1976 Nagasawa with full suntour superbe pro

Finally I got the chance to upload photos of this;


http://www.flickr.com/photos/2joes2/sets/72157625263500806/

1976 NAGASAWA Frame

Suntour Superbe Pro Track Crankset
Suntour Superbe Pro Pedal Set
Suntour Superbe Pro Hub Set
Suntour Superbe Pro Seat Post

Dura Ace BB and Headset (Italian)
3ttt Bar/Cinelli Bar
Araya Gold Tubulars
Toshi Singles/MKS alloy clips
Kashimax X Nagasawa Saddle

I had been in Japan for a few months and was always watching the Yahoo Auctions. I was lucky enough to find this frame in my size for a cheap price due to some damage in the top tube and a bad listing. On arrival, and after inspecting the frame I became worried that maybe the frame was in fact a fake!

The bike showed no signs of being a real Nagasawa frame. At this stage I began to think I had just paid far too much for a random frame. Around this time I went travelling with a mate and left the frame at the bike shop where I work. (check out the blog http://sayacafes.exblog.jp/page/2/ )

I think this was the time I had gone away with dad so was able to check my emails every so often on his laptop. On day I opened my gmail and check an email from Rene. It said he had visited Nagasawa`s factory and unfortunately the frame was in fact a fake! My heart sank. for a few seconds I was so dissapointed.

Then, checking up the list of emails I noticed another email from Rene. The second email read;
"....just kidding, he said it was 'the start of his story', and is a 1976 november frame. He had not seen
one like that for ages, and told me a lot about it...."

I then realised I had stumbled across an extremely rare frame! One that will probably stay with me for a very long time.

The frame has many unique points to it. Firstly the paint is Nakano red, a colour Nagasawa has now retired in respect to his 10 time world champion rider. All the new Nakano reds now have gold sparkles. This alone shows the age of the frame. It was in fact build in Novermber 1976, the first year Nagasawa built under his own name having returned from Italy training under De Rosa.

All the parts are Suntour except for the BB and Headset and this is due to two things. Firstly, having just arrived back from Italy, Mr Nagasawa was yet to create his own lug work and therefore used De Rosa lugs he brought home with him. As well as this he was only used to working with Italian thread. Secondly, I was lucky enough to have a mate take the frame out to his factory and Nagasawa and his son regreased the bb and head set, put new bearings in the head set and polished them both up. I will upload some photos of this asap.

The BB now spins forever!

Furthermore, being such an early frame, Nagasawa was yet to gain NJS certification so this has no stamp. the frame dons no Nagasawa stamps anywhere on the frame. The bb, seatstays, and rear drop outs are all bare.

I will try to get a photo of Nagasawa playing with the frame at a later date. My mate said Nagasawa felt very nostalgic commenting that it was such low quality yet couldnt take the smile off his face the whole evening.

DOZO!

Harry's Last Leg

...continued from "Zach comes to Osaka"

By the stage Zach had left, Harry had already been here about a week. It had been great to spend time alone with Zach, then with both Harry and Zach as a team but now it was time just to hang out with Harry.

Unfortunately neither of us were very active with our cameras. We did manage to catch some photos when we went to Kyoto however. I will try to keep this post short and sweet with the main part being the juicy stuff. The first one also includes some cultural (maybe thats too extreme a word) information about Japan.

Here in Japan tax on Alcohol is extremely low. A bottle of Moet & Chandon will set you back just 30-40 dollars, Laphroaig single malt is similar, and your cheap stuff - smirnoff, Suntory, Jack..etc are all about 10 bucs for 700ml. Beers on the other hand are taxed a similar amount to Australian prices so the smart Japanese beer companies have come up with a new alcohol that tastes like beer but does not fit into the category of beer and receives less tax.

All this means bars often offer a service called Nomihodai. This means pretty much All you can drink! Earlier on during Zach and Harry's stay I had been to a friends birthday party at a restaurant which not only offered Nomihodai but also Tabehodai (meaning all you can eat).

Harry and I decided this would begin a big saturday night perfectly. Get lots of beer into us but still have a good amount of food in our stomachs to get us through the evening. Unfortunately they only offer 90 minutes so you have to rush a little to get the best bang for buck. Harry hadnt realised this and was disappointed when at the end he discovered he could have been far more drunk than he already was. I think it was lucky Harry hadnt discovered this earlier.....

