Finishing Osaka, on to Tokyo

I've covered some of the great food Andrew and I had in Japan, so now let me move on to whatever else it was that we were doing between meals.  Two posts ago I touched on Osaka, the second largest city in Japan and our fist stop in the country.

Osaka is in the Kansai region of Japan, which also includes Kobe and Kyoto

Osaka city proper has about 2.7 million people, but that is only a fraction of the true number.  Citing population based on city limits can be quite misleading.  Take my hometown of Columbus, and Cleveland, another city in Ohio, as examples.  The population of the city of Columbus is over 800,000, while Cleveland's is less than half that.  Take a look at the metro area, or the urban core plus surrounding suburbs and commuter towns, and the comparison is flipped: Cleveland is substantially larger than Columbus.

Back to Osaka - while the city itself only has a couple million inhabitants, add in the urban sprawl and surrounding cities, such as Kyoto and Kobe, and the greater Osaka area is home to some 19 million people!  Because of the high population density (which is true of Japan in general) most apartments are notoriously small.  Our place, which we rented on Airbnb, had a bathroom and two small rooms: a kitchen area and a sleeping / living room.  If I were any taller my knees would have been pressed up against the bathroom door and I wouldn't have been able to stand fully upright to take a shower!  I'm six foot two, definitely not freekishly tall by Western standards, but considering I stand a head above most Japanese small bathrooms aren't a problem for many locals.

It's a good thing that there are hardly any obese Japanese people!

Andrew and I ended up spending close to a week in Osaka.  We arrived on the evening of the 7th and left for Tokyo on the 14th, both on Peach Aviation.  Before making the reservations I, like many of you, had never heard of the airline called Peach.  It's a budget Japanese carrier with mostly domestic flights; the price was cheap and we got there safe and sound, which was good enough for me!  We had considered taking the bullet train to Tokyo, but tickets will set you back hundreds of dollars while a flight with Peach cost $60, flying was an easy decision.

Peach's bright pink planes saved us money without
adding much time to our trip.

After spending six days in Osaka I was ready to move there.  No, really, I was considering it.  I've been thinking about where I'd like to teach (my plan is to teach English for at least one more year before graduate school), and Japan was certainly an option.  Andrew and I had a great time in Osaka, so much so that I was looking at job sites for teaching gigs.  Now part of that was just the excitement of being in a new place - and traveling with a great friend - but the city did leave a great impression on me .

After experiencing Tokyo I'm still partial to Osaka.  Tokyo was definitely fun, but more expensive and formal.  Locals in Osaka like to say that they are friendlier than their business oriented compatriots in the capital, which seemed true (although maybe I was looking for examples to fit the narrative).  Tokyo has better job opportunities in business and academia, but if I were teaching in Japan Osaka would be my first choice.

Here's a link to an interesting article on the rivalry between the Kansai and Kanto regions of Japan (home to the greater Osaka and Tokyo regions, respectively).

I like big cities, but Tokyo is just huge (I'll touch on that more in my next post).  Living in central Tokyo would be great, if you can afford it.  Most people, especially families, live in the surrounding cities, so as an English teacher that's likely where you'd be working.  If I were living and working in a suburb an hour from central Tokyo, than most likely I'd only be in the city occasionally on weekends.  I could easily end up in a suburb of Osaka, but fortunately it's size is a bit more manageable, and an apartment within the city would be more affordable than Tokyo (still not cheap though).

I like big cities, don't get me wrong, but Tokyo is just so massive that it'd be hard to get a good feel for it working there 
only a year.  Also as a teacher you'd likely end up working and living in an outlying town.

A part of me would still love to live in Japan for a year, but after thinking it over teaching there would be a mixed bag.  Sure I like the layout of the cities, which have great public transportation and are pedestrian and cyclist friendly.  The food is amazing and the nightlife is fun - although eating and going out the way Andrew and I did would be prohibitively expensive on a teacher's salary.

