4 November 2017
The wind arrived
Getting from Osaka to Kobe is really easy
Right now its really windy, maybe another typhoon! I doubt it, I would have heard about it, although I had no real idea about the last one.
I am now in Kobe, its about 30 minutes from Osaka, its another huge city, it suffered a bad eartquake in 1995 killing 5000 people, I have visited here before but never stayed here, I will be here for 2 nights.
Thats the facts, I dont add superfluous adjectives when they are not needed.
This morning I had some procedural things to do, and I am continuing that right now, so its a kind of rest day, so not many photos.
First in Osaka I had to go to Shin-Osaka and advance purchase my remaining platt-kodama discount tour package shinkansen tickets.
This is an experience in paperwork and stupidity with at least 20 staples used, stamps, hot wax embossments, filing, ID checks, manual type writers all to buy 2 train tickets. It really is amazing this still goes on in Japan.
Tickets purchased it was time for lunch, before heading back to collect my bags, then head to Kobe.
Now that I am here, I am doing my washing, always a fun activity. Please note, Japanese people only know this as laundry, do not ask for change for the washing machine, they will have no clue.
Later on I will tell you about the exciting adventures in remote control room lighting. I forgot to take a photo of the remote, so it will have to wait until later, but now, my rant.
It must be awesome to be a woman in Japan. Heres how I think that works.
Until you get married you work in a fashion store or cafe.
You then get married, and never work again, you spend your life going on nature hikes and sitting in cafes sipping coffee.
Meanwhile your husband works himself as close to death as possible, sometimes he actually dies.
To top it off, no children, Japanese women have extremely low birth rates, and according to various news reports, never ever have sex with their husbands anyway - its not worth the risk of jeopardizing their lifestyle of leisure.
They also dont cook, house is too small.
Which also means, cleaning is about 10 minutes a week, house is tiny, no garden.
Just a life to do whatever the hell you want.
And on the odd occasion a woman decides to work instead, probably due to not marrying, they seem to die of overwork, which has been a really big news story for a while. So theres really no incentive to try. Just enjoy all the nature trails.
I have to pay to fly half way around the world to do this, they do it their whole lives for free!
The figures dont lie, only 10% of the Japanese parliament is women, the working rates for women aged 30+ are almost zero.
So I am going to reinvent myself as a Japanese woman and find a husband.
Many wires, so many wires, so many people going home looking destroyed.
Yeah, nailed the light.
On my wander I found the Kuromon market, which not only has toilets, but also has lavatories.
Heres is a bit more market, one particular stall had a huge line, for cooked chicken wings, early in the morning.
There is also a line at the apple store, even though the new facial recognition failure device thats secretly storing your boob pics was released in Japan yesterday.
Near Shin-Osaka station I found a flea market. Some of the stuff for sale looks like it would be infested with actual fleas. Looks like a truck tipped a load of rubbish here.
I stopped for some quiche, cause I am not a real man. I was the only male in the place, everyone else was a woman passing the time with cake and coffee.
And here is my room, probably the nicest of the trip so far, too bad I will only be here for 2 nights.
It is the Sunroute Sopra Kobe Annesso. A bit of a short walk from the Kobe station, but theres lots of little covered shopping streets nearby.
I shall investigate soon.