A huge hole!

I went by the land on Saturday afternoon as it was a nice day and I wanted to go and visit a used car dealership not too far from where we are building. Yuko was working so I went alone, which is good because it gives me the opportunity to practice talking about cars for ages in Japanese. It's a tactic I would recommend for anyone thinking about paying for Japanese lessons. Don't waste your money!

The express train from Namba, which is kind of the main downtown area in Osaka and quite near to where we live now, only takes 18 minutes with no changes so, in no time at all, I was exiting the station at the top of the mountain and very quickly rewarded with a fantastic view of the city. In the distance, you can see the Osaka skyline (around 15km away) and the mountains between Osaka and Kobe. Here's a picture:

The view westwards from the station

It's about a six minute walk from the station to the land, the first part being flat along the top of the spur before a left turn down some relatively steep steps. At that first corner there is a very large old house with an overgrown garden and some animal posters on the fence. The house is unbelievably smelly, especially in summer. I have no idea what kind of mad zoo there is on the other side. Yuko and I usually just hold our noses and pick up the pace a bit.

A couple of minutes later and I was standing in front of the plot and, frankly, rather pleasantly surprised at the progress. There is now an even bigger hole where the parking place was, the steps have been completely removed and there is earth everywhere! The construction workers were discussing the back wall of the parking area, which it seems is now almost completely formed and ready to be concreted in.

What struck me on Saturday was what a massive operation this actually is. In Japan you see building plots everywhere but they are usually the sort of cookie-cutter flat plots with foundations being dug and neat piles of earth around the sides. Our builders looked more like they were relocating the actual mountain itself! 

It was a bit of a weird feeling to think that we instigated all of this. Even though we basically have no idea what we're doing, because of decisions we made and papers that we signed, now these men are digging a gigantic hole. Awesome!