Maybe if I hope enough someone will make a useful index and not something only useful for companies that move their corporate rats around to different countries.

You mean there are plebeians that read the Economist!? Oh Bartleby, you are such a joker.

Some streets are too small so Google decided to ‘mount‘ high school girls and capture the smaller streets.

One of the main problems is that they hold the finer details of how everything is calculated away from prying eyes; you end up knowing what they’re looking at (isn’t it blindingly obvious?), but you don’t know the exacts: are they buying what everyone else eats?, do they live in an up-scale place?, where do their kids go to school? These are all simple things to those that grew up in the area (or lived there for a while), but it can be very different for anyone that is only there for business.

Almost every magazine/website that writes about the list drops the “expatriate employee” thing, but this is the thing that gives you the correct perspective of the whole list; this list isn’t telling you the most expensive city in the world, it’s a list for companies who are sending mid/high level employees to another country. This fact brings along other things that help you see the list for what it really is; this is a list that shows you if the life for someone living in Manhattan would be more or less expensive in another city. They don’t take into consideration any government subsidies or cultural norms that would affect diet, where someone lives, how large of a place they would be living in, fashion, and other possessions.

Honestly, I don’t have much of a problem with Mercer’s list – they openly state the main purpose of the list – my issue is that this is consistently misreported, which gives you this and this. Since it’s reported the way that it does it’s actually quite difficult to find which city is actually the most expensive to live in (it’s certainly not Moscow); there are other lists that you can find, but they are all geared toward western habits. Some lists aren’t bad, but none of them tell us what we are led to believe.

I saw an article about a little island off the coast of Nagasaki (Fat man, not little boy) that was very attention grabbing. Hashima Island (the japanese version has more pictures) is currently abandoned, but starting from just a few days ago it has been opened to the public. I’m not going to give you all the details of the island, but you should definitely read more about it (that’s what the links are for).

There are more pictures here and this site has older pictures and some info. Also, google maps.

Wait… grass grows?

This is a park. Evidently they decided they didn’t need to do anything to it after they made it. When they exist, parks are not always maintained well in Osaka. There could be situations where the grass is not cut or there could also be times when they need to reseed, but don’t expect that to happen. I think the grass keeps dying because there isn’t enough park space. Maybe it’s because of the homeless people that live in the park. I’m not sure.There’s also the time when you go to a park and there’s no grass at all. This seems to happen mostly at playgrounds and sports fields. Why did they think this was a good idea? Grass is so much more useful here than sand (or hard dusty ground) for many reasons; I don’t need to mention these reasons as they’re beyond obvious. Why is there no grass? I just don’t know and I don’t know of a good reason for the city to not put down grass or sod.

This was the only grass in the entire fucking park.

Parks are so nice. Why are there so few parks with grass in Osaka? Why are there so many open areas that are just boring concrete? It’s so easy to make green space. You don’t even need to sacrifice commercial space (especially since they build fucking malls below the main road here). This is why I’m so enamoured with Namba Parks. Unfortunately, they needed a 外人 (gaijin) to design it. Green must not be part of the Japanese spectrum of colors?

Non earthy/rocky colors? Yeah, screw them.

You’re really nice and very cute, but you sometimes have problems. Remember when you got captured by those weird demon creatures and they gave you that rare condition? I know that you took some medication to fix that, but there’s something else that we need to talk about.

Well, I think that you’re nice and all, but I’d really like it if you could make yourself look a little nicer. Don’t take this the wrong way. You look really nice, but sometimes I think you put a little too much effort sometimes. Remember, less is more. I don’t want you to think that I’m being mean so I won’t talk about those dark times anymore.

What I really want to say is this: You’d look nicer if you were a little more natural. No, I don’t mean down there. I don’t even know why you brought that up. Anyways, maybe you should think about putting on a little less makeup? Remember that one time when you decided to look a little more natural? That looked really nice and everyone loved it. Maybe you should do something like that again?

Besides, it’s nice to do something a little different every once in a while. It was really great when you wore the green number to that spring party. The accessory that you wore in your hair looked really wonderful too. I’m not just saying this because you always wear the same thing, just that this outfit seems to fit you a little better.

You must not remember that party too much I guess; you did have more than a fair share of alcohol, but I do remember that night. I was quite taken when you were wearing that outfit (except when you vomited in their golf club bag). It fit you quite well. Is this bringing anything back? No?

36-24-36

Anyways, I know you really like that gray outfit, but doesn’t it get a little hot in the summer? Cooler colors would probably feel a lot better, don’t you think?

So I decide I’ll go to a park in Nara first, which there are tons of. I, of course, have no idea what I’m in for. You know how they have this animal in America called deer? Well, they’re in Japan as well, but Nara treats deer differently. In Nara, they roam free. The city basically decided to give them a free pass. The stupid ones run in front of cars and die, but the smart ones stay in the park (around people, not cars) and get to munch on all the treats that people give them.

Feed Me!

Of course, there’s stipulations that people have to follow around the deer, but I’m not Japanese so I don’t have to follow those stipulations. I know, I know. I really do have to follow the stipulations, but I have no freaking idea what these stipulations are. You think you could read them? Don’t answer that, ’cause you can’t read them. You can, however, laugh. That’s part of the reason you come to this blog anyways, right?

I think the best way to summarize the sign is in five words. Write these five words in lots of languages on one giant sign:

Don’t piss off the deer!

You don’t want to make deer angry. You wouldn’t like deer when they’re angry. No seriously, one deer gave me a really bad paper-cut; I almost cried.

So after having fun wrestling deer in the park and then getting arrested in the park, I decide to see more of Nara. For brevity, I will turn this next part into a montage (cue the montage music): I found out that Nara has a neat and really large marketplace, that scooters are really really cheap in Japan (the license and driving school you have to attend costs more), that you can find white people anywhere (all I have to do is look in a mirrror!), and I solidified my belief that 100 yen shops are the greatest shop ever. (end the montage music).

So cut to nighttime and, thus, the festival. It really looked like it was going to rain so I brought an umbrella. While doing this it must have looked like I was getting something to eat for the deer, ’cause they ambushed me. That was fun.

Of course, I had no idea what to do or where to go so I followed the crowds of Japanese people. This was a good idea and I actually made it to the festival. It was really neat, you should’ve been there (nooooo! I want to live in America with my Blackberry and my government job. No…. don’t get mad Sam. It was a joke. Now…. now…… calm down. Everything is OK. Just climb down from the roof and let’s talk about it.). Since you couldn’t make it, I give you this picture that doesn’t even come close to capturing the mood, fun, and other cool adjectives of the festival.

This picture is only worth 472 words. Ha.

Now that you are left sobbing in your cushy chair while I am writing this on a floor made of straw I bid you adieu.