Osaka Day 1

After a long flight and 2 cups of red wine (plus 2 in-flight movies (History Boys and Letters from Iwo Jima) and some TV shows, I am back in Osaka.

It is nothing special, but my home country on the other side of planet still exists and grows. I felt disoriented with two languages, but my Osaka dialect soon came back when I met my sister and her two daughters. My nieces, A and M (2 year difference in their age) look totally alike and they are very big for their ages, 4 (SK) and 6 (Grade 2). They talked like machine gun talk on Japanese comedy shows and it was a little too loud and annoying, but they are too cute to be my nieces. They are supposed to teach me how to play Wii later.

I feel like to be Marty McFly in the Back to the Future II. The surface isn't really changed, but improvements in digital devices are significant.

When I exit from passport check, I immediately called my sister's cell from a pay phone. She was still on a highway. She said, "according to her (car) navi(gation system), she will arrive at the airport at 4:30pm. Of course, I didn't know about the feature of current Japanese car navigation system devices. "How come she can anticipate??" I got confused and I hang up.

All of Japanese highways are toll ways, people used to stop at the gate to pay the fare. My sister's car, though, slows down at the gate a little bit but doesn't have to pay the fare to a collector because of the ETS (I don't know what ETS stands for) system. She showed me a smart card installed to her small 660cc engine car.

The car navigation system can be a multimedia station, too, so that passengers can watch TV (on air), DVD, and listen to music.

My dad's car looked smaller than the one he had last time. It was a black Toyota (don't remember the name). The car's concept is similar to Mazda 5, but it is a little smaller than Mazda 5. His car's rear doors can be open and close automatically. There are so many fancy features in such a small car.

I feel I am still disoriented, but I am glad that my dialect is back.