Osaka I daisuki you

I fell in love with Japan all over again.

It is a misguided love, that's true. It's falling in love with the biker boy with tattoos and a facial piercing. But while it lasts, it's a true love. I could have cried as I saw the concrete jungle disappear behind me and I once again made my way to the concrete-covered mountains of the countryside.

The weekend started with a Tool concert. Well, we can retrace a bit and say the weekend started in a tiny little tatami room for 1000yen a night, changing into party clothes (2 shirts and 7 pairs of socks for 5 days in the city.. will I never learn to pack properly) and cracking open one-cup sake. Trainrides to Cosmo Square, giggling in anticipation and walking the road to Zepp Osaka with dreary looking people dressed in black. Three tall South Africans reunited, plus some new friends from Hiroshima and Kyuushu.

The Tool concert was bizarre. Tool: Japan style. For a subculture that is based on anger and rebellion, it was mind-boggling to see the fans line up in perfect ques to go inside. By number. Guys with loudspeakers calling seat numbers for standing places, and the Japanese sheep lining up to take their assigned spot on the floor. Weird. My token line from the evening is "I got shusshed at a Tool concert". And when I didn't stop talking, someone flicked me against the ear. Library, dark rock concert, same thing yo.

Long story. Grand evening.

That feels like it happened 3 months ago. Only having limited time in Osaka, we made sure to fill the hours maximally by only sleeping around 2 to 3 hours per day. For 4 days. After that, we were worn-out enough to sit in bed and watch a movie on my Mac to start off our last night in Osaka.

Maybe I'll do a more structured post later. Day by day, or so. What it comes down to is the following:

1) I love Osaka. I might be in love with Osaka. The highest concentration of freaks in Japan. Take me home, Willy Wonka. Walking in the streets around Namba is like walking into a fantasy toystore where dolls have pulse and they speak Japanese and they ignore your foreign existance. I want to collect them: One hip-hop b-boy. One goateed-hottie with guitar on back. One goth chick with smeared black lipstick. One industrial raver. One manga-like waif. One iro-iro no iro multicoloured explosion of psychedelic colour with big hat. One mountain witch eating bananas. One Little Bo Peep. One pimp with funky hair. One psuedo-schoolgirl. One salaryman. And then I want to keep them on a shelf, look at them, and take them out to have tea with, one by one.

2) The art teacher who wears the same navy blue suit Every Single Day wanted to use the broken pc next to me, so I gave him this one. And forgot what my rant was.

Tabun I wanted to say something about.. I spent as much money cruising 5 days in Osaka as I spent 2 weeks in Thailand. So it is probably a good thing that I do not live there. The inaka is my harnass to the real world. ("real world" hahaha.. haha. yeah. hahaha..). But should I lose myself in Japan, I'd like it to be in Osaka.