About My Town: Shijonawate

Shijonawate is the red one.

Shijonawate is in Osaka Prefecture, northeast of Osaka City. It takes 30-45 mins to get downtown by train. The city itself is nice enough. My favorite thing about it is the backdrop of mountains/hills. The streets are narrow, and houses are very close together, like most cities in Japan. Everything I need is in walking distance: several supermarkets, a couple stores that sell everyday things, the train station, the post office, the bank, convenience stores, restaurants/bars, the hospital, a million places to get your hair cut, a pachinko place (kind of like a casino), and so on. Having a bicycle is nice but not even necessary. My BOE is actually more like a 10-15 min walk away, so having a bike is nice for that. There are two possible junior high schools I will teach at. It hasn't been decided which person, Mary (the other new JET) or I, will get which one. One is super close and the other is far away. I would have to take a bus to get to it so I kind of hope I get the closer one, but I will not complain either way.

Narrow streets.

Grocery store and convenience store.

 To expand out a little more, like I said, downtown Osaka is pretty close. There are a lot of things to do there like any major city. Last year when I came to Japan, I visited Osaka and went to the famous aquarium and giant Ferris wheel. I’m looking forward to going to a place in Osaka called “Spa World.” I think the name pretty much sums it up. Osaka Castle is a famous tourist sight which is about 25 mins away or so. I saw that the other day. It was neat. The closest station to me is actually called Shinobugaoka. Shijonawate station is one stop away from that. There are a lot of little places at the Shijonawate stop, including a McDonalds that I went to the other day. It was terrible, haha! The fries and Coke were good, but I got a chicken filet sandwich which was slimy, dark, and had gooey chicken skin underneath the fried part…needless to say, I didn't eat much of it. From my experience, the chicken at McDonalds is slimy and gross with the exception of this one seasonal sandwich called the “Chikin Tatsuta.” I hope that comes back. :/

Shinobugaoka Station.

Osaka Castle in video form.

Osaka Castle in picture form.

One of the major stops on my train line where you usually transfer at to go downtown is called Kyobashi. There is a lot of stuff to do there in itself! There is a large mall and lots of places to eat and drink. Kris took me to a place called Giraffe in Kyobashi, and we got a few drinks. It was a nice time. Even better of a time though was when later that night he took me to a bar in our town called White and Cigar. It’s a coffee shop during the day and a bar at night. Apparently that is Kris’ "place." He goes a few times a week and is good buds with the owner. I've never been to a bar that has felt more comfortable than White and Cigar. Kris told me that he learned how to speak Japanese better from going to this bar. I’d like to do the same, but as of now, I’m not comfortable going alone because my Japanese is not good enough to carry on a conversation. Kris did a lot of translating for me when we went. I hope to become good enough at Japanese to hang out there one day. I met a lot of cool Japanese people when I went. One thing that still surprises me is that when you are in a bar or restaurant, people start smoking. Then I remember it’s allowed. It’s just weird to me at first when people start smoking. Also, if I have had one culture shock moment so far, it is this: At the bar, the TV (it’s a big TV in a small place, but the volume was low/off because music was playing) was on an HBO type channel. While we were there, this movie came on, and it was very weird. It was mostly just weird tattooed/pierced S&M people having bondage sex…and ya, it was just playing on TV like no big deal, but I was like what the f*ck!? Despite that, it was a good time, and I had fun trying to converse with Japanese people and getting to know Kris a bit (he is an alcohol master lol…he can drink a ton of strong stuff and not even seem like he’s drank anything). I feel like such a clingy loser because I feel like I’m always bothering him. I kind of get the idea that he is taking me around and showing me things more so because he has to as my predecessor (and because he was told to by my Supervisor). Mary moved in the other day and I am just getting to meet her. We might hang out this weekend. She seems nice so far. She’s really good at Japanese because she studied abroad in Japan. I feel so dumb!! Anyway, hopefully we have some stuff in common.

White and Cigar is on the bottom floor, right side of this
complex.