Osaka, Japan: Japanese Nerds are a Special Breed

My trip to Japan didn’t end in Kyoto, I also was fortunate enough to take in Osaka for a few days. The closest I had gotten to Osaka in the past was owning one of those Superdry Osaka t-shirts that everyone had in the late 00s. Why were they so popular? Were Japanese people wearing t-shirts with Bradford emblazoned on them? I didn’t see any while I was there.

The train didn’t take too long and I was out sightseeing before lunch. First stop, the Shitenno-ji Temple. It’s the first official temple ever built in all of Japan dating back to 593. And it seemed that they were still building it.

Those scaffolders didn’t take the Zen vibe into consideration much. I think even Gautama Buddha would have lost his rag trying to meditate during that racket.

It looked better from this angle.

Onto the next quieter sightseeing destination, and I ended up at the Namba Yasaka Shrine. Some say it’s a huge lion’s head, others say it’s a demon’s head. All I know is that it’s too big for my apartment. It’s actually a platform where they stage performances. It’s over the top and tacky, but that’s Japan. I liked it.

Next on the agenda – Nipponbashi. It’s a shopping district popular with “otaku” (people who are fond of anime, manga, video games, and such collectables) or “nerds” to most normal folk. I walked around wide-eyed. What happened to Japan? The men have gone from samurai warriors and kamikaze pilots to socially inept men who fall in love with a pillow. 

OK, maybe that’s a huge generalization, but these people exist in large numbers. I wandered the streets questioning how anyone could be interested in such things.

I found a retro gaming shop. It was the one shop that I genuinely enjoyed looking around, I suppose it was nostalgia more than anything. Entire walls of SNESs, Nintendo 64s, PS1s, Gamecubes, Sega Mega Drives, Dreamcasts, games and memorabilia. Maybe, just maybe my inner otaku came out a little.

In the evening I looked around the areas of Shinsekai and Dontonbori.

Dinner, a little sake, a few beers, and then bed was the plan. I ended up meeting these two fun guys, Justin and Aaron. They were fun in the “we love Judy Garland and Liza Minnelli” sort of way.

Justin, a professional dancer, and Aaron, a naval officer (the two gayest professions after rent boy) had the audacity to ask me, one of the butchest men wearing a pink t-shirt, if I was gay. You can imagine my horror.

They were both staying at a Japanese pod/capsule hotel nearby. Maybe it was a subconscious decision, fitting into tight spaces.

We were a Brit, an Aussie, and a Yank drinking in Osaka. It sounds like the beginning of a terrible joke, but it turned out to a great night and I got to bed at 5am. My own bed. I was drunk, but I wasn’t that drunk.

The next morning, after shaking off the hangover, I took a wander over to Osaka Castle. Probably Osaka’s most famous site. It played a major role in the unification of Japan during the 16^th century. This blog is not only homophobic, but also informative.

I flew home the next day. I like Japan.

We Are a Complex Species to Observe

This blog entry has no story to it; it’s just a collection of observations that seem odd to me. Korea is a wonderful country, but almost everything is different even the most ordinary things.

One of the first things that caught my attention as being weird are the marketing methods of phone shops. In most cases they have mannequins outside the shop on spinning platforms. They’re usually holding the latest Samsung model and are used to entice people to go in and buy. I’m not sure what the thinking was behind this method, I’m not sure who looks at a plastic doll wearing a long read coat and says “I need to buy a new phone!” Buying a mobile phone usually comes out of necessity, either you need a new phone or not.

One thing I have never understood is Asia’s obsession with anime. On my travels around Seoul I have found a video/bookshop that has a wide range of amine/manga material. I just don’t get it. First of all I don’t understand an adult’s interest in comic books, but each to his own. Comic books are generally considered geeky but it’s kind of acceptable to read about Batman or Superman, but if you read anime then surely that makes you King of the Geeks. Anime is definitely on the same level of the geek-o-meter as Dungeons and Dragons, collecting Lord of the Rings memorabilia, and playing Quidditch as a “sport”.

You can buy anything and everything in Korean supermarkets. The nearest supermarket to me is an e-Mart. They sell the conventional items such as food, electronics, clothing but I noticed in e-Mart that they also have a pet section. At first I thought it was just the butcher’s suction as I saw a tank of fish and a pen of puppies but apparently these animals weren’t for eating. It was great; the range of animals was huge, rodents, birds, cats, dogs and even turtles. I often go into the store just to look at the animals; it’s like a free zoo.

Speaking of animals, I had the strangest experience on the subway about a week or two ago. I was minding my own business reading a book, when coincidentally I looked up at the right moment and watched at the woman sitting opposite me. She had her coat zipped all the way up to her neck, and as I looked at her she pulled the zip down very slightly and suddenly a parakeet flew out! I shat myself. It flew up and down the carriage before landing on a Korean man’s shoulder. None of the other passengers looked bothered, like it was an everyday activity on the busy transport system, I was terrified. The woman collected the bird from the man and sat back in her seat, she placed the bird back in her jacket and I noticed a second parakeet within the jacket. She zipped it up once again. I looked around at the other passengers astonished, but they all just carried on looking at their phones continuing their Candy Crush saga. It was like the scene in Borat, when he’s trying to catch the chicken.

Everyone in South Korea has such a trusting nature. When I travelled to Thailand everyone warned me to be careful, watch out for pick-pockets, and be wary of my surroundings as foreigners are an easy target. Since I’ve been in Korea I’ve never had that thought, the Koreans seem too honest to even attempt a petty theft. Josh told me a story of how he left his iPad on a table in a bar and only realised a few hours later, when he went back to the bar it was still there untouched. Remarkable. I couldn’t imagine that scenario back in the UK, if you had your back turned for a second; it’s likely that your belongings will disappear. When you walk down the many busy roads in Seoul you’ll notice that people do not chain their bikes to any railings. They’ll put a lock on the wheel to prevent people from riding it away but essentially anyone could come along, pick it up and walk off with it. I feel like I should teach these Koreans a lesson, I should rent a van, and take all of the bikes in Seoul. You can take the boy out of Bedford…

I’ve talked about Korean fashion before but something else which is obvious to anyone that’s been to Korea is that pretty much all Koreans wear thick-rimmed black glasses. At first I just thought that they’d all been watching too much anime but it turns out that they all just like to wear glasses. Some of them wear glasses without lenses, so they walk around with empty frames on their faces. To me that seems ridiculous. There used to be an eccentric woman in the barbers that I used to go to in Bedford, she would be covered in tattoos and have the sides of her hair shaved, you know the type. One time I went in and she was wearing thick-rimmed black glasses and I asked her “are they prescription?” To which she said no. As someone who cuts hair she needs to have good eyesight to do the best job possible. She shouldn’t be wearing stupid glasses with cloudy plastic lenses that decrease her eyesight just so she can look quirky. I never went back.

Something else that’s very peculiar in Seoul is that there is a unified nod amongst foreigners. It’s similar to the jogger’s nod, or the dog walker’s nod. All you have in common is that you’re both out jogging at the same time or that you both own a dog. The same applies to foreigners in a distant land, you’re white, and I’m white. I laugh every time it happens.

Valentine's Day is approaching and the love related tat has started to appear in shops. But this is my favourite Valentine's gift I think I've ever seen. Nothing quite says "I love you" more than a bouquet of Ferrero Rocher. You've got to love Korea.