I’ve lived quite a few places in my life so far. I have been working on this map for a while now, trying to remember as many places as I could. I have intentionally left a few places off this map for privacy, including my current address, but this is 90% complete.
GourmetCity
I’m pretty sure this grocery store was called something else when I lived there. It was a nice market, although a little more expensive than Super Tamade, and they had a better selection of beer.
View Larger Map
Post Office
Self-explanatory
View Larger Map
Dog Building (わんわん)
I love this building. I don’t actually know what the whole building was used for, I think they had kennel services. The main floor had a large area where dogs could meet and each other and play and where people could watch.
View Larger Map
Entrance To Dotonbori
Dotonbori (Doutonbori/道頓堀) is a pretty famous street in Japan, particularily Osaka. It’s only a couple blocks from where I lived and you could see the neon crab from my balcony at night.
View Larger Map
Photography Shop Gone
Warning: This post will not stand the test of time.
As of August 2008, you would see a construction site on this corner that led from a main street to the street connecting to where I lived. This corner used to have a two story building on it with a little photo/camera shop at street level. The store was old and out dated. Japanese electronics shops are flashy and show all the latest models of cameras, etc. but this store was dusty, dark, and only had some somewhat old pamphlets for digital SLRs.
I needed to get some ID photos taken for something so we decided to try to support a neighbourhood store but the shop owner wanted 3000 yen for 2 photos when I could get them done at a photo booth for no more than 1000 yen. I knew his business was not long for the world in an ever changing Shimanouchi.
View Larger Map
Secret 7-11
I often stopped at this 7-11 on my way to school to pick up ice coffee and curry croquette. This 7-11 is kind of hidden in a shadowy part of the hotel, although they do have signs on the street to direct people.
View Larger Map
Korean Consulate
This was my goal on my first trip to Japan, which lasted less than 8 hours.
View Larger Map
I already made a couple of posts of places in Osaka on Google Maps’ Street View:
And there will likely be more because I dig maps and I want to mark places that I remember before I forget.
Here are a few other places near where I used to live:
Super Tamade
We bought almost all of our groceries from this store. I could hop on my bike, go to the store, and be back in under 10 minutes. It was very, very convenient.
View Larger Map
This is the “mansion” that my sister-in-law lived in; very nice building and also very pricey!
View Larger Map
Central Osaka Baptist Church
This is the church that my wife went to and where we taught English together.
View Larger Map
My wife and I translated the menu for this Chinese restaurant from Japanese & Korean to English. The previous English menu was unusable 
View Larger Map
The Street View on Google Maps Japan does not go down the street where I lived in Osaka, but you can still see the top of the building from a corner nearby. Since I lived on the top floor (10th) I count this as being visible It the tall brown building in the middle:
Here are some photos from the flat:
Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.
I just found out that Google Maps Japan has Street View and has a nice selection of streets in Osaka that I remember well. This is the Japanese language school that I attended for a while in 2005.
I often bought breakfast/lunch from this convenience store. Mmm, prepackaged curry croquette.
My wife and I put up an ad to rent our condo (downtown Saskatoon) and we got 4 serious responses via email in under 2 hours. I didn’t put the phone number because I figure anyone who is looking at kijiji is likely to just email anyway and I thought it would help weed out the people who aren’t very serious. Very impressive for $0.
Edit: I should also note that there were a few ads for units in the same building already on Kijiji but they didn’t have good photos or any photos and they didn’t use very good language to attract people to the unit.
