yodoyabashi

A couple meaningless tidbits I forgot to mention from the last couple days.  I had another first!  Katie warned me that at some point I would come across a squatty potty, as she calls it, and it finally happened.  It was in Tennoji in the restrooms in the park.  It’s like a porcelain trough on the floor.  It flushes and has toilet paper.  No problem!  Some people prefer them (???) so they are in many public restrooms as an option.  Why someone would choose that over a lovely heated toilet seat I can’t understand.

I also learned how to send someone my latitude and longitude on my google phone map!  When I went to meet my new friend from Australia the other night we absolutely could not find each other.  At first it was funny and we sent text after text.  Then we spoke on the phone.  This went on for over 20 minutes.  Finally I texted Katie to find out how to send the coordinates.  Soon I was eating sushi with my friend!  In a city with no street names, this is a necessary skill!

I have continued to have trouble with not enough memory on my phone.  When I first bought it, it seemed like there was plenty.  But a few hundreds pics and couple apps later and it’s always full.  So I finally gave up and deleted my Words with Friends game, which took a lot of space.  So this is me low-tech!   No wifi and no gaming on the train haha!  And note to self:  Get a bigger phone if you’re planning to travel out of the country!

Last night Katie and I took the train to Umeda to go to a couple stores she likes there.  At night, Umeda looked completely different!  I was so glad we went back because I really liked it much better, or maybe I just got over my bad attitude about it!  We had dinner at the Mexican restaurant she went to every Sunday since it opened in November.  Once again the guacamole and chips were delicious, and cheese quesadilla one of the best I’ve had!  Katie pointed out the owner who is from Mexico City.  It is only the second Mexican restaurant I have seen and Katie confirmed with her students that most have never had Mexican food.

The forecast today is rain starting in the afternoon, then temperatures dropping into the 40’s and 50’s for a couple days.  So I decided this morning to visit Yodoyabashi while it was 68 and partly cloudy.  Katie told me it was a cool area of the city.  It was easy enough to get there on our train line, Midosuji, but because it was morning it was packed!  I had to push my way onto the train and we were shoulder to shoulder.  When it’s that crowded there are people standing everywhere.  People in the middle of the train car have nothing to hold on to.  Today it was so full that you could see all the bodies swaying with every turn of the train.  It looked like seaweed flowing gently in water.

Yodoyabashi is all business, with buildings lining the street 10-30 stories high.  It looks like a newer area.  City Hall is there and other city offices, including this one which is an unusual color and style for Japan:

There is an island in the middle where the Aji and O Rivers meet.  For my real “followers” haha, you’ll remember this is the Confluence, which Katie, Todd, and I learned about in Lyon, France.  The park took up nearly half of the island.  I’m sure it will be amazing in another few weeks because it was full of rose bushes just thinking about blooming.

People were hustling to work at this hour.  The attire looks like it’s pretty strict IBM professional, with all the men in black or navy suits and most of the women in black or navy skirts and jackets.

Even as I was walking, I could feel the weather changing, so I grabbed the train back to Namba.  Now it is raining and I’m back at the coffee shop.  Here is the view out of the window at this moment.  It’s not real crowded here, which is why I can get a seat so easily!  There are people giving out stuff for what appears like a show in some type of theatre.  I really can’t tell what it is yet.  And this big-headed guy and his equally funny female companion are coaxing people in. 

This entire area, which is just around the corner from my new apartment, is full of street after street of restaurants, more in a market style under a covered walkway.  Many of the restaurants show “samples” of their food in elaborate displays.  They look very realistic; maybe they are made of wax.  Of course it’s not labelled in English and it’s not always identifiable.

I was reading about a museum online and someone commented that not much is in English.  The person sounded pretty grouchy about it.  I thought, why should they have English?  I am pretty sure the only Japanese you’ll see in Orlando is at the Japan Pavilion at EPCOT.  I have heard as many European languages here as English, and there is zero German or Italian posted.

So if the weatherman is right then this is the weekend I will see a couple movies that just arrived here in English.  Next week it’s back to the 70’s, so I’m not complaining!  Talk to you soon from Tully’s Coffee!

Photo:  Yodoyabashi, downtown, park, and construction project