Category: Japan Living

November 25th…

Osaka continues to be my second home. I never knew how much I would come to love the city the way I do.  Still, living out here has kinda of flipped me from a city Boy to more of a rural Man.  When I finally return home I easily see myself living in the middle of nowhere.  I can’t imagine not being able to see the stars at night anymore. I am talking more about where I live than Osaka, but traveling to the city of octopus on and off has certainly given me many fond memories. Made a couple this past weekend.

Believe it or not spent hours talking about Over the Top, the 1987 film about a truck driver (Sylvester Stallone) and his twelve year-old son driving to Las Vegas for the arm wrestling world championships. Classic corny 80’s music track and is a bit campy but I love that film. Keeping the details of the conversation to myself, but it was random as hell.

November 13, 2018…

Winter is slowly approaching. The leaves have begun changing colour. The island is still quiet as ever.

Been practicing a lot of basketball recently. This year I helped my team finish second in the city, which makes me realize how easy it would be to win the championship, if I was actually good at basketball. I am average at best and we were able to finish 2nd.  That is why I decided to start practicing a lot more. Might as well try to win it all.

Started Japanese lessons.  I finally reached a level where I require additional explanation. Simply studying myself and trying to make sense of the information online and from my textbook won’t cut it anymore. There are the last couple years here  (in Japan) and I have to make them count.

Waking up at 4:30am every weekday to exercise and study.  In the beginning it was hard but over time it got easier and it has become a regular routine.  I can never sleep in on the weekends though.

It rained for over 50 hours this past weekend. That resulted in tons of landslides and many people losing their life. My area wasn’t heavily affected, unless you think a bus line getting cancelled is a big deal. I have been using my bicycle to get around the island. The main problem is it is 30 degrees Celsius and most of my trips are at least 20 minutes by bicycle. It’s too hot.

My understanding is that it rained so much that my town’s water plant’s pipes swelled up and cracked. Now they have to drain the pipes, check to see what’s wrong and finally create and implement a solution.

So, it’s been a few days with no running water, which is just inconvenient if anything.  But I a made out pretty lucky. I live next to a rice field and there is a fossette for water. The farmer let me know that I can use it anytime all I need is a socket wrench to release the water. Same farmer also offered his shower for me to use. That was a Godsend. I have been washing my armpits and private areas with bottled water, soap and a wash cloth which is crazy.

Looking like water will be out for about a week. I’ll just pretend like I didn’t pay my water bill.

Below are some photos of Kurahashi to give you an idea of how things look.