Our next actions found us with some of my friends from Japan who were heading to a club called Pure. Conveniently for Harry Pure also offers Nomihodai. Japanese clubs work slightly different from Australian clubs. Usually on a saturday doors open around 12 and close at 5-6am often with many still rocking out on the dance floor. We arrived a little after 12 and got straight into our Nomihodai.

Within half an hour the dance floor had warmed up and the tracks were causing Harry to slowly move to centre stage. from this point till close the dance floor was defiantly ours. The white russians were flowing, some classics were playing and Harry was on fire. His favorite place for the evening was up on the stage where only girls were allowed to dance. Harry took that stage as his own and was pulled down from there many many times. Soon drinks were up and we felt we no longer had any reason to stay.

Following this we ate Maccas and ventured on home in an extremely rowdy manner - a story for Harry to tell sometime if your keen to ask him.

We expected this to be our last big evening out on the town. It was decided Harry should experience more than just the party life of Japan so one day when I was at work Harry shot off to Nara and explored the temples. Another day we made it to Kiyomizu-Dera on Kyoto. It was hard to catch many good photos as this place was so big but I can tell you it was really amazing. The view over Kyoto and Kansai was pretty awesome too.

Unfortunately, like many temples in Japan, it was over run by tourists, tour guides from China with loud speakers, local school kids, heaps of noisy Americans and it was right at the peak of summer so the heat was unbearable. Because of this we decided to make a pit stop at a nice little cafe along one of the paths in the temple grounds. We sat on the tatami floors and overlooked a nice bamboo forest.

After this we moved on to Ginkaku ji which was had unfortunately just closed. By this stage we were both pretty hot and bothered and decided it was time to head home.

Other than this trip, Harry's last week in Japan was mainly spent in Osaka drinking coffee, enjoying nice lunch and dinner and drinking a few beers here and there. Nothing too out of the ordinary but still a nice week hanging around. One day we did venture to Kobe - another city in the Kansai region. I had work till 7 so Harry went on a trip up the mountain and looked across all of Kobe.

Later I met up with him and we wandered around the city of Kobe. It is quite small and very new. It has the feeling of a planned city. It was completely ruined by an earthquake in 1995 which flattened the city so it has been in a rebuilding stage ever since. Despite this it was quite beautiful and Harry and I found a nice Italian restaurant to set down at and enjoy a fairly decent meal.

After this the excitement of Harrys trip was pretty much over. On his last evening we went out for Ramen at our favorite place. The owner went off and got his lady friend from across the road who sat and drank with us as we ate. As we invited her it was our shout for the beers. Later on, after I announced it was Harry's last night the owner served us a celebratory 1l bottle of Sake on the house. As we enjoyed this our new lady friend continued enjoying our free beers. Soon another random dude joined us so now we had a small party. After about 2 hours of drinking and chatting we finally decided it was time to leave. As we got up to pay the last man who joined us went to the counter and paid the entire bill despite him not drinking/eating anything.

The man told us it was a going away gift for Harry. As we walked home we decided we had to make use of the 60 bucs we had just saved and headed into town. We went to Onzieme, one of my favorite clubs in Osaka. It was a fairly random night so the club wasnt so busy. Soon we discovered it was in fact punk night! Harry was so pumped. They were playing some awesome old school tunes. Harrys request was Rock the Casbah which went off! Again Harry took to the ladies dance platforms. This evening was a sweet crowed who were down with pretty much anything so he remained there all evening.

It turned out a surprise evening of fun and capped off a fun trip. Again, it was awesome to have a chance to rock out with my homies from Melbourne. Thanks to Harry for coming over even during Summer - his least favorite season. It was a lot of fun! We defiantly rocked the d floor like back home in melbourne.

Next up is Manny's trip where we ventured up north for Fuji Rock festival. Check back in a few days....

Zach comes to Osaka

On the 26th of June Zach arrived at Kansai International Airport at roughly 9 pm. I caught him at the airport and took him home to the guest house where I spent 3 months at including all the time Zach and Harry were here. After settling in we wandered around Tsuruhashi - the suburb of the guest house home to many Korean people, and eventually found a tiny Ramen shop. We sat at the counter and ate ramen. We also had a little chat with the owner. This led to a customer, interested in us as foreigners, shouting us each a beer. This Ramen shop has ended up being my regular and I have had many exciting meals there. This also ended up being both Zach and Harry's favorite meal whilst in Japan.