That's the thing - first year ESL teachers make about 250,000 Yen a month, a bit over $2000.  Renting an efficiency apartment, which is not covered by the employer, will cost you between 40 and 80 thousand Yen.  So after your apartment, utilities, taxes (some of which you can claim back), and other monthly bills (such as a phone, gym membership, etc) disposable income will probably be in the $1000-1200 range.  That's sufficient to live on, but certainly not enough to go out to fancy restaurants and clubs every weekend, or to save up decent money to support future travel.

The work atmosphere in Japan is also a potential downside.  Along with Korea, Japan consistently tops the OECD (a club of developed countries) for number of hours worked per employee.  Now I worked in Korea and I wasn't exactly living at the office.  I was teaching about 26 hours a week, which was tiring in itself, and along with prep time, lunch duty, meetings and the like equated to about a 40 hour work week.  Some of the advertised jobs in Japan were for 30 teaching hours a week, which would put you over 40 hours (and teaching, especially to little ones, can sap your energy).  Throw in Japanese language classes or tutoring to earn extra spending money and you'd be pretty busy.

Here's a list of OECD countries' total annual hours worked per employee.  I was surprised to see that Japan
isn't in the top three.  It's still above average, but according to the study the real number is most likely much higher;
the government only included paid overtime in the total, not the unpaid, "service overtime" variety used by 85%
 of Japanese companies.  What's not surprising though is that Korea ranks first.  Who could have guessed Greece
would be second?  Looks like they work more than you might expect (here's a link to the study).

To reiterate, I think I'd still enjoy living in Japan, but it was much more fun as a traveler.  Andrew and I did talk about moving there together, but he's working in Dallas at the moment and it looks as though I'll be teaching in China.  I'm still keeping my options for graduate school open though, so you never know where I could end up!

Wow I got pretty sidetracked there...back to Osaka.  There actually not a whole lot else to tell.  Andrew and I spend a lot of time in Namba, one of the downtown districts in Osaka with plenty of restaurants and bars.  We twice went out to Bar One, which had an all you could drink special - 3,000 Yen ($25) for two hours.  Of course they only had two bartenders and a long line, but it was a friendly vibe with a good mix of expats and locals.  On Thursday, our first night out, we went for a karaoke nightcap with a group from Bar One.  Then Saturday three women I met at Bar One invited me to continue the party at another club.  To my disappointment the three friends disappeared after a couple hours of dancing with me, but instead of calling it a night I continued until dawn.  Andrew had gone home long ago - he took an expensive taxi while I waited to catch the subway when it was up and running again in the morning!

Dotonbori Canal running through Namba

Covered pedestrian walkway with hundreds of shops and restaurants

We did manage a bit of sightseeing - aside from food tourism we also toured Osaka Castle and the Umeda Sky Building.  Osaka Castle was originally built in the 16th century, although it was destroyed and rebuilt on several occasions.  The reconstructed central tower houses a museum outlining the history of the region; the view from the top of the tower is an added bonus.  For an even better view of the city check out the Umeda Sky Building, which is actually two 40-story towers connected at the top by an observation deck.

Main tower of Osaka Caste

View from the top of the tower

Umeda Sky Building

Andrew atop the Sky Building

Andrew and I also took a day trip to Kyoto, the former capital of Japan (a title which it held for over one thousand years).  For less than $5 the local train will take you from Osaka to Kyoto, which takes about 30 minutes from downtown, or just under an hour from where we were staying.  Yuri, a member of our karaoke gang had the day off and agreed to travel with us to Kyoto.  She was a good addition; it's always nice to have an extra traveler when you've been with the same guy 24/7 for a month straight, especially one who speaks the local language!

Kyoto has numerous palaces, shrines, and temples, and although we only saw a small number our day trip was enough to get a feel for the history.  Yuri, our friend / local guide, gave us a brief overview of the sights' significance and history.  After a few hours of walking it was time again for food, and Yuri came through with a great sushi restaurant recommendation.

Posing with Andrew in Kyoto

Yuri was much more of an artsy photographer than I am.

The plan was to go to Tokyo mid-week, spending about five days in Osaka.  Five days turned into six, then seven, but we knew we couldn't stay in Osaka forever.  We were excited to see Tokyo as well, and Andrew's friend Alex would be in town.  Besides, Andrew had a flight back to the States to catch!  More on Tokyo next time.