お待たせしました！！

GREETINGS from Osaka!... More accurately, greetings from my humble room in Amagasaki-shi!

Howz everyone doing?

I realised my last post was in February when I was still in Singapore. Since that post, I was just busy packing, finalising accommodation via emails, finalising flight details, managed to sell my drum set 2 days before I flew off, and to meet-up with friends every day until the day I left.

The electronic drum set I had since early 2008. It's an empty spot now and my parents are happy that there's more space in the flat since I sold my drums.

Today, marks the beginning of my 3rd week here and man it's STILL cold!! For a tropical gal, the first week was brutal for me. On the day of my arrival en route to Amagasaki from Kansai International Airport (KIX), I experienced rain, sun and snow in a span of two hours! I'm told that when the season is making it's turn towards Spring, the weather tends to be unpredictable. It is supposed to be warmer now, but when I was contemplating whether I should bathe at night when it was 6 degrees out, Linus who is based in Tokyo, commented, "That's warm..." LOLOL

I'm very blessed to have my 先生's parents living in Kansai and they were so kind and helpful beyond words to express my gratitude. They made the journey from their home in Itami to KIX in order to meet us. Not only do they helped us purchased 新幹線 (Shinkansen) tickets from Osaka to Tokyo, but also brought me to my accommodation with about 7 luggage (2 of which belonged to my parents who tagged along for a vacation for a week before returning to Singapore) in tow. We had to go in a car and a cab when we arrived Amagasaki by bus from KIX.

Dinner with 先生's parents at がんこ the night before my parents returned to Singapore.

The following day, 先生's father brought me to the Amagasaki City Hall to get myself registered for the Alien Registration Card (an identification card) and National Health Insurance. We then made the trip to Umeda to open a bank account and get a mobile line. All these registration and opening of accounts were exactly what I've researched and posted in this blog. However, there were some differences in regards to opening a bank account and getting a mobile line. I will get to these in a separate post.

The 3rd day since my arrival on March 12, it was just getting some of my laundry done, organised my room, purchased a printer, a 2.1 speaker system (a far cry from the 5.1 system in my room in Singapore) and other stuff before I stayed in a hotel in Umeda that night to leave on a morning train to Tokyo.

Tokyo was a trip that my dad wanted to take to meet a friend he has not seen for the past 24 years. I took this opportunity to join them 'cuz I also wanted to meet up with Linus. It was a brief trip to Tokyo, most of it was spent in the outskirts, Hakone, with my parents and their friends. I'll write about this in another post along with updates to my older posts in regards to commuting by trains.

Stayed at a ryokan in Hakone. Breakfast the morning after was huge... there was so much stuff to eat I didn't know where to begin.

When we returned to Osaka on a Sunday, I had a new neighbour in the dorm. A very lovely Canadian-Japanese girl. Many people in this dorm couldn't believe she's a quarter Japanese when she told them her family name. She's also become one of my new found friends I feel very comfortable hanging out with, to the point where we did kung-fu moves ala Kill Bill on each other past midnight in the park next to our dorm when we were bored last night. We talked about almost everything and nothing that my Japanese neighbour felt as though we were sisters. She's only gonna be here for a month unfortunately, then she'll return to Canada.

My Japanese neighbour is one cool lady who translates intellectual property. She worked in Singapore for 2 years and only returned to Japan in January. It was a busy week for her when I arrived so I hardly see her until Saturday when we both stayed-in and she helped me out with router installation. We had a great long chat and am looking forward to having more chats over coffee or tea and chill. I learned a different perspective about the service industry in Japan from her and it was interesting. Think I'll write about it when I have time one day.

It also turns out in this dorm of international residents, colourful personalities and new-found perceptions and cultures, that I'm very likely one of the oldest residents around at age 31. There are a few university students; most are working adults. There's one with an online business, there's one who is a dancer at Universal Studios Osaka, there's one who does translating work in a Japanese cosmetic company, and there are probably some chefs / patissier in the making since there's always some guy baking cakes or cookies with a toaster! There's no oven here, so it's amazing that they managed to churn out delicious pastries and lasagne! The demographic here is mostly Japanese. There are also a few French, a German, a Canadian, a few Chinese, Indonesians and Koreans. I'm told I'm the only Singaporean here.

