japan :: osaka :: general

[thomas_highstreet]

the hizzel is in the final stages of securing a scholarship type affair to osaka geidai (university of arts)..

im trying to find an apartment/guesthouse/gaijin house inner city, but not to far from a. the uni, and b. other places of interest; bars, clubs, shops etc.

the campus looks to be in kanan, minami kawaguchi (south osaka?)..

obviously this is a fair way out from umeda.. but am i right in understand shinsaibashi isnt too far? and also not so far from namba?

naniwa is supposed to be pretty cheap for residential, but stil quite well located..

if anyones had any proper experience in osaka, please drop me a line and spill the beans on whats a good place to stay..

cheers!

thomas

p.s. if it makes any difference im likely to get a bicycle or a moped (zoomer!!) when im out there, so dont mind a little bit of travel, but not the whole city limits.

cheers

[wild_whiskey]

Nice. I have several friends who are going to Osaka Geidai.

I'll be moving there myself this year. Unfortunately can't give any other info. It's exciting though.

[thomas_highstreet]

really? awesome.

think you could relay a few Q's to them about a good place to stay and if its a problem living a bit far from campus etc.?

mate.. we should hook up when im out there. i wanna organise a few karaoke raves..

[thelion1856]

go download google earth and look at osaka, you will get a genral idea of where things are.

also streets dont have names there.

[wild_whiskey]

really? awesome.

think you could relay a few Q's to them about a good place to stay and if its a problem living a bit far from campus etc.?

mate.. we should hook up when im out there. i wanna organise a few karaoke raves..

The people that I know in Osaka in general feel that public trans is so developed and accessible that you should have no problems at all getting from one place to another daily, although it can be stupidly expensive. A friend of mine here in San Diego right now, normally goes to school in Osaka (not the art school though) from Hirakata (a close suburb) every day through public trans.

I am fairly certain there are special student apartments for any given college that are discounted and are placed conveniently close to campus. The same thing seems to apply to many jobs for foreigners (such as myself, planning to teach english).

I'll relay your question to some friends tonight and ask them specifically. Rent can be totally acceptable (~$500 / mo.) or ridiculous ($~infinity / mo.) in Osaka, I know that much.

Karaoke raves I am DOWN...

[thomas_highstreet]

yeah one + is the rent shouldnt be as high as ive payed in london, and/or what i was expecting to pay in tokyo..

actually i hope to rent a place short term for a couple of months whilst i look for a small holding to rent, so i can set up a studio and a little pArty pad (with a capital Arty) and live there on the sly too.

but.. that all relys on finding the right like-minded people when i get there which is at the toss of a coin most probably.

if you could, it would be great to hear what your friends say about it all.

cheers

T

[edwin]

osaka is rad! PM user name

vinc3

i recently stayed at his place about a month ago. he'll let you know the in and outs of some good spots to live. he just moved into his apartment a few weeks before i got there. i remember him mentioning that finding a good housing agent would be helpful.

[herpsky]

i have an osaka "trendy" shoplist (sufu style map with a store list) but

it's in japanese

i think there's a high concentration of good stores in minami-funaba

[herpsky]

BTW i know nothing about osaka

[thomas_highstreet]

thx edwin, ill drop him a line.. and herps, if poss, think i can have a goose at the trendehlist? pm'd..

osaka seems a bit of an underground one. good thing though for the art.

T

[edwin]

when you get to osaka, theres this rad internet cafe/gallery that is open 24 hours. check it out.

http://www.digmeout.net/

[herpsky]

expect a superfuture Osaka map next week

i got nothing to do between the 30th and may 8th

[thomas_highstreet]

score!

actually i just stumbled across digmeout.. looks like an interesting project

herp... you workin on an official Sufu map?

sweet!

[herpsky]

not official but

i could try

[herpsky]

wasn't there a subforum

called supermap?

[thomas_highstreet]

yeh there was a sufu map before, but the links are all broken.. ive spoken to chad about it and he refered me to wayne who didnt get back to me :S

ill pay for the fucker to be honest!

map that bitch!

[wild_whiskey]

What's your budget like, and do you want to live in a 1 br apartment, or a dorm, or what? Relaying this to my friend, these are the questions she asked me.

[thomas_highstreet]

my budget is about 60000yen per month, which seems fine to cover the rent for a pretty decent size 1K or 1DK place thats about the rate for a cheap 1DLK aswell i think.. so i dont think it will be that hard to find a place.

im thinking of living either in shinsaibashi or tennoji, mainly because i have no idea of any other areas that would be good to live in..

also.. the extra dining/lounge isnt important atall.. that was just if i wanted to put on some shows in my apartment and stuff..

thanks again

[wild_whiskey]

Okay, well Tennoji is pretty far from Osaka Geidai.. minimum 35 minutes or so of travel and involves both subway and bus. Same with Shinsaibashi and Nanba.

Shinsaibashi is really close to Nanba, and apparently its the coolest place ever. Lots of eccentric clothing stores, and was described as being "VERY OSAKA." That would be the place I would want to live, but it would take some time and money to go to school every day.

Tennoji is the closest of them, and it's kind of urban, but not as cool as Shinsaibashi. As for rent, we had no trouble finding places under 35000 yen that had private bathrooms and kitchens, so that probably won't be a worry for you at your budget.

