As the cold wind blows...

I took a bike ride through part of the ghetto today.
(This is, of course, not a picture of me.)




I know it's a little crooked.
The people around me were very uncomfortable with my picture taking.
This is the local supermarket.


Sometimes I try to imagine what this section of town must have looked like twenty, thirty years ago.
The dirty yellow sign is for an old candy store.
I like to picture it in its prime, some friendly old man or woman handing out sweets to the neighborhood children.




This, to me, marks the start of 'the better side of south Osaka.'
Family Mart is a famous convenience store chain here. Convenience stores have a sort of importance in Japan that they never could have in the US; they are not usually attached to gas stations, but instead are standalone entities. Most people go to the convenience store (the konbini) every night after work to pick up some drinks and snacks, maybe a boxed lunch or dinner.
When you go to rent an apartment, one of the questions you will be asked is "how close do you want the nearest convenience store to be?"
Anyway, Family Mart is my favorite. The restaurant on top is called Bikkuri Donkii and is a hamburger restaurant that I've never actually been to.
It's a chain, and as far as I've seen, they all look like that.


A church I saw on the way home. These aren't as common here as you might be used to.


On the way back home, I passed by this store and had to quickly take a photo.
It's nice to know that even in hard economic times in the roughest part of town, there is still room for a flower shop.