A messed day

And i walked around the river Yodo which is the biggest in Osaka.  Yes, nature is great.  Through my journey, i found i love nature although i also like big cities.

I crossed this bridge to see my friend who i worked together until i left japan.  He is a kind of bad persons for the society but he's nice and smart.  And i used to spend a time with him when i was in Japan.  When i phoned him, of course he told me to come to Pachinko shop.

It was exactly a bit exciting moment.  When you see the cherry on the left reel, you can expect a bonus with 6%.  Well, it wasn't bonus, anyway.  He lost 35,000 yen (250euro) that day.  The price is totally normal to lose.  And i guess you will surprise to see so many Pachinko shops in japan.  People are crazy for that although there are also many people who say NO to it.

After passing some hours, he took me to Izakaya where we can drink alcohol and take some foods.

      
This shop was super cheap.  Almost all the items were sold at 2 euro as you see on the electric menu.  You don't need to call the staff to order, thanks to the technology.

After some beer, we went to noodle shop, of course.

I missed it!  Slices of long time boiled pork tasted awesome.

It was the typical messed up day although it's nice at the same time.   Then i said goodbye to him and took trains to back.

Before back home, i stopped to pray a little.  To say thank you to god because i came back safely from abroad.

This is not for buddhism but for shintoism which is japanese original religion.  However, we don't separate them strictly.  Sometimes we are buddhist, sometimes shintoist, sometimes christian and sometimes no religion.  But to pray with making the typical gesture of hands gives me peace of mind.

pics in copenhagen and christiania

pics in sweden, uddebo 2

pics in sweden, uddebo

A new perspective

So,,, after 9 months traveling i came back to Osaka.  I arrived at Kansai International Airport (KIX) and customs asked me.

“Where are you from?”

“From amsterdam.”  I said.

“What did you do?”

“i visited some museums.  And i spent time with my friends.”  I answerd.

“And?”

“And?”  I felt he wanted to know if i tried coffeshop from his way of speaking.

So i said, “Ah, i went to coffee shops, of course.”

“Did you do there?  Did you do there?”  The officer asked twice.

I nodded twice.

Then the guy called 2 police men and they took me to another room to check all my baggage.  It took almost one hour because they investigated exactly everything, even a single page of notebooks and novels.  Yeah, that is Japanese.  I never missed it.

However, one guy was curious about Amsterdam and atmosphere in Europe.  So we talked about them very friendly. Moreover, another young officer asked me after checking.

“Are the weeds very strong in Amsterdam?”  

I just answered “yes”.   Everybody is curious about it.  That was the first thing which welcomed me after long travel.

Then I took trains for Osaka staion.

Ticket vending machine.  It costed 1190 yen.  1 euro≒135 yen.  Not so expensive compared with France.

Ticket gates.  We must insert tickets otherwise the gate doesn't open.  So it's hard to take trains without tickets unlike other countries, unlike we did in France.

Osaka staion is located in Umeda where is one of the biggest cities in Osaka.  For my eyes, the city looked to be more interesing than before.  So complicated like indian cities or bangkok.

I called my grandmother to visit her.  I took a bus.

In the bus, I heard an old woman said to the driver “arigatou-gozaimasu” quietly when she took off the bus.  The sound went deep into my ears.  It was like new language for me.  Strange...

After 30 minutes, i got there.  She welcomed me with simple but precious Japanese food with beer.

 

Rolled egg and grilled salmon.  

And i took a bath for a long time without any thinking.  It was strange.  I must had many memories and feelings but there was empty in my mind.  That is the great point of taking bath.  We can put everything aside while in the bath.

And I fell deep sleeping.

As a dinner she cooked Sukiyaki.

It's a kind of rich dinner.  Beef, Tofu and some vegetables inside.  Sooooo delicious.  I told her about my journey while eating.  How people are friendly in Bangladesh, how people tried to cheat me in Kolkata, how Istanbul was interesing, how people work in european countries, how we have different view of job and government and life.  Compared to europe, we are like slave.

She seemed to be a bit annoyed to know it.  And she began to tell a story of WW2.  How she suffered from it.  Everybody was against the war, but there was no atmosphere to say No.  If somebody said something bad about the war, police came and arrested them.  It was apparent that Japan will lose.  But nobody said that in public.

So now the situation for her is absolutely good or quite enough.  My opinion, i mean, to say that we are slave is not acceptable for her, i guess.

I know, I'm not on the rail in this society.  And I also became sure that no need to get on the rail anymore, thanks to my travel.  The world is not only japan.

It was nice to know her mind.  In her image, Bangladesh is scary country and islam is dangerous people.  Media make people misunderstand always.  I recognized it again and start to feel even angry with media, especially with TV.

The first day in Japan was like that.  I felt I'm like stranger here.  But it's nice.  I'd like to see my country with a new perspective as long as possible.