Japan: Culture Shocks

It’s only natural when you travel to compare things with how they are back home. As you might expect there are a fair few differences between Hull and Osaka and I could easily write a good thousand words on the subject after only a week, but I won’t. Instead, I’ll show you some of the things I managed to photograph that have struck me as a bit odd here.

There are zebra crossings everywhere and they’re all completely pointless. I learned pretty quickly not just to step out and expect the cars to stop – if you do that you’ll get mowed down sooner rather than later.

I see this sign with what appears to be an ill dog on it absolutely everywhere. I’ve also never seen a dog shaped like this - its body looks like a loaf of bread.

 

There’s very little grass and I don’t know why.

Thirsty? How about some lovely “Pocari Sweat”? I like to imagine that this is bottled at the source: the armpit of a sumo wrestler in a sauna.

50 lemons! Imagine eating 50 lemons! Surely that much vitamin C is a lethal dose.

Again, what’s with the citrus fruit obsession?

Fancy having some friends round for a few cheap beers? You should be so lucky. This is a 24 pack of the local beer in coca-cola sized cans and it costs just under £30.

I was still pretty jet-lagged when I took this video so I wasn’t sure if I was hallucinating or there was actually an ancient Japanese guy rocking out in the park. Well worth a watch!

I also find it odd that I’m in some kind of time warp. I seem to have been taken back to 2007.

Japan: Kitanoda

During my first week here I’ve been living with my boss and his family in an area of Sakai City called Kitanoda. Because of the threat of earthquakes here people tend to knock down and rebuilt their houses quite frequently, and like a car in the UK, every house will begin to depreciate in value as time goes by. A lack of space means that houses are also quite small, so the suburban landscape is totally different to any I’ve ever seen.

I had a spare couple of hours the other day between lessons, so I went out for a walk and took some pictures. Here they are!

Garbo. I’m guessing it doesn’t sell cheap Estonian beer like the one in Hull.

The local bread shop - they don’t have Kingsmill, I asked.

A Kitanoda street. I have to violate the “never walk over three consecutive drains” rule quite frequently here.

I can see mountains from the road – quite a change from living in Hull.

These people obviously didn’t get the memo about rebuilding their house.

Kitanoda apartments.

If “Nishikawa” translates as “the nude” then I’ll be frequenting this alley very often.

Typical Japanese house with cherry blossom tree.

Choose your starter Jeff!

Local advertisement for the school.

The order of the day is lines, squiggles and dots apparently.

Nearby apartments and the main road.

I thought these were Hugo Boss vending machines at first, but apparently it’s coffee!

Cheap petrol - ¥149 is just under £1.

I’m hoping to get some proper exploring in the centre of Osaka done next week, and maybe a trip out of town, so watch this space!