Tag Archives: Shin-Imamiya

Shangri La

Posted by on March 18, 2011 2 comments

The situation seems to have calmed down a bit, which is a very welcome change considering I’m exiled in a city that hardly even acknowledges that there is something abnormal happening elsewhere in Japan.

It is quite difficult to write about a general area of Osaka as well as a hotel that I have covered at least twice before during my adventures in the Far East. Besides, the past few days have been incredibly calm and dull, and I have lately come to realize by following different media that readers actually crave for catastrophes and tragedy, which unfortunately I am currently not able to provide from my safe haven.

One of the first things to came to mind after arriving in Osaka was that it beats Tokyo on many levels. The objective reasons I was able to identify were that Osaka is far less westernized, less crowded and just more likable in general. Having spent one of the best years of my life in the area can also affect the sentiment. Particularly the Shin-Imamiya-Namba-Nipponbashi area is a place that is more reminiscent of Finland than anything I’ve found in Tokyo so far: a relatively quiet downtown area mainly constituted of alcoholics.

On Wednesday I attempted to apply for a re-entry permit, the receipt of which would have made my life a hell of a lot easier if I had had to leave the country in haste. Unfortunately, to get a re-entry permit one needs to know the exact departure date, rendering it impossible to really get one just in case. In addition, I would need an alien permit first, something I need to apply for in my area of residence, i.e. at the Nerima Ward Office in Tokyo. Bref, le plan est  à l’eau.

I extended my stay here for two more days on Thursday morning, but had to initially check out and check in to a different type of room on that very day because the original one was not available anymore. Considering I had been skyping home to soothe my parents until 5:30 in the morning, the checking out at 10 was not my favorite moment of the week. Not as bad as some other checkouts, though. I then proceeded to wander outside for several hours enjoying the marvelous supplies of Den Den Town before returning to the hotel, this time to a Japanese type room instead of the previous Western type.

Attempting to adhere to several requests to retrieve some potassium iodide pills, also just in case, I studied the indispensable Japanese nomenclature and gathered enough courage to go inquire about said preventive medicine in a nearby drusgstore. Pros: they understood what I was looking for on the first try. Cons: They laughed at me. It turns out that the government possesses the whole supply of said pills, and the drugstore obaa-san emphasized that I should definitely be okay if I stay around these parts.

As this post is incredibly mundane already, let’s cover some other boring topics. I’ve been enjoying the furo at the hotel daily and also come to realize that this place, at a price equivalent to about 20 euros a night, provides me with a level of comfort that is perfectly acceptable. I wouldn’t recommend it for anyone on their honeymoon, but for the sake of sleeping and using a computer it’s more than fine. The beer vending machine downstairs might add to this warm and fuzzy feeling as well. Let me put it this way; if Hotel Chuo feels inadequate, then you’re spending too much time in your room instead of experiencing Japan.

Extended weekend coming up because my birthday on Monday is a public holiday in Japan. This traces back to the late 70’s when I saved Emperor Showa from crocodiles during a rafting trip in northeastern Australia. True story.

-Antti

Anxious Heart

Posted by on March 15, 2011 No comments

At the end of another hectic day I find myself at the very place where my first Japanese adventure began in 2008, Hotel Chuo in Shin-Imamiya, Osaka. I have to emphasize how much I appreciate being in a place completely devoid of panic, and as a physical manifestation of that appreciation I just marched to the nearby combini to buy a real beer and some snacks. Although a celebrating would be inconceivable due to the general situation in the country, I truly believe I’ve earned some safety and comfort. My next move is to hit the public bath as soon as it opens.

Last night marked the first time I’ve ever been woken up by an earthquake. It very much resembled waking up from a nightmare. During the 15 seconds that I was sentient, I had the time to consider running out and also measure my heart rate, which was substantial. As soon as it was over, I fell asleep faster than an Engrish-speaking guard in the original Metal Gear.