I listen to a lot of international hip-hop. There is a lot good hip-hop that comes out of Sweden. It doesn’t hurt that I dig hip-hop with political undertones. I’ve been into Looptroop for several years now; this is one of my favourite Looptroop songs and is just a great song overall… Enjoy
[Verse One]
I’m on a night train, from Moscow to St. Petersburg
Right outside the wall in the bleeding world
With the biggest band-aid cant’ make the blood stop
Part of the Fort but at the same time not
In the, blooming valleys of hopes and aspiration
Dreams are crushed by dope and desperation
‘Cause the West is blinded by the Fort and
Corrupted by fame, money and fortune
Kids kidnapped by rich pimps
So that we can live out our sick dreams
Stabbed in the back, tortured and raped
Can’t go back home ’cause they’re so ashamed, uh
It’s a metaphor for the whole process
The poor take the losses while we make more profits
In a world where the winner takes it all
And happiness only appears in sitcoms
We’re crossing the landscape and forcing the speed
The beat is meditative and I’m falling asleep
And when I wake up the train is at the station and
People rushing out I hear’em questioning life
Again and again wondering like
[Chorus]
Why am I here? I don’t know man I’m stuck in limbo
Watching how the things go flashing by
Why am I here? You don’t know looking out the window
In a different lingo asking why
Why am I here? They know ’cause our fingerprints show
Or they think so, I travel light
Why am I here? On a night train, on a night train
[Verse Two]
I’m on a night train from Copenhagen to Berlin
Early on the morning my head hurting from the bourbon
She’s in the shower, in an hour we’re on top of the fort
We’re they be shopping for sport, but we be searching
For something new with babysteps
One day, I might take her for a walk down the isle
But there’s many rivers to cross and my lady says:
Okay, we ain’t had a chance to talk for a while and I
Know you love the feeling of leaving but it don’t matter what country
Or what region of Sweden
All we got is us, and this is what I truly believe in
So I don’t know ’bout you, I ain’t runnin’
I’ma find freedom in our everyday, life
And make the most out of it
We don’t know this might take us both out
If the train run off the track, crash and burn
We sat side by side, awaiting our turn
And I’m smiling, you’re right, but still…
[Chorus]
Why am I here? I don’t know girl I’m stuck in limbo
Watching everything go flashing by
Why am I here? You don’t know looking out the window
In a different lingo asking why
Why am I here? But they know ’cause our fingerprints show
Or they think so, I travel light
Why am I here? On a night train, on a night train
[Verse Three]
I’m on a night train from Tangier to Marrakech
I ain’t a rap star here man I don’t speak Arabic
They looking at me like hell does he do here?
But in a curious way, they celebrate new year’s
We had to escape the fort, living close to the border
What are we waiting for? Two hours from Algeciras, Spain
The port, the same, sunny beaches at the same resorts
That wash up refugees that they can’t deport
Immigration officer fill out a blank report
Family; unknown, where to send the corpse?
Wanna restart their life instead they end it off
And the train keeps running down the line
And the world keeps flashin’ by the window
Like we runnin’ out of time, it’s a feeling of freedom mixed
With the feeling of being trapped
I feel like we travel to beat the map
Stop the time, slam the brakes, jump out the frame
Find a new place without a name
New, at least to the white man, untouched and clean
I, soon find out a man, ain’t no such a thing
And the further we travel it begins to unravel
How the Europeans always wanted to be the king of the castle
And how it effects all continents, how we lost respect and all common sense
And the question remains:
[Chorus]
Why am I here? I don’t know man I’m stuck in limbo
Watching how the things go passing by
Why am I here? You don’t know sittin’ by the window
In a different lingo askin’:
Why am I here? They know ’cause our fingerprints show
Or they think so, I travel light
Why am I here? On a night train, well all right then
on the night train… come on!
I’ve done a lot in the last 10 years. Maybe that’s why I’m so tired. Heres my last 10 years in a few quick notes:
Of course, things have happened in between and since 2006 but things have slowed down A LOT from what I was used to and the things that do happen don’t seem very exciting any more. I’m a pretty laid back guy but I like to experience new things but Saskatchewan and, to some extent, Canada are not great place for such experiences.
I was inspired to write this post because of wherethehellismatt.com. I watched his videos and read his FAQ and I felt hopeful again. Now, I think I need to see the world more and I realize how important it is to me.
Perhaps I have been spoilt or lucky, maybe both, by seeing more of the world than most people during my short time here. However, it has changed me for the better. I have a hard time calling anywhere “home.” I live in Saskatoon and I was born here, but it just feels like another place I have lived and not like where I belong. I have felt more like I belonged somewhere while sipping chai and smoking a beedi in Jaisalmer, India or riding my bike through streets of central Osaka, Japan. These are just two examples but what I am trying to say travel has opened my mind and allowed me to find things about myself that I would have never realized had I lived in one place like most of the world does and it scares me to think I am getting myself dug in to a life that I find dull and unimportant. I really need to get going (for my own sake)…
Twitter My Flickr Photos Recent Tracks