cc wrote:

> "Eric Takabayashi" <etakajp@yahoo.co.jp> wrote in message
>
> > Yes. Right now, I can walk 1.5 km to work, the city's largest shopping
> areas
> > in various directions, the bus terminal, and the shinkansen station.
> Within
> > maybe 300 meters, there are seven hospitals including one of 600 beds, and
> > numerous dentists, elementary schools, junior high schools, a high school
> > hidden somewhere, a nursing college, my children's nursery school, two
> > supermarkets, the main police station, and restaurants. City Hall and the
> > employment office are two blocks from the train station. The City and
> National
> > hospitals, as well as many others offering emergency service, are about
> three
> > kilometers away. The highway IC and the Immigration Bureau are three or
> four
> > kilometers away.
>
> Same for me. Same for anyone in Osaka.

Untrue. Or there would not be the commute. What is the massive public
transportation in Osaka for, gaijin tourists?

> There are shops and services everywhere.

Not the ones the people want, obviously, otherwise they would not need such as
Kansai Walker to tell them where to go and how to get there.

> Commuting for work can be longer or shorter, that depends of the job and the
> personal situation,

I bet most Osaka people live more than 1.5 km from school or work, and do not
understand why you are in such denial about Osaka or medical incompetence.

> exactly like in Fukuyama (you found a job next door, not
> your wife.

My wife works less than 200 meters away, nearer than my children's nursery
school or the supermarkets.

> If you lose that job, you'd have to commute to Hiroshima no ?).

No. Is there only one corporation in Fukuyama?

> > For 67,000 yen per month.
> >
> > Beat that, anyone.
>
> People that are not too fussy rent bunka houses for 67 000 yen or less.

I didn't need to be fussy to get a place with 67,000 yen rent. But I did need
to find a place that was not racist.

> That's also what you'd pay for a 3 LDK public housing (inside the flats are
> nice, outside that's Hong-Kong...). I wonder if in addition, you couldn't
> get housing benefits from Osaka-shi.

I don't live in low income or public housing and don't need welfare or housing
credits or corporate subsidies.

> > > In your muddy island, that's the space between 2
> > > macdos,
> >
> > No, in the rural area where I come from in Hawaii, there are numerous
> > McDonald's miles apart,
>
> I stayed a week on your island,

That's good, because most people, particularly Japanese make it a day trip.
Perhaps you understand the value of seeing or being in such a place.

> I don't remember where. I
> don't care about fastfoods, What I meant is that Macdo was the only
> "restaurant" I could have reached by walking only 15 km.

And you are wrong again, unless you stayed in the wilderness area or some place
between the North and East Shores, which is about a 20 mile drive between major
towns.

> We hitchiked to the supermarket or to the tourist ghetto. Nobody seems to
> live there without a car.

That is correct, though there is a public bus now. People do not live in
Hawaii, and millions do not visit every year, contributing billions of dollars
to the economy, for convenience.

And if you consider where I live to be a "muddy island" and are too cheap to
rent a car or do other than walk or hitchhike, and think that "restaurants" are
so rare and far apart, you don't need to stay there a week, or go at all. Let
them make their billions of travel dollars off people who are willing to try to
understand or appreciate it. I don't need to live in Osaka or other major urban
center, either.

> BTW, what do you want to do with a car in Fukuyama, if you live in a so
> convenient place ?

The car is only used perhaps once a month. I have not driven in Japan since
last year. I can't take my computer on the bus or my bicycle.

We use the car to visit my wife's family in Hyogo without having to carry the
kids or put them on the back of the bicycle to get to the station, and without
having to put suitcases on the bus.

We can drive to the mountains. We can carry big things from the store, like my
computer.

Whatever.

You do not know what to do with a car, despite not needing one for daily life?
Perhaps you do not understand the Japanese craving for premium brands, either,
when they can buy simple and tasteful carry bags and accessories at the nearest
100 yen shop, but the French should be thankful for it.

> In Osaka, 90% of the people don't need a car (except 3 days a month, so they
> should rent one),

Me buying a car is cheaper than renting.

> many families buy one mostly for the status. But you don't
> care about
> social status and things like that. So ?

I have a car for convenience when traveling or carrying the whole family or
cargo, and because I LIKE driving.

> > There is only one America Mura or Dotonbori.
>
> I never go there.

We are not talking about you. I am talking about the crowds of city people or
young people in general as I have actually seen, who feel the need to be in
such places, which, incidentally, is not 1.5 km from where you claim all Osaka
people live.

> I don't have the slighest interest in prostitution or
> other tourist rip offs.

Neither do I. I went to America Mura to look at the weird fashion, trendy
shops, electronics shops, and sporting goods shops. I went to Dotonbori to
window shop and check out the exotic animals at the pet stores. I especially
liked the flying squirrel, but considered it too bad they kept it leashed
around its neck, resulting in it hanging itself each time it repeatedly jumped
from the wall of the cage set up near the register. I also ate Haagen Daaz ice
cream.

By prostitution, perhaps you are referring to the adult entertainment district
on the river, near the capsule hotel where I stayed while I traveled by
motorcycle. I am talking about the shops and restaurants.

> And even if you work in that field, there are other
> red-light areas in Osaka.

Perhaps people have the right to work at places which are not 1.5 km from home,
and wish to work near Dotonbori or America Mura, contrary to your claims.

> >If you don't live in that part of
> > Osaka, you're out of luck. 30 minutes by train or bus.
>
> You talk like my students

I do not care about trends and fashion like your students do, but I am talking
about what such people care about, because I know for a fact that it is not 1.5
km from where they all live, as you claim.

> that ask me "When you lived in Paris, how much
> time did that take you to commute to the Champs-Elysees or to Versailles ?".
>
> You have never visited  the Osaka-Kobe-Kyoto area ?

I have. All three of those cities. And I know for a fact that everyone does not
live 1.5 km from where they really want to be for school, work, or shopping,
contrary to your incredible claims.

> Someday, you should
> bring your wife and the kids to Universal Studio (another place where I
> never go, but convenient for you :

Going to Universal Studio is not convenient, and I would not go there either. I
have been to the original. Huis Ten Bosch was questionable, though very nice on
the surface. Tokyo Disneyland was ok. I'll go again when the children are old
enough to understand, and I can also see Disney Sea. Perhaps my wife's 92 year
old grandmother in Tokyo will still be alive for us to visit, as well. Despite
being in urban Tokyo, she needs a taxi just to get to the station, btw, and her
massive apartment complex saw fit to create their own very tiny shopping
district, because there is none in the area otherwise.

> there are direct buses from Fukuyama)

I don't like long bus rides.

> and
> while they visit that, take the train to see the places where most people
> actually live and work.

I have been to large urban areas in Japan where people actually live and work,
since 1989. And by the look at the pedestrian and street traffic, they do not
live 1.5 km from everything they need, contrary to your claims, nor do they pay
67,000 a month for the privilege.