Late in the morning my boss called me and suggested taking refuge in the West, as apparently I had no family or friends tying me to Tokyo to suffer with the rest. That rhymed. It didn’t rhyme on the phone, though. I’m awesome. Looking at the situation back in Tokyo with people getting increasingly anxious I finally decided to take a shinkansen towards Osaka on the very same day. Clear movement out of Tokyo was perceived all along the way with large numbers of people moving towards the Shinagawa and Tokyo stations with a reasonable amount of luggage that should not be present on any normal day.

The shinkansen ticket buying system was retarded, but I won’t go into details as it did already waste half an hour of my life. I also made the mistake of entering the first shinkansen I saw, which was already full. Considering I had a non-reserved seat (cheaper), I ended up having no seat at all until Nagoya. Despite all this, the journey was relatively painless. Tomorrow I’ll be applying for the alien registration card and re-entry permit, just in case. Update: this is not possible, as I do not really live in Osaka.

-Antti

Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kantō anymore

Posted by on February 6, 2011 No comments

Friday marked the beginning of the trip down memory lane to Kansai. I did my part by walking to Shinagawa station straight after work, meeting up with Joona again and taking the first Shinkansen to Shin-Osaka. 13240 yen, 6 days worth of living expenses budget but meh, I’ll catch up once Joona leaves and I’m all by my lonesome with nobody to drink and eat Kobe Beef with. Nothing too special about the train ride, except it was so different from Finnish ones it almost made me cry. It was both fast and on time. I might never get over this. I’m still seeing a therapist for all the traumatic experiences with VR. Once at our final destination in Shin-Imamiya, Osaka, we went for some shitty ramen due to all decent food places being closed at the time, before going to the hostel to sleep. Turns out the clerk at the entrance had been a guide to Tunna and Riku during the Japan episodes of Madventures.

Saturday was a day worth remembering, accounting to three factors.

The main plan for Saturday was to go to Kobe to eat the best beef in the world in the best restaurant in the world. Hype enough? We departed from the hostel around 11 to be in Kobe at lunch time. Wakkoqu’s lunch was once again something to be feared. The young master who was responsible for the show was the same as two years ago and the food was equally excellent. I’ll add pictures if I ever get them from the master of cameras. The pinnacle of the whole experience was that they actually offered cream with coffee. Real cream, not any of that low fat milk or any other shit “health-conscious” people like to drink. Take that you non-believers. I guess I could ramble about Wakkoqu and Kobe beef institutions for long enough to fill the internet but it’s really something to experience yourself. Oh, and it did make my wallet exactly 7304 yen lighter. That’s over 3 days of food budget again. But if I starve later at least I’ll starve happy.

Part two of the Saturday Experience Extraordinnaire was to go to the electronics store Labi in Sannomiya so Joona could drool over some Apple products for a few hours. Actually the goal was very clear but if I don’t take advantage of this opportunity to mock the Apple fanboy, the repressed mock will turn into bile and I might die. Ideally, Joona was supposed to buy a MacBook air and 3 Apple TVs while taking advantage of Labi’s member card point collection system to pay for part of the set.  The plan was both retardedly ambitious and complicated, and eventually took about 2 hours to complete. It might come as a surprise, but we didn’t have member cards. Initially, Joona spent half an hour speaking with the only store clerk in the 8 story electronics supermarket with an adequate grasp of English to know if the plan was actually achievable while I wasted my life playing Angry Birds on a demonstration iPad, getting displeased looks from other customers.

Once the details were clear, something we in Finland call “säätäminen”, began. In order to get membership to collect points, the clerk said, one needs a Japanese phone number. Well it sure as hell wasn’t Joona who had one. With the help of the same enthusiastic clerk guiding me through the Japanese online registration process I was finally able to register a Labi membership, thus allowing Joona to buy the Air, collect points and use said points to buy Apple TVs for the glory of all. When everything seemed clear, the cashier had to call her superior in order to make sure that Sampo Pankki was an organization to be trusted. Unberlievably (sic) there were no last minute transaction problems and after almost suffering a heat stroke from spending the afternoon at the Labi Electronics Sauna, we finally got out with one happy Apple freak and one disgruntled Labi gold member. I’ll get back to the heat  issues in Japanese buildings in an exclusive Anttirant later on. On that note, the Kobe adventure was over, but the evening was just beginning.