For the first week Zach was here we just explored Osaka. We went to the shopping areas in the city and went drinking and eating nice food. Zach became fond of the vintage shops and bought a number of Polo and Hilfiger shirts. We also spent time with Rene and Sayaka at their new shop helping them with the fitout.

The first saturday, after I returned to the guest house after work I noticed a Japanese man sitting at a table in the bar with 7 cans of beer in front of him (all empty) being only 3pm i was quite surprised and asked the man what he was doing so early on a saturday afternoon. Someone in between my bad japanese mixed with english and his bad english mixed with japanese the conversation ended in him grabbing two beers from the fridge. I ran upstairs and grabbed zach. After 4 more beers each (all shouted by this random stranger) came decision time. This drunk man decided he was now hungry and wanted to take us out for two dinners.

We decided to take the risk and hopped in a cab with this generous man. We headed into Shinsaibashi, the main shopping district of Osaka. On the way there this generous, drunk man passed out. On arrival, after some work we woke him up. Again cash came pouring from his pockets. By this stage there were four of us - Zach, mr X, a random Korean guy staying at the guest house who had come along for the ride, and myself. We now went to a fantastic Sushi Train where three of us enjoyed delicious sushi and Beers! Unfortunately mr smith had now passed out and Zach was stuck on the far side of him. Again, on finishing our meal we woke him up with great difficulty. Again, he paid the full cop of the bill.

By this stage the random Korean man from the guest house decided he had taken enough and went home leaving us with full responsibility of this drunk mr Smith. Now volatile, X man decided he wanted second dinner so reluctantly we went along to a steak restaurant where the man ordered a number of steaks, chicken and many many beers. When we were only half way through our first our second had arrived. This continued on with spirits and more beers until finally we had to call it quits. We tried ordering water but he cancelled that and ordered more beer. At this stage we all had 3 mostly full beers in front of us. At this stage the man was fucked and had fallen asleep. Zach decided he had had enough and asked for the bill. Zach pulled out some cash and paid the $100 bill. Then we left dragging the man out of the restaurant.

we hailed a cab and headed on home. During the cab ride home he was singing some rediculous tunes and stopped the cab half way. we were forced out and the silly man asked us to join him at a bar. Impressed as we were by the resilience of the man we refused and went home.

A little disappointed by the result as we didnt feel the night was quite worth the hundred zach had to drop we hoped never to see the man again. The following night as we were out Hiro (the owner of the guest house) called me telling us that the man had dropped in again and wanted to drink more. We thought we had a stalker by this stage!

The next day we discovered however that the man had not been able to remember most of the previous night and felt bad so left each of us $100! After that we were most satisfied by our nights work!

During this week we received word from Harry that he had decided his mid year break would be better spent in Nippon with his homies so Zach and I were looking forward to his arrival. Meanwhile, I introduced Zach to my two friends Rene and Sayaka. Rene is the owner of the bike shop Gira Gira Chariya (tracksupermarket's physical store) where I work now building wheels and often helping with other odd jobs. As well as getting along really well with the outgoing, hilarious Sayaka, Zach was able to instantly connect with Rene's love of Hip Hop. A day at the bike shop would follow the lines of myself chatting about bike parts with Rene for an hour then Zach and Rene would go off about some sample J Dilla used in 1369 in a collaboration with some underground artist or something that i couldnt quite keep up with.

It was hilarious to see Zach and Sayaka working off each other. They were a great comedy duo. one evening Zach taught Sayaka to runway walk. We decided modelling could be a good career path for Zach.

It was really great to have Zach come over. He was the first of my Melbourne friends (other than mum) to come over and it was interesting to get an update on news from home. in this week i tried introducing Zach to a few things I have gotten to love. One of these is the food from Korea town. Kimche, Remen, Bibimba all of which Zach enjoyed immensely.

Within the first week of Zachs stay we realised that the guest house bike would not be sufficient so Zach decided he would drop into Gira Gira and build up his own bike. His choice of parts was minimalist and very classy. The has turn out looking great. Unfortunately however, due the some out of stock parts and long waiting time Zach was unable to use his bike in Japan.

http://www.tracksupermarket.com/blog/2010/09/gira-gira-shop-today.html

Not long after Harry arrived. We had planned on surprising him at the air port but due to lack of judgement on my behalf we were running very late! Zach and I were sitting on the train to the Air Port thinking, what happens if hes already on his way home. He would have no chance of getting there. On arrival to the airport we rushed towards the arrivals gate and on our way we met Harry. It could only have been a matter of minutes. If we had been 2 minutes later, or harry had been a bit earlier we would have missed him. Anyway, we went and picked up some beers and chatted about melbourne as we cruised home.

