大阪

well, it's about time to start chimping again. the old maximo has just reloctated within japanland. left tokyo yesterday and headed down south, to osaka. in the spirit of zz top, i took the bus. i got there 15 minutes ahead of time, after an extremely tiresome, long walk with my friend. i put one of my bags in a locker at harajuku station (next to yoyogi kouen) so the logistics kinda worked against us, being in shibuya. but we walked our asses of (me with 20 kilo's of guitar and other junk on my back) and made it to shinjuku on time. then we proceeded to search for the right bus terminal, which proved to be quite an ordeal. but we made it. if it weren't for her helping me out, i might have had a hard time finding it. so much props to her for walking me there. anway, the bus for osaka was one of them highway night busses. and it left at 11PM. but before that, i made a quick dash back to the konbini (convenience store) and stocked up on some orange juice, as i'd just speed-walked a few miles with kilo's on my back, i was parched and soaked to the bone. turned on my CoC's 'Wiseblood' record and let that play 'round a few times, dozing in and out of sleep. turns out the bus stopped every two hours, so the second time around (being 3AM) i went for a quick piss break and stocked up on another liter of OJ (after having downed two already) - man, must be because it's so fucking hot... they had the aircon blowing, though which actually made me quite cold in the bus, but sleep took over, so i be good. it was around that time that i switched 'wiseblood' for 'deliverance' and konked out on that for a good little bit. got out again at 5 (no piss break, strange), shopped around the konbini for a bit, but didnt want to waste no more money, so i hopped back on the bus and konked. next thing i knew we got to Osaka Umeda station... perfect, time to get off. 650AM, 25 minutes ahead of schedule. i search for the JR (Japan Railways - not the underground/metro service) station and whip out my laptop 'puter to check out the map of the hostel i had booked. they call hem hotels ('tels or 'ho' in wattspeak) here, apearantly. which makes you think they is some kind of fancy, expensive something, but theys actually pretty cheap. turns out i had to go to shin-imamiya. thank god for being able to read kanji as i look up 新今宮 on the map. a 170 yen for a one way ticket. done deal. i take my two bags and head for track one, the osaka loopline. on my bags; they is HEAVY. i stuffed one of them (the guitar case) with TWO guitars and a bunch of cables and stuff. the other one is a recent purchase (got it when i bailed for south korea) and despite it's small size, it's even heavier. i travel light, but what makes it so darn heavy is all the music gear i haul around. the guitar and a sparse array of pedals being the main sources of evil. i'm surprised i never fell over. did lose my geta (japanese wooden flipflops) a few times, though. my feet get sweaty and since the geta aren't bare wood, with 35 kilos of dead-weight pressure pushing on 'em at weird angles, shit happens. oh well, i'm still in one piece. got to shin-imamiya early, 715AM or thereabouts. it takes me a good 45 minutes to find the ho' (even though it's litterally 2 minutes away from the station, damn). mainly due to the abundancy of 'tels on this street, me putting down all my gear a few times to check the map on my 'puter and taking frequent rests (the gear is wearing me down). when i finally find it a man informs me that the reception dun open untill 9AM. it's 8... so i haul all my gear to a nice little curb on the side of the road and whip out a book my pal simon gave me upon leaving japan, timbuktu by paul auster. i spend the next hour reading it. it doesn't aid my state of mind... man, it feels like i ended up down south (i mean, south of osaka, ofcourse i'm down south) - which is where folks in tokyo told me to kind of be weary of. it's the seedy/shady part of town. kind of dirty, loads of drunks, etc. surely when i check in to the hostel this seems to be true. the price is righteous, the man gives me a 50 yen discount, but then mistakes the change (to my advantage) so i end up with 250 extra yen in my pocket. nothing to write home about (though i am), but enough to buy me some vegetables, or millet, stuff like that. yup, seems to be the shady part of town, allright, it's got that mission/tender loin feeling, but very japanese, and a million times kinder. we'll see how i deal with it. i was envisioning doomsday scenario's in my head waiting to check in, but now that i have, i'm just happy that i have a private room for the first time in 4 months. all the other residents seem to be grey-haired, single men. given the part of town we're in, they're probably either pachinko (gambling hall) people or alcoholics... maybe both. no heroin/cocaine problem in japan, maybe speed, so that alone makes it a million times kinder than 'frisco or la. my plan is to sit it out here for a couple of day (i booked for/payed for 5 nights/days) and explore my alternatives around osaka (and kyoto, as it's only a 30 minute trainride away, which is negligible). though this pad seems cheap, and i'm sure i could get a monthly discount if i wanted to. it's 10AM as of writing (or getting to be ten pretty soon) and i'm looking at doing a little bit of konk, and then exploring the city. find some free wireless so i can do the internet thing (no wireless here, not too sure about free net) and get this spiel up and running. and just do my discovering over the next couple of days. i feel really strange, bordering on a little down, or better, emotionally wrecked. but that's to be expected with little konk and a complete change of enviroment. the next two months are completely out in the open, and it's daunting.... though i'm sure i'll get my head around it once i get some konk. max out....