Walking down the hallway the flickering overhead lights help guide my way. This is not quite what I had imagined when the name of the establishment had "Hotel" in it. The floor is tiled with cheap vinyl and most of it is missing due to the age of the place. The price I cannot argue with, 1,500 yen a night...the equivalent to 15 dollars... so I guess I should be okay with it.When I come to my room the door opens
outward into the hall. There is a 2 foot area in front for you to leave your shoes and then the bed. It is not a traditional bed but rather a pad and a blanket. The room resembles that of a prison cell with no heat and a very small T.V. They include a foot warmer which in turn act likes an electric blanket and heats your bed. There is hardly room for my cloths and myself to live comfortably but it will do for the first few nights as a base for finding accommodation in Osaka.The first few days have done little to instill confidence that I will find a job in this city. It appears that along like everything else in this current economic state, not very many companies want to go through the hassle of sponsoring a person for employment. I have had two interviews with a daycare place called Olive International School which is a job but not ideally what I want to be doing. They want me to stay for a year and a half and after just one day my head felt like it was about to explode. I have a phone interview on Monday with another company that is located in Nagoya a good 3 hours away but a job is a job. Other than that it is the waiting game...one that is very dreadful and inconvenient for a person that had no idea what to do next.
After two nights in the great Toyo Hotel I saw a place that was on the Internet. It is a guesthouse that has about 30 separate apartments in it. The man informed me that there was no opening until the 20th of December but said I could check it out anyway. When I turned up for the walk through he said that the other person cancelled and there was one apartment available if I wanted. My first step in the building I could see it was already a better place than the Toyo Hotel.
My apartment...the Japanese are very hard to come by a lot of space... is about 10 by 20. There is a sink, stove...kind of... a western twin bed...I can't tell you how great I slept the first night... and a closet of sorts. It does not look like much but it is a nice place with a lot of westerners taking up residence. Upstairs on the roof they have build a common area with cable T.V., free Internet, and other things to keep me occupied while I sit and wait to hear from companies. I have paid for two weeks which will put me back on the road on Boxing Day...December 26th. I believe I am going to head off to South Korea if no work comes about because I do not just want to sit here and waste money not seeing anything when I could go experience an entirely new world for a little bit then get over to central Asia. A lot of things still need to be worked out but I will keep you informed.
