Sunday in Osaka

Just a quick idea of how I spent this last Sunday before starting school-

Amidst a flurry of telephone calls regarding flats, school visits and plans for later in the day the estate agent arrived ready to show us more possible flats. After quickly touching base with an established teacher and recognising that most of the flats that I'd seen were all variations on a theme i.e. how the 65 square meters were arranged, whether the rooms all have tatami mats or not, I decided to take one of them resulting in a further flurry of phone calls regarding the terms of my rental.

This, however, was not the only excitement of the morning as this all happened to a backdrop of huge, wet snowflakes floating to the ground. After walking back to the house from another possible flat I was absolutely dripping and soaked through, it might as well have been raining.

Back at the ranch there were a few housekeeping things to do before heading off to meet a few of the teachers from school. To go where you ask? After a few train transfers we found ourselves in a little town in Texas. No, that's not a typo the town was the name of a country and western bar in the vicinity of Osaka and we were there to cheer on the main act's female singer. The bar was decked out with Texas flags, licence plates, posters of country and western stars and the bar was stocked with bottles of Bud. A little slice of Texas in the middle of the sprawling city. It was a great afternoon and the singer (who was born and raised in Osaka) was remarkable. Just listening to her you would have never known she didn't grow up singing with that twang.

Later in the day I met up with a few others for a bite to eat and then went back to someone's place to toast his first night in a new flat. Hopfully in a few days we will be able to do that in my new place as well.