Happy Japan-niversary!

Today, my 7 month Japan-niversary coincides with my last day at work, there have been so many goodbyes to so many wonderful people. As I prepare to embark on another stint of full scale travel.

Appleman

Unique to Bunsman (the best burger joint in Japan), is the Appleman. It is a American style beef burger with a twist, it contains spiced baked apple pieces, nestled in there right along the lettuce and tomato.

Strange, you say.

Weird, you say.

Odd, you say.

Genius, I say.

Routine

My neighbour returns home at about nine in the morning most days. I hear the sharp metallic snap of his door unlocking, followed momentarily by the heavy clunk of the penitentiary pink door thudding closed and echoing through the utilitarian concrete stairwell.

On my days off I hear my neighbour laughing on what I assume is Skype. He has a happy slightly cynical booming laugh with a mocking edge to it. We have never met but our shoeboxes are very tightly stacked together. I know his laugh intimately.

I roll over, it is a weekday, I worked late last night, it's no where near time to get up.
Two hours later my alarm cheerily heralds the beginning of my day. The melody is irritatingly genki. I ignore it completely. It will play it's tinny little tune six times before it wears itself out. I will continue to ignore it for four of these times. On the fifth chime, my brain clicks into gear and I bolt out of bed, wash, dress and leave in the hurried space of 20 minutes.

I acquire breakfast somewhere along my hike to the train station, maybe hot corn soup in a can from the vending machine directly outside my apartment, a roll from one of the many bakeries, onigiri or an apple from one of the kombinis. I have maintained the very un-Japanese habit of eating and walking in public, chowing down as I continue to the station.

I jump on the subway and sit down, usually only for long enough to be a seat minder for some cute little oba-chan who has hobbled onto the train just as the doors close.

Sunset from Kasuga Taisha

Just any other day in Nara

Just any other night in Dotonbori

Inconspicuous to Ikea

The first time Diglett and I went geocaching was in the mountains near Yao, where although we still had the difficulty of the treasure to contend with, there were no other people around to encumber us. The other day we decided to up our caching stress levels and attempt some urban caching, in some rather populated areas.

Now the trick to urban caching is stealth, speed and looking as "I'm totally meant to be here" as possible, which, as a very obviously western girl in Japan is down right impossible. So instead I went for the Little Girl Lost tourist look, not blending in but appearing completely harmless whilst standing out like a sore thumb.

We began with a cache that Diglett had already found at a previous time, that I still needed to retrieve to warm up. We then moved on to the magilla of populous caches.

Right in the middle of an overpass that probably has more people traffic than anywhere else in Tennoji, it sits, out in the open, visible to anyone looking, but unseen by the multitudes of muggles passing daily. Appearing to find the photos Diglett was taking exceedingly interesting, but also needing a drink, I dropped the Mini-Turtle to mask my movements and snatched the cache, impressing both Diglett and myself with my lightning hands.

If only the rest of the day had been as successful, we had a pot luck kind of day, finding about half of the treasure we were after, but once again the trail lead us around some strangely beautiful destinations which otherwise would have remained unseen. We caught cable cars and ferries, we traversed bridges, ramps and man-made mountains. At the end of our travels we toddled over to nearby Ikea and helped ourselves to a well earned hot dog and a shuttle back to Namba but not before discovering the awesomeness that is the Ikea Gingerbread House, which like all other Ikea products are purchased flat-packed.