figuring out japanese forms... i decided i should leave that for another day, when i was not spaced-out and jet-lagged. good plan.
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