This night was in fact the second of two opening nights of Gira Gira's new store on the ground floor. Zach, Harry and I went off for dinner and then made our way over to catch the very end of the party. There was however an after party being held at one of my favourite clubs in Osaka called Joule. Approaching the front of the line, as neither Zach or Harry had ID (drinking age in japan is 20) we decided our best option was to be noisy, dumb Foreigners. This not only let us slip through without an ID check but also got us in cheap of Geijin tickets.

After wandering upstairs to the smoking room/roop top dj area having been put off by the rapping gangstars in skin suites we warmed up to some sweet tunes. Up stairs was where the party was at and a number of pretty important dudes in the bike industry including Mr Kashimax (head of Kashimax saddle company) who bought me a beer. On the roof there were also a few chicks one of which Harry chatted up for about half an hour. Unfortunately there was a gap in language and Harry couldnt quite get out the words Ruba Ho (love hotel).

Following our warm up, and a few drinks, and Harrys near miss we decided to hit the main D Floor. It was just like a re run of Seven band room at 10pm on a thursday just with 200 more people. We were ripping up the floor and were clearly the best dancers there. The music was also great. This unfortunately led to Zach head banging all night long which put his neck out. He was sore for days to follow. Lets just say he went for gold.

During the following week we hung out in Osaka, cruising to Kyoto for an afternoon, went out for Ramen. It was an awesome blokes chillin out time. Getting away from Melbourne for Harry and Zach and for me it was catching up with mates from back home. One day we spent at Osaka Castle. We rode there Zach and Harry using the extremely uncomfortable bikes from the guest house. We sat by the mote and enjoyed the Sun.

Soon it was time for Zach to return to Melbourne. It was sad to see him go. one week together in Osaka is quite a lot when you are spending each and every day together. Zach was here for three so after this time we had really spent some time together. Im very grateful for Zach coming over. Many people have said they would come over but Zach was the first to say it and follow through. He set the standard. On the last day, before heading off to the airport we made a final stop into one vintage shop. Zach didnt hold back one bit. 10 polo shirts, 5 hilfiger jackets vintage ray bands. He really took home the entire collection of Ralph Lauren shirts with him.

We slightly lost track of time and got a scare when realising Zach might miss his flight if we didnt hurry. Thankfully he made it however he said he was one of the last to check in possibly with only a couple of minutes to spare.

Too be continued with Harry's last leg of the journey.......

Japan Update

Since my last post so much has happenening that I have been reluctant to actually post at all. As my last post was imageless I have added 15 photos to make up for it. In my previous post I wrote about my Mum coming over and about our trip to Kyoto and Toyko and I have finally gotten some images from then.

My latest trip was to Nara. Nara was the first Capitol of Japan and has become one of the main cultural tourist attraction because of its amazing temples, shrines and beautiful landscape. I decided on a warm day that I should go and experience more of Kansai so I hopped on the train for roughly 40 mins. On arrival I decided to follow a recomended track in my Lonely Planet guide. The first stop I made was this huge building made mainly out of wood. It is in fact the largest wooden building in the whole world.

This massive building was housing a Huge buddah which took up a large part. This image below doesnt quick capture the sheer size of the buddah. I read some exact measurements and weights and I can tell you they were impressive (however I cannot recite them).

I then ventured on along the trail which took me to an amazing view point looking out across much of Nara. up here was another shrine and a pleasant place to sit and drink tea. This was a releif after all the stair climbing. An old lady saw me looking in my guide book and helped me find this place. Her information was pretty useless but it was nice to have someone looking out for me.

I followed the path all the way along seeing many shrines unfortunately all the places I wanted to see were packed with Chinese tourists and young, noisy school kids which detracted from the whole peacefull experience. On my way back to the train station I saw some deer crossing a road at a pedestrian crossing. All I could thing of was abbey road album cover and then suddenly images of deer in suites popped into my mind.

There are many deer in Nara Koen (park) and people love to feed them. They are very polite and bow prior to recieving food. I saw this one stretching as far as possible to get a little bit of food.

All in all the Nara experience was pleasant and a nice brake from the city life of Osaka. I didnt spend enough time there to experience everything but for the time being it is enough. I really wish I could experience the place when its more quiet but I dont think that ever happens.

