Photos from Yatanish, an area in South East Osaka where I teach one day a week. Now that the weather is getting cold, there are cute nanny style seat warmers on the chairs as Yata station. I also snapped this kid quickly as he couldn’t stop staring at me and he was damn cute!
My friend La La lived in Japan for a year. She documented her time here with illustrations and writings, which has inspired me to do the same. Beginning today, I am going to capture images from around my area on Hon’s new camera.
Here’s what I got on my walk:
These two puppies have been keeping me pretty occupied of late.
Osaka Cafe Lunch is a beautiful little collection of all the cute cafes around my area and beyond. I have been scoping out cafes and finally found a soy latte that didn’t taste like poo, YATTA! (side note: I am lactose intolerant, not just an inner city wanker). And it also features my favourite haunt Enjoy Cafe, where I had my birthday dinner back in August.
And for animation motivation, I picked up a copy of 100 Japanese Motion Graphic Creators for the year 2008. I have decided that a year in Japan is just not complete until I dust off my After Effects and make a decent animation/film. The book comes with a DVD packed, onedotzero styles, with cool videos to get me inspired.
These little treats are published in both Japanese and English, and you can probably pick them up at Kino Books in Sydney if you were interested. xoxo
On Sunday, Hon and I rewound the clocks to 1990 and went all USJ on your ass. AKA, we rehashed the fun that was Back To The Future, E.T, Terminator 2 and Jurassic Park! Here are some pics:
I think so.
Found at Enjoy Cafe, Orange St. Osaka.
No Photoshop. Sunset last Sunday from Amy and Ben’s roof.
We moved in to our own apartment today. Here is the view from our window.
Osaka is crazy! It is so massive I have no idea how to orientate myself, but I think I am slowly working my way around the area where we are staying, called Namba (pronounced Num-ba, not to be confused with Nammmmba in Australia) It is basically a neon mall the size of a suburb. You can get anything under the sun here. The picture below is of the infamous ‘Glico running man’. This giant neon sign sits on the river that runs through Dotombori, the place to be at night in Osaka
Right around the corner from here is a pocket of coolness for the cultural vultures called ‘Ame-Mura‘ or American Village. Nostalgic for the recent past of America and England in the 70’s and 80’s, the kids here either listen to The Clash or The Beatles. They have taken western notions of hippy and punk and put an uniquely Japanese spin on the fashions. Everyone is happy to talk to us about their favourite music (Aerosmith, Queen, JOHN LENNON). We have been drinking at a bar called Candy Magic and Jo, The Barman, said there are various live music haunts in Ame-Mura, that we have yet to discover.
We did the tourist thing yesterday and went to see Cherry Blossoms at Osaka Castle, but we are off to Kyoto on Monday to see more. They are only on bloom for one or two weeks, so we are very lucky to catch them.
Technology wise, you can’t get pre-paid wireless, so that is making blogging a little hard. the next issue of lovegeek is almost ready, and will be live at the end of April
Love to you all xxx
Running Man
Apple Shop at Shinsaibashi
Hot Food from a Vending Machine
A cute alley in Namba
Nerding it up in Namba
Osaka Castle
Cherry Blossoms