Whew. It took a few hours, but I managed to work on my blog a bit and get it up to date again.
Not only did I see Ponyo on the Cliff by the Sea yesterday, I also visited the Dutch School here in Osaka.
It's a museum now, and rather small, but it's nice to see a bit of Dutch/Japanese history, and to realise how far Dutch influences lie.
Before that, I had to get something for a surprise we're preparing for the WMO staff, and Niels and Rob wanted to try something, so we embarked on a rather strange journey.
What do you suppose these people are waiting for?
That's right, a bus. A deluxe touring car, to be more precise. The line stretches to a street nearby, and there are at least 5 people involved to keep the line in track and to avoid the bus being overloaded.
This picture was shot near Taiso Station in Osaka, where a nondescript shuttle bus was waiting to pick people up for a free ride to the outskirts of Osaka (near Cosmosquare and Osakako), to this:
Yes, they are everywhere.
I knew exactly what I needed, so we stayed no longer than necessary, but on the other hand, it was quite fun to see how the Japanese would take on something like this.
The branch in Osaka is the fourth one in Japan (Kobe, Yokohama and Chiba are the other three), and it has been opened just 12 days ago, so everything is shiny and new.
The stuff they sell there is all very IKEA, no doubt about that. It looks very much like any other IKEA store I visited, but apart from the obvious signs in Japanese, there are some tell-tale signs that this really is a Japanese branch of IKEA.
A queueing system for the children's playground Smäland, for instance. Curry with rice in the restaurant. I saw real roast beef in the restaurant; not the dried out junk they sell back home. Slightly smaller furniture here and there, as most Japanese homes aren't that large to begin with. Over 30 cashiers in a staggered layout, making optimum use of the space available.
Unfortunately no Kopparberg Cider; we wanted to get a few cans and have out picture taken to get Thomas' goat. ;)
However, they do sell real beer in the Swedish Food Market, as opposed to what they sell back home.
It was fun to see, and to do something totally unexpected, and as said we used the opportunity to get something we needed, so I don't feel guilty spending a few hours getting there, seeing what it's about and head out in a timely fashion.
At the end of the day I went for money and some cardboard boxes at the local Post Office, and it's clear we come here too often. You see, when I stepped into the office, one of the employees recognised and greeted me by saying: "Osashiburi.", which means "It has been a long time since we saw you.". These people must have seen thousands of people every week since last December, both locals and foreigners, and this girl sees me and instantly recognises me. Go figure. :)
As for today, I was planning to head over to Atami for a music festival, but my intestines decided to go haywire, probably due to the food I ate in yesterday (now that I think of it; a sandwich, a piece of almond pie, another sandwich and some microwave curry is hardly good food to live on) so I fear this day is a write-off. I think I'll just ride it out and go for some substantial food to Yodobashi Umeda.
Cheers, K.