Friday, February 9th, 2001
Today was a good day, and I am not sure why. It is one of those days where you keep feeling happy, almost like you are excitedly anticipating something, but you are not sure what. A day where I just know that my future is good, even if I don't know why. My roommates continue to provide endless amusement with their nonstop teasing, bickering, gossip, and defensiveness, along with all the amazing stories of their lives: Teaching English in both Thailand and Japan for years, gowing up as a white-looking black guy in a black performing-arts high school in San Francisco. Moving from England to Japan to get away from Americans and failing miserably. (!) Moving from rural British Columbia to urban Japan to "get away from it all" and suceeding! Working all evening/night as a hostess in a bar, sleeping all day, and whining in Japanese all the time. Growing up Austrailian, loving Aussie-rules football and drinking, and continuing both of those interests quite nicely in Japan. The list goes on and on, and I haven't heard a fraction of the stories yet.

My addressbook gone, I spend a long time on the internet this morning trying to minimize the damage through my sister and her contacts. I get a recommendation of a cheap place to get online: ¥150 for each half hour (about $1.30) and they give me a free half-hour coupon when I leave! I also finally get ahold of Onoe-san, and we agree to meet on Sunday, and agree to go to the car show independent of each other. That settled, I go to buy car show tickets. No small task, but I had been paying attention enough to advertising to be pretty sure that I could get them at "Lawson Station," a convenience store. With both workers at the ticket outlet helping, we all finally figure out how to work the "self-service" ticket vending computer!

After lunch I ride the subway a few minutes to Umeda/Kita-ku, a newer commercial part of town. I want to go to the Umeda Sky Building, a controversial "twin sky scraper."


Two separate buildings are joined on the 36th-39th floors by a free-spanning "Sky Garden." It takes me a while to get there by the most direct (yet still indirect) route, and I am thankful for my good sense of direction and another hot can of tea the whole way...there is the small matter of a massive railyard between the station and the building. This place is a trip! After coughing up about $6, you ride in a glass elevator to the 35th floor, at which point you get in a 10-meter-tall escalator-in-a-glass-tube! The escalator spans between the two halves of the building, underneath the "Sky Garden" and above a hell of lot of thin air. My guidebook's description of "complete with white-knuckled escalator ride" is pretty much on the money. The rooftop observatory has an amazing 360 degree view of the city. It is cold and windy enough that I don't want to stop moving, so I stroll around it for enough laps to watch the entire sunset, and watch the lights of the city come up a little.

The view SE. The tall buildings back in the right are near my house. Osaka is a big city!

The view off the roof towards the S-SE. The railyard I had trouble getting around is in the foreground, and my house is somewhere around the backround on the left.

The view W. The sun sets over one of the world's busiest shipping lanes.

The rooftop isn't crowded at all; just me and several amorous couples (sigh...) and one very professinal-looking serious photographer. The sunset is a spectacular combination of a red sun, very dark overcast clouds above, and unexpected glowing horizontal light under the dark clouds. Being up on this roof with such an view fills me with awe and ranks up there on among the highlights of the trip so far.

A reach a point where I don't want to leave, but I honestly can't take in any more from the rooftop. I make my way back to the station, not around the railyard, but *under* it in a long semi-creepy tunnel which has pretty much solid foot traffic through it. I wander around a little...yet another pachinko/video game parlor/bar/noodle shop/street vendor neighborhood-no suprises, plenty of crowds and plenty of workers out in the streets trying to drum up business by talking people in the door. I go to the Osaka Toyota Amlux...not as big or as cool as Tokyo's, but still fun. The interior has a European Village decor! The floor is pavé with lamposts, and the walls are fake storefronts with signs in Italian and Frech on them...A la Old World Deli in Corvallis, but done on a real budget. They have a display on "50 years of Land Cruisers," which isn't exactly my cup of tea, but there is an enjoyable documentary playing about Toyota's in-class success with Land Crushers in the 2000 Paris-Dakar-Cairo Rally. The Altezza here is a manual sports model with luxury package-dark metallic orangy-red exterior, tan interior. I spend quite a while sitting in this one, too, and crawling around outside looking at it. I can't adjust the damn power seat without the keys, though!


Fourth-generation Toyota 3S-GE in the Altezza.

I still really dig the front-end styling!

Gotta love that fender.

Upstairs in the TRD corner I find a tiny TV set playing a video loop: Netz (Japan Toyota dealers) Altezza cup racing, Vitz cup, both one-make race series, and then K. Tsuchiya (Dori-kin, Drift King) impressions of an Altezza with TRD Sportivo suspension on both the track and the road. He declares it perfect for agressive (i.e. tire-squealing) mountain road use. The train ride home is crazy-crowded. Excuse me, but is that your elbow or shoulder in my armpit? This is the first time I have truly experienced the stereotype of Japanese trains; one so crowded you literally can't move until people get off! A suprising number of folks in my house are at home for a Friday night, so we just talk and watch some TV....sorry, "Telly."

February 12th, 2001

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