Have you seen the movie Akira? If so then perhaps you'll appreciate these machines - it looks like Kaneda and his friends had pulled up outside Osaka Intex. We were all there to see more machines inside... Osaka Auto Messe. It's basically an after-market accessory show for modifying bikes and cars - big business here it would seem - the place was packed!

Bosozoku means something like "crazy action team". Who are they? They are the proudly self-titled scooter gangs of Japan. They are mainly harmless (unless you class disturbing the peace with loud noise late at night harm), but I gather some are a little sketchy. They love to cruise around on their chariots that have sometimes huge sports exhausts that make their little engines sound as deep and thoaty as possible. Scooters here range in size a lot. Some are actually quite large.

This one's for Cooper, my supervisor and workmate from Souther Star. Thought you'd dig this!

There were quite a lot of Odysseys, but I thought this one was pretty cool.

This one is for the Sparks brothers, my friends who had a $500 Tarago with a $1000 stereo inside! Over here Tarago's are called Estimas. This one has been given a pretty good going over! The "wagonists" here love lowering their vans and so they give the wheels a crazy negative camber to fit them under the guards - especially at the rear. It can look cool, but can also look ridiculous. Now you may be wondering about the acoustics of this speaker set-up. It's not designed to be heard properly inside, but rather outside. I saw a van like this, but smaller, cruising slowly in Umeda (Osaka), evangelising the masses with J-pop music (Japanese pop). The more extreme cars/vans have airbrushed pictures of their favourite singers (Ayumi Hamasaki is par for the course), but you don't tend to see many day-to-day. There are so many different car sub-cultures here, from the tasteful, to the overly pretentious, to the downright bizarre. I really love spotting the different vehicles. It would seem that you can register anything here - from a left hand drive Cadillac with hydraulic suspension, to bat-mobilesque Hiace vans with huge wings on the roof and extensions to the front and rear, to a little Gorilla clown motorbike, to a robot-like decotora (or decorated truck) with massive chrome protrusions that would do great damage to pedestrians.

I love this little van. K-class cars are under 1000cc and are cheaper to buy and register. There is a whole world of K-class car culture to explore too!

Well, this is my "pity me" photo.

Valentine's Day has been marketed extremely well here. I would normally be a little ecstatic to receive 5 valentines (I think they were my first 5 ever!), but here they come as thank-yous from any type of relation. I was given chocolates by a 5 year-old, a 6 year-old, an 8 year-old, a friend and my manager. In Japan, the girls do the giving on this day. Then, on March 14 or "White Day" (I'm told by Brad this is an invention of a chocolate/sweets company here) it is the boys' turn to respond. If there is romance involved, the boy must buy something more extravagant to tell the girl of his affection. We are potentially talking lots of money. Major department stores commision Cordon Bleu chocolate chefs/sculptors from Paris! A small top-line box can set you back a couple of hundred dollars.

Well, the humble Kobe Dentetsu train line made it onto the Kansai news. We've had a couple of derailments within a month of each other, both at the same spot one stop before mine. Not great considering it's the most expensive local line in Japan. It's been a pain at times - having to walk further or catch buses. But everything's working again now.

Here are my friends Yahata-san and his daughter, Mana-chu. You can also see a reflection of Yuko-san. We were all going our separate ways after church, so the Yahatas were in the train next to ours. Mana-chu loves to wave - she would make a good queen! We are on Hankyu trains... the other side of the hill from my local line... ah the greener pastures of Hankyu. They offer cheaper, pristine, shiny maroon trains! Hanshin trains are likewise. It can be very confusing at times when travelling here. There are many different privately operated train companies. And then there's the publicly owned JR or Japan Railways. And then there are the subways. All these different networks interconnect - you can usually make a transfer from one to another using the same ticket, but I've been caught out before. I made an assumption that 2 different companies' stations of the same town-name would be connected, only to find they were a kilometre apart! Oh well, I got to meet some helpful locals on my way between! An old man I asked for directions took me to the police box! I think it gave the 2 bemused cops a bit of novelty factor for the day - "we had a lost gaijin who could barely speak visit us!". On that note it was funny when I had to catch a bus because of the derailments. The guy who was directing everyone was sitting at the front and then he stood and faced me and said very proudly in English, "Gosha is next stop!", as if to say "everyone, we have an international visitor with us! On my bus." I'm overstating it a bit, but I couldn't help chuckling to myself. Having whinged so much I should say... the bus was a coach with mini chandeliers! Luxury.

Just another of my shop display photos. They know how to allure certain people to their stores, that's for sure.

Celebrating Chinese New Year in Kobe's Chinatown. It's not as big as Sydney's Chinatown, but it's nice. The major difference is the price of the food! I'm not used to expensive Chinese - plus I think the food in Sydney is better. I would be interested to know how long most of the Chinese community here has been in Japan. Another big difference I noticed was that I was hearing Japanese being spoken - not much if any Chinese. Anyway, there were some colourful and loud dragon and lion dances which were crowd-pleasers!

I can never remember how to write the Chinese new year greeting, so I'll just say

I hope you get fat with choy... or maybe joy?

This is the aptly named Sky building in Osaka. You go the last 5 floors to the observation deck via escalator - those diagonal structures you can see going up to the round hole. It's a cool building. I went with my friend Noriko-chan. It was great to be shown the city by a local.

Here Noriko is standing infront of her neighbourhoood - the east side of Yodo River. She says Osaka is a messy city. I kind of agree - it's certainly no Sydney Harbour but it's got a life and charm that is really endearing - at least to me, anyway. I think that comes from its people.

Well, this is my backyard. Not literally, but this is my nearest city, Sanda. I love quirky little blocks like this. Sometimes you have to wonder if any architects were consulted in the construction of some buildings here. There are some great designs here, and there are some seemingly non-existent designs.

Up the hill from the city is a peaceful bamboo grove nestled behind a large shrine.

This picture reminds me of Hiroshima and the many paper cranes you can see there. They are offered as wishes for recovery from sickness.

This shrine was fairly new, but obviously there are still people in Japan making a trade of doing ornate carpentry. A building itself might be new, but often the site has been a shrine for many hundreds of years. Temples and shrines are often destroyed by earthquake or fire or just become too old to maintain.

Anyway, hi ho hi ho, it's off to work I go...