Osaka and Nishitani Village

This last Saturday I took a trip with friends to Osaka Umeda, which is probably the central hub of Osaka.  There Osaka Umeda station is located there and Shin Osaka Station is nearby.  The trip was surprisingly easy.  I walked to the nearest station, which luckily is a hub for the Hankyu trains.  I met my friends there, and then boarded and Limited Express for Osaka Umeda.  The trip took about 12 minutes and cost a little more than 200 yen.  It can add up if you commute or have to make multiple transfers, but I was surprised at how cheap it was to travel between cities.

The next day I traveled to the complete opposite of the concrete jungle which is Osaka.  With a small group of friends I took part in a trip to Nishitani village.  It was essentially a rural sightseeing excursion put on by a "fieldwork" class interested in economic revitalization projects for the city of Takarazuka, Hyogo-ken.  On this day trip we took the train out to the meeting place, then boarded a bus which took us up and out of the lower lying cities of Kansai into the "mountains." (We would probably call them hills.)  As soon as you get out of the cities the roads start to wind around mountains and rice fields start to appear. (Well, they appear more frequently than they do in the city, although I do pass several on the way to school.)  The style of houses becomes more traditional and the houses triple in size.  It also, luckily, cools off a little bit.  We visited several two shrines and Buddhist temple which is part of a Kansai area pilgrimage.  We had a translator so I now understand a little more than I did before about the religions.

This trip also provided a chance to practice my Japanese.  I found that when trying to explain complicated subjects, I easily confuse both myself and the person I am trying to speak to.  This is probably because English grammar and Japanese grammar are structured in almost the opposite way. If this wasn't complex enough, when you support a statement (using the equivalent of "because") the "because" part of the statement comes in a complete phrase before the actual point you want to make.  I find this to be counter intuitive.

Yesterday was my first day of class at Kwansei Gakuin Daigaku.  I only had one class so it was a bit underwhelming, but it was fun class and I like the people in it.  It is the speaking, listening, and composition component of the intensive Japanese program.  Assuming I find my way to school again, today I will have the reading and writing parts of Japanese, followed by a Japanese history course.  For the lunch break between I will meet up with one of my "Nihongo Partners", a student who volunteered to meet with me and help me work on my Japanese.

Today it might rain but the internet still predicts a temperature of 34C (93F).  Luckily, on Thursday it's supposed to drop down to 26C (78F).  I for one am looking forward to it.