So I've made it through the first week in Osaka. The job will largely consist of problem solving, fire-fighting, and making design decisions as problems with issues new to this site pop up.
The crew I work with is fun. Last night we went out on a birthday celebration to an all-you-can-eat (and all you can drink) grill. The food was great. I even went out on a limb and tried some of the more bizarre stuff such as raw squid, fried lotus root with "meat", and Japanese radish soup (I think it was just a turnip soup). Afterwards many of us cruised over to the Pig and Whistle, a local pub about half full of ex-patriots from America, England, and Australia. It was lots of fun to get out and do a bit of real socializing.
That's it for work. Now for the really fun stuff...
Thursday I discovered the coolest place: the food section of Hanshin department store. Imagine a place the size of a big HEB (maybe even larger...it took me half an hour or so to walk all the aisles). Instead of isles of food shelves, imagine the perfume section at Dillard's or Foley's. Now, replace the perfume with exotic foods and desserts and stuff the floor with Christmas season crowds, and you might have a notion of what it was like. The desserts just went on and on. I can't guess how many different dessert counters there were...Maybe 50. And all sorts of odd foods...gourmet seaweed...loose tea...fried stuff...sushi...piles of little, bitty dried fish (we're talking 1" long and 1/8" thick), as well as normal stuff. It was an absolute assault on the senses of sight, sound, and smell. I'll definitely have to get some pictures.
This afternoon one of the guys took me out to check out the shopping district, "Den Den". When we got there, I couldn't believe how quick and easy it was to get completely turned around and lost. Imagine lots and lots of narrow, deep stores (more to fit onto the streetfront that way), and streets that go every which way, with no rhyme or reason that would occur to a sane person. Half of them seem to have once been streets, but have since been covered over by a metal and glass roof about four stories overhead. I didn't even make a dent in the shops. I can't guess how long it would take to get a good idea of what's there. Most of the buildings contain about 5 stories of retail floorspace, and from what I saw, there's probably a minimum of twenty five square blocks of it. It's hard to guess, since I really had very little idea of what direction anything was in once I left it. This is another photo opportunity.
I haven't taken any pictures yet, because I've been waiting to buy a digital camera. Even though I intended to pick something up at Den Den, when I got there I realized that I haven't done enough homework. With all of the descriptive cards written in Japanese, I need to have a good idea of features that I want and how much they should cost before I go blindly buying something. I definitely want to get something tomorrow if possible, though. It would be nice to post some shots for you folks stateside. That's all for now. This evening I'll try to hook up with some folks from work and go see Fantasia II (in Japanese...hopefully with English subtitles). Who knows what will come afterwards...