An unexpected journey through Osaka, a sick day adventure

After being barred from coming into work today due to a chest infection, throat infection, copious perspiration, bellowing cough and niagra from my nasal passages (went to the doc, gave me 5 types of drugs and it came to the grand total of 1100yen, about 8yoyos!!!) , I was able to run some errands around the environs of Osaka.

Before I tell you about that, I just want to tell you about the medicare system here. I pay medical insurance with the Firm. This allows me to get free medicare, ie no GP visit to pay for and the drugs are ridiculously cheap. It's a fantastic system for the basics and it beats the hell out of paying 50-60 euro for a GP visit back home!!!

Let's begin: I picked up my Gaijin card, the alien registration card that I need to carry on my person at all times. It allows me to open a bank account, get a mobile phone and generally prevent me from being deported or thrown in jail. If the police stop you and you don't have it on you, they will drive you to your apt and make you get it or they will throw you in the local cell and call your place of work instead. All in all, a necessary piece of id. The Japanese call any white person or a person not from Asia a Gaijin, it's a derogatory term but it has been taken on board by us Gaijins as our identity in Japan. It is still amazing to be the only westerner sitting on a packed train in the morning or anytime for that matter, while the little kids just stare at you. It only makes me wonder what isolated tribes must be have felt when they first encountered white folk and the shite that they bestowed upon them...that's another rant for another day

Anyway, i then had to go to the Suit Company (I wear suits now you know) again as they took up my pants last week but it was too short...it's good to be tall :) That meant another 20 minutes on the train and a walk through a 7 storey shopping bonanza. Amazing camera stores and the like. I am thinking of buying a digital SLR but I was not too sure after talking to C whether or not I could attach it to my scope. However, they had attachments for digital SLRs enabling them to be mounted onto the eyepiece of the scope!!! Looks like I may be getting a dig SLR but without the need for a big lens....Dad, is it a Nikon DC70 or the Canon EOS I should purchase??? I can get both second hand and with the new models of both just released there should be a bounty of second hands from the older model. Once there is a new model, the Japanese will buy it, even if the only difference is the colour!! Once they do something they get ALL the accessories...I saw a guy who is a worse swimmer than me in the pool on Tues night with a body suit on, just like the one Ian Thorpe wore in the Olympics!!! Madness...

(By the way, while at Yodabashi, I bought the latest release called The Bedroom Cam, especially for Deccie Leurve and Trish so they can tuck me in of an evening....D and T, I am looking forward to it....)

What struck me while sitting in the bank today is the type of jobs that are created to employ people and keep the unemployment figures down. In a bank no bigger than BoI on Panna, they had 12 tellers, 4 security personnel and at least 6 women just showing people where to sit, what ticket number they had and generally just smile and nod. The culture here demands that the service is exempliary, bordering on the unnecessary. For example, while getting petrol, you will have your windscreen and windows cleaned, you will be given a cloth to wipe down the dash, the petrol will be poured in and this bit amazed me, they will stop traffic, signal you out and bow until you are out of sight. When this first happened we couldn't believe it so the next time we stopped out on the road after we got petrol and the guy still bowed until we started again and went around the corner. I know that that was a tad childish but we just wanted to test our theory. They all wear white gloves. Can you imagine 5 people fussing over you at a petrol station on Western Road?? Christ, they hardly smile let alone sat thank you. That's another thing, they thank you for just walking past their shop!! They are an obsessively polite race...a pleasant change.

Well then, I am about to watch some pirated...I mean borrowed films for a while and get an afternoon nap. I could go on and on but it was a boring ol' day and just doing boring ol' errands. We are off to Shirahama next weekend for a piss-up, staying in a 5-star hotel we get cheaply as it is connected with work and they have onsen, and lots of them...they are the best invention in the world, public baths with men only and women only sections, thermal springs feed the baths and it is just sooooo relaxing...every home should have one. Now that is gooooddddd

BIRD NOTES:
only interesting sightings today were 2 Spot-billed Ducks on the River near Suminodo with a greay heron sitting close by. The usual Rufous Turtle Doves, Brown eared bulbuls and Grey Starlings in abundance.

Bye for now

Carmo