Since I have been living at Hiro's Guesthouse I have met alot of Korean/Japanese people. As I live in the Korean corner of Osaka (Korea town in fact) there are many Korean restaurants and Kimchee (spicy pickled vegitable) shops. I have become fortunate enough to meet many people who own Korean restaurants and so lately I have been recieving much food for free. Below is some cold noodles, sushi and kimchee I was given for breakfast one morning. Unfortunately I ate it very quickly and only got a photo halfway through the meal. Anyway, food here is great and im fortunate enough to recieve some most days.

These following photos are from when mum came over. I will use them to brake up more recent stories so the images may not correspond to the story. There isnt much more to tell tho. Since my last post ive just been living large, drinking nice beer. I usually order Nama which is the word for raw and here means tap beer.

This picture is from the Geisha

Living large eating Delicious food. Sushi, Sashimi, Curry, Katsudon (which i have learnt to cook), Kimchee, Korean pancake, Korean Noodle, 2am Ramen (equivilant of souv on the way home from a night out) Takoyaki, Yakiniku.


again from geishaBikes here in Japan are amazing as ive noted before. The other day I decided to go for a longer ride so ended up riding to Kyoto. Its roughly 60ks but seemed like 300 riding on my fixie without brakes and on a busy highway. Next time I will plan my route better.

this is a photo from a bike shop in kyoto.

this is the hotel me and mum stayed at in Kyoto. We felt very fortunate to get such a great deal

This is a traditional Ryukan (Tatami floored accomodation) in Kyoto

Here is the Kinkakuji of Kyoto. Golden temple

Eating Izakaya. All we ate this night was chicken in every form possible. From skin to insides.
I think this demonstrates how strange Japan is. The poor kitten was dressed up as a little lion. Roarrrrr!
Finally this is a katsudon I cooked. I am now getting pretty good at it. no need to venture out for my favourite meal anymore.

I had a little birthday party last saturday and took 20 instant photos (like polaroid). I will scan and upload them asap. Then post again. But for now this is it.

Cheers

Cameraless

So within roughly a week of my last post my new Canon G10 broke with "Lense error" which is apparently not an uncommon thing for the line so please think strongly before purchasing this camera. Then my back up camera screen broke and then was taken home with mum... therefore my post is going to be imageless.... yes im sorry that was the best part!

I have a film getting developed atm so soon i will (hopefully) have some nice images of tokyo which i will post.

But since my last post (ages ago) much has happened. I have been working at a private english school for about a month now. The work wasnt so hard to get but i was lucky to have a reccomendation. I am on a wage of 2000￥ (about 25bucs) per hour and so far i have been getting roughly 6 lessons per week on thursday and saturdays. I am still living off savings so work isnt so important just yet but more work would not be too hard to get.

Furthermore I got offered a job building wheels at Gira Gira (track supermarkets store in Osaka). Perfect job for me i think. I will start that soon.

Recently my mum came over for a ten day trip. We spent 3 days hanging out at my current home -http://www.hirosguesthouse.com/ I certainly would recommend this place to anyone coming here to Osaka. Its tucked away in a neat little corner of Osaka only 5 mins from main station by train. Lots of nice Korean food stores.

After our relaxing time in Osaka where we did minimal Cultural exercises we trained to Kyoto where we spent 3 days. first the first night we stayed in a great traditional Ryukan. Tatamai rooms and futons. Then we moved onto a Hotel that rocked. We had a top floor room and heaps of space (especially for Japan) and for less than our previous night. (we got very lucky) here we went to a little market, Saw many temples and were lucky enough to See Geisha, an experience only few Japanese have seen let alone Geijin like me and mum.

There were some cool bike shops, cool clothes places, nice food, nice culture. I love Kyoto!

On our third day in kyoto we set out for Tokyo on the Shinkansen. just under 2 hours (i think). We arrived in tokyo late and went straight to out hotel. A seedy little place called New City Hotel. On arrival we discovered "New" was a flexible word as this hotel was 20 years old. We stayed there one night but left early the next morning for a new hotel which turned out more expensive but much nicer. Most of our Tokyo trip was your typical Tokyo experience. Big city sights, Shopping in Tall Superdooper department stores (not that we really bought anything). I tried to buy a pair of vans but was told they didnt accept my card so i gave up on that idea.