I had made plans for us to go drinking with a few old friends from Kansai Gaidai at 9, Ryan-sensei and Sayumi-chan. Since there aren’t_really_enough_options in Japan when it comes to drinking, off to Toriki we went. Tanreis were flowing, the edamame was taunting Henrik from across the continent, chicken heart was delicious, nankotsu still sucked but the get-together was excellent all in all. You don’t deserve to know the details. After some yopparai philosophizing on the last train we made it back to the hotel and Joona packed his bags to get ready to leave early the next morning. Well, packed his bags, except he left me with a well designed cardboard box labeled MacBook Air but had the nerve to take the actual content back to Finland with him.

Edamame yanka!

On that day, 2 years ago

With Joona leaving early on Sunday morning I was free to enjoy the rest of the day roaming around Osaka and going through places from days gone by. There were some places that I should have written about last time I was in Japan but I was busy that spring doing something else. Also, I had an interesting epiphany while wandering around. Interesting for me, not so much for readers. The thought that struck me was that Shin-Imamiya has to the best place in Osaka, period. First of all, it has a bad reputation, so by Japanese standards that means that there are a few homeless and / or drunk people around making life more interesting. Not unrelated to that reputation, it’s the cheapest place to find a quality  business hotel for a stay in Osaka. We paid 3000 yen a night for a twin room. Not too shabby.

The next unique spot in the area is Spa World, located conveniently around 50 meters from the correct entrance of the Shin-Imamiya JR station. Spa World is essentially a hotel / spa / relaxation complex with an innumerable amount of spas, baths, saunas, pools, restaurants and whatnot. It became a fan favourite in Spring 2009 because of a campaign price that allows people to enter the place for the whole day for only 1000 yen. The spa cannot be doing very well as the campaign is still ongoing and there is no way for them to pay for all the water and electricity with that price when taking into account the amount of people that go there. Spa World is also the international benchmark for everything Engrish, as appointed by the Japan Ministry of Engrish, Jearousy and Googre Transrate (MEJGT). While I could not find such old classics as: “Woman only bath, men cannot enter from here” or “Woman only room. Stay out, man” there had still been no effort to make grammatical sense:

• “Wears inside the building”
• “It’s excite!”
• “I hope smoking in the smoking room.”
• “Let’s tanning!”
• “Doragon foot”
• “Please note so slippery”
• “Antitheft and locker key wristband are always with you please yourself”

Engrish Winner of the Week

Outside of Spa World is one of the saddest reminders of the delusions of grandeur prior to the Lost Decade and at the same time one of the coolest potential attractions anywhere, ever: A roller coaster running through a shopping mall. Both of the aforementioned have been abandoned for a long time, however, and now it appeared that the entire building complex was getting demolished. I was still able to get a glance at a place that, in the right circumstances, could have made Chuck Norris fall to his knees in awe.

In addition to Shin-Imamiya being cheap and having Spa World, it’s also the center of the world for… well… retro gaming nerds. The huge shopping center for normal people, Namba, is also just a short walk away but I tend to always be drawn towards the small game and electronics shops of Den-Den-Town, located between Nipponbashi and Ebisucho stations on the Sakaisuji line. Even now I wasn’t really able to buy game consoles and take them back to Tokyo but I was still able to gather energy just by enjoying the atmosphere and 8-bit game music at スーパーポテト and ゲーム 探偵団. If you can’t read Japanese characters that’s your loss. I had to ask the store manager for the reading of the latter kanji. I also promised myself an N64 once I manage to turn in the final version of my thesis.

I eventually bought some cheap manga for the trip back and spent the Shinkansen ride back to Tokyo wondering how I could best manage my living expenses to avoid running out of money before March.

-Antti