When asked about my age, I replied with a "I'll turn 32 next month", people here are significantly shocked. I'm told it's not that they are polite by telling me "You don't look your age", but it's 'cuz I really don't look my age as they all thought I'm in the same age category as them at around 25 years or 27 years. This had me thinking... what is their perception of a 32 year old female in Japan looks like or supposed to be?

New friends I've made at the dorm that I've grown comfortable hanging out to watch movies with.

Anyways, some random information here:

- Getting a hair cut here is expensive. Prices start from ¥4,500 (S$70) for a hair cut that I didn't bother to find out how much it costs to have your hair coloured.

Then, I chanced upon a hair salon in Umeda that offered a hair cut for ¥1,800 (S$28). I did a cut and colour and the total cost was ¥4,800 (S$74). This was inclusive of a ¥200 off for first-timers. In terms of communication, it was really tough to get across what I wanted due to my limited proficiency in the language. I have no idea how to say "Concave Bob" in Japanese and resorted to using gestures.

- Watching a movie in the cinema is expensive with tickets at ¥1,800 (S$28). 
Toho Cinemas have a special rate for ladies every Wednesday at ¥1,000 (S$15). Still it is double the cost than watching in Singapore. The rate applies all day except for late night movies - i.e. movies in the 9pm slot cost ¥1,200 (S$19).

Toho Cinemas - Umeda

I'm intending to head to the cinemas this Wednesday for 2 reasons - to watch the 2nd installment of Sherlock Holmes (everyone I know back home has watched it but I was busy with preparations and it just arrived on Japanese shores), and to experience watching a movie in Japan. I'm tempted to watch 2 movies back to back 'cuz The IronLady is showing here too... but the cost of watching 2 movies in 1 day is too much on my wallet.

This probably explains why DVD rental here is so cheap. Tsutaya is one of the biggest DVD and CD rental chains in Japan. It is free membership when you rent a DVD. Each rented movie is ¥100 (S$1.60) and you get a week's grace to watch it. In Singapore, it is about S$5.00 (¥322) and if you rent only 1 movie / disc, you have to return it the next day.

Got this picture off Google Images, I have no idea of the location for this one.

- All electronics and software installations are in Japanese and most can only be used in Japan.

Electronics in Japan is something... I don't know whether to be in awe or frustrated by it but I think it's mostly frustration for me. If I'm in awe, it is usually because you can't find the coolest design or slimmest gadget anywhere else in the world. It is almost exclusive to Japan even if the brand is from Singapore like Creative. When we met up with Linus in Tokyo, we passed a small shop after dinner and saw a Japanese keyboard made of wood.

If you're here on a vacation and think of getting some cool looking router or hair dryer, do check if the voltage of the device is compatible for use in your home country. If you're excellent in reading Kanji and Katakana then by all means go ahead and purchase the product. It'll help a lot when it comes to installing softwares for routers and printers. I bought a printer and managed to cluelessly installed everything in order for it to work. Everything was in Japanese and there's no English alternative, not even online. And that range of Canon printers is only available in Japan and perhaps Vietnam. I had less success with the router and my Japanese neighbour helped me out. Happy day!

- Gyudon places and コンビニ (Convenience stores) are the places to go for cheap food.

Linus' advice to me when I met him was the way of life here is plenty of cards, coupons and coins. So be sure to have a large wallet here - literally & figuratively.

These places have the cheapest food. The bentos in convenience stores are fresh and don't contain preservatives. So all you need to do is to keep them refrigerated and consume before the expiration date. It usually lasts 2-3days. Depending on what you get, you'll get bentos from ¥400 (S$6).

Gyudon places like すきや (Sukiya) and Ichiran Ramen have food from ¥450 (S$7). Ichiran Ramen seems to be everywhere in Tokyo. When I returned to Osaka, there's none. There's a すきや (Sukiya) 10mins from where I live and it's 24 hours. A housemate checked for me and found the only Ichiran Ramen in Osaka is in Namba.

 

すきや (Sukiya) down the road from where I'm staying.

I love Ichiran Ramen. It is a ramen store with an interesting concept. Linus brought us there when we met up. It was a place I felt we could have gone in the first place if my mom wasn't so particular with food.

- I've never seen Kimura Takuya in so many places before.

We all know him as the former Gatsby guy and the only time I ever see him back home was in Watsons stores at the Gatsby section. When I arrived and had to run errands during the first 2 weeks, he was everywhere for Suntory. On trains, on pillars, billboards...

Until the next post, I shall leave you with more pictures and comments that I'll be posting up on 外人だ！'s Facebook Page.