I found my way to Carnival (a track bike store) but one guy there wasnt very helpful so i left. And a few other great shops but shopping in Tokyo requires one (or all) of three things: Money, Patience, Money... really shopping in Japan isnt as expensive as its made out to be but it is really hard. So much stuff, so many people. That said im not really in a spending mode atm so maybe as a traveller it would be different. None the less Shibuya, Harajuku and Shinjuku are all awesome places to visit. We made it to a little area called Diakanyama which was really hip. I wanted more time in Tokyo because it is just sooo big.

We took a day trip to a small town called Kamakura. Heaps of temples and shrines and Big arse buddhas. We only made it to one of the buddhas but the other is defiantly in store for next time. I really enjoyed this place.

I think this is enough writing without images but so far it has been a great trip. I recomend Japan to anyone. Please if you do have interest in coming here send me a message and ill give you some tips for pre travel and recomend some places to visit. If you give me enough time ill even try find some deals on accomodation or at least get you in touch with the best places to stay. Work here isnt so hard to get either so if you are thinking about coming for an extended stay dont be affraid. Just come over and it will all work out (this is the philosophy i have been living by and luckily enough its worked out) but its stil lworth doing research.

Peace Out

2joes

Osaka #2

Sorry again for the delay...

It was a warm Saturday in Osaka so I decided to go out for a little ride. I cruised down to the castle - an amazing building located in the middle of a business area of Osaka. I wanted to see if the Cherry Blossom was out yet.

As it wasn't I moved onto Umeda, the second of two CBD's in Osaka. Umeda has a few large shopping centers which I avoided. My final stop was Triangle park in an area called Amemura, where all the young people hang out. Here there are a whole lot of awesome vintage shops; its like stepping into the 80's (or what I have always imagined it would be like). I grabbed a bubble cup and sat in the park with my bike drinking my drink when a random Jgirl approached me and invited me to her fundraiser party at a club from 3pm. This turned out to be my first proper night out. I ended up staying the whole time there, meeting heaps of people who took me out to dinner and then onto a bar.

I thought this guy would make documenting my experience here a little bit funner!

My first night out with my new camera took me to NoonTracks, an alley cat style invent held on a regular basis in a bar in Umeda. Its a roller race racing two at a time. Time is the decider. I came away with 6th (of 45) in the individual racing which i thought was pretty good for a first time on the rollers.

There was also a team event held between store employees. I ended up racing in team Gira Gira, the TrackSupermarket store as the boss pulled out late. We came an unlucky 2nd.

Bikes in Osaka are different to Melbourne, not only because many ride trick fixies and they are generally a smaller race with small bikes, but because they are more willing to have an OTT bike with a white saddle, matching rims and tyres, aerospokes, disc wheels, the lot. just like the fashion here bikes are full on. no half arsed efforts.

Now the Cherry Blossom season is in full flight and Hanami parties are on all the time. I went to Kyoto with some friends I met at the fundraiser event. It really is a sight to see. Masses of pink a white flowers and people enjoying a drink.

There are lots more stories to come. I hope all is well in Melbourne and all over the world.

more pics on my fb page:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=210967&id=722670920&l=955b860764

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=211962&id=722670920&l=07cb4f53b5

Osaka Update #1

After long concideration I decided the format of my luguage would include a bike bag and an extra large riding bag. I packed my bike and as little clothes as a could. In the end i was dead on for maximum weight.

The plane ride went smoothly and I arrived in Osaka at 8:30pm local time. As I was flying with a friend her son and his family picked us up in a car from the Kensai airport. Mari, Angela`s daughter in law and Rick`s wife cooked us curry which was a great way to kick of my Japanese food experience. After dinner Rick walked me back to Hiro`s guest house where is stayed for two nights.

Hiro taught me to make Udon soup which has been very useful as a budget breaky. He also taught me to make miso soup. Last night Hiro cooked me and a new friend EJ some pasta which was also pretty good. After Hiro`s I moved onto another guest house where I am currently staying at called Lemon House

Since I moved into Lemon House I have spent most of my time getting my bearings and have learnt to get around Osaka pretty well. I have eaten out most days around 2 times at least and have been aroudn to a few little bars. Ive eaten Ramen, Udon, Katsudon, Tacoyaki, Tompeyaki, Sushi, Miso and plenty more. I experienced some awesome Karaoke in a snack bar down some strange lane near Korea town which was heaps of fun.

It seems I have run out of Photo space so I`ll stop here for now but you can check out some more photos here: http://www.facebook.com/?ref=home#!/album.php?id=722670920&aid=210967

Ill post more in a few days and will try to be more regular from now on.

さようなら。