Made it!
finally in Osaka
26.02.2007
After four boxed lunch, three boring movies and two sore legs I finally landed in Osaka.
At the custom I was gently invited for a full luggage control - fortunately not a full body control. Huu huu how cool was that...
It was actually quite funny since the officers had to laugh so bad when they saw among others all the chocolate is was carrying.
Luckily my future coworker, Makoto-san and his girl friend Tomoko-san were waiting for me at the airport.
They "escorted" me to Makoto-san's place. The neighborhood is nice since there are mainly small houses around and maybe half of them are in traditional Japanese style. The area reminds me a bit of San Francisco since there were many ,many small houses side by side too and no skyscraper... but of course with a Japanese touch...
Makoto-san lives in a small but cosi "apato" (apartment) with a "tatami" room in Toyonaka, in the north of Osaka. For the next month I'll be living at his place.
Tomoko-san, me and Makoto-san
View from Makoto's flat
His girlfriend took me to different real estates to get a room/flat for me. It is quite a sport to get a room in Japan. But after we had visited half of Toyonaka's vacant flats I found this lovely and tiny flat with a "tatami" room. The guy from the real estate was really friendly, he even promised me his old fridge! You might have to know here that flats are rented without fridge and stove, that as a foreigner you have to go there with a "go in between Japanese national". So all the papers you'll see on the picture are just the ones from the real estate - the actual contract will be signed someday soon with the land lord when I've gotten my "Non-immigrant-resident-card". But that's another story.
Paperwork from the real estate