Osaka Geidai is pretty far from Umeda. Nanba/Shinsaibashi is kind of in the middle between Umeda and Tennoji, but from what I can tell Umeda is not that cool of a place to begin with for youngsters. You could live in Nanba for around 35000 yen and be in the middle of the subway grid and around lots of cool shit. You might be able to offset the transportation price because of the rent being barely more than half your budget.

Anyway, let me know if this helps or if there are other questions you have.

[thomas_highstreet]

yeah bro.. thanks alot for digging that out.. thats kinda what i had been thinking, great to put it to concrete.

basicly, i need to change at tenoji to get to kishi/kanan (where my uni is).. so i was thinking of living there, but then i realises 5mins more travel would take me to shinsaibashi and that would be much more fun living there.. so thats probs what ill head for..

do they know of anywhere a bit closer to the actual uni that looks like a good place ?

thanks mate..

T

[wild_whiskey]

basicly, i need to change at tenoji to get to kishi/kanan (where my uni is).. so i was thinking of living there, but then i realises 5mins more travel would take me to shinsaibashi and that would be much more fun living there.. so thats probs what ill head for..

Exactly...

I haven't gotten ahold of any actual Osaka Geidai students as of yet, and I asked my friend that question earlier and she said she doesn't really know of any cool places around the actual uni. But I'll let you know if I hear anything.

[thomas_highstreet]

yep.. cool man. thanks alot.

well im gonna let it roll for a bit.. ill budget for worst case, but not commit to any rental contracts or anything like that until im out there.. it seems pretty likely ill be able to find a decent place in shinsaibashi.. ive found quite a few decent real estate web pages etc.

when are you going out? how long for?

campai!!

T

[wild_whiskey]

it's kanpai

I'm moving sometime this summer/fall. aug at the earliest... could be delayed depending on how the certifications go. Not sure really. Kind of up in the air.

[thomas_highstreet]

^^

im such a noob.

my pronunciation is actually quite good aparantly, so atleast people know what im banging on about 'in the flesh'..

im heading out autum/winter.. we should defo meet up if you fancy it....

where are you originally from?

T

[wild_whiskey]

Hey, got some more info in my myspace, gonna put it directly here... Looks to be pretty important.

It seems pronunciation is one of the things English speakers do well when speaking Japanese.. at least those who bother to.put effort into it, so it's nice because you'll not have any problems trying to explain things to people so long as you can find the words. I'm still trying to get better myself. I thought I had mastered grammar but reading what's in quotes below... I got a bit discouraged.

It would be stupid not to meet up at some point... I'm coming from San Diego. Just realized I never put my location in my profile.

Hey, I got some imformation about OSK geidai.

I asked somebody, they say that, it is hard to go to college from Shiinsaibashi.

A lot of students with Osk geidai live KISHi or TONDABAYASHI.

If he lives HURUHASHI, which is just one station from the station closest from school, u can go to the Tennouji with express train.

Someone uses to live in Tondabayasi, but she says it was tough to go to center of Osaka, cuz it takes time to go.

＞芸大生の方が多く住んでいるところとかありますか？

やっぱり大学のそばに住んでる人が大半だと思います。

なぜなら喜志駅から大学へのバスが通学で一番苦痛だからです。

寿司詰め状態で、蒸し暑い雨の日はキレそうになります（笑）。

車で移動する事が多い人は西名阪のインターが近い藤井寺に住んだりしますね。

あと、値段が安いところを重視して富田林、富田林西口、道明寺など。この場合は原チャリ通学です。学生バス乗らなくていいから快適に通学できます。

僕はちなみに道明寺で今の嫁と嫁の弟と半同棲してました。

古市から原チャ通学がベストじゃないですか？

He says, the nember of students who live near college is the biggest, cuz the bus from Kishi station to college is the biggest annoying thing.

in the rainy days, LOTS of people get in and its sssso HUMID,he almost gets burst.

If he has a car, its good idea to live FUJIIDERA(here is a little bit urban), cuz its near exit of highway.

and, Tondabayashi, Tondabayashi nishiguti, Doumyouji are cheap for rent.

His recommend is living in HURUICHI and go to college by motercycle.

[thomas_highstreet]

great.. pretty much exactly what i was looking for. thanks man!!

ill get the wife to help me check out those areas for a house.. see what kinda rent etc. and build a budget costing for living around there too..

im gonna get a bike when im out there, so should be able to bipass the bus, but that would suck if its pissing down with rain! haha

[brookee]

Hey, got some more info in my myspace, gonna put it directly here... Looks to be pretty important.

It seems pronunciation is one of the things English speakers do well when speaking Japanese.. at least those who bother to.put effort into it, so it's nice because you'll not have any problems trying to explain things to people so long as you can find the words. I'm still trying to get better myself. I thought I had mastered grammar but reading what's in quotes below... I got a bit discouraged.

It would be stupid not to meet up at some point... I'm coming from San Diego. Just realized I never put my location in my profile.

Hello, I dont really know how to use this supertalk thing but we are looking for an art gallery in Osaka to have an exhibition if anyone can help or knows where i should put this question? We just want a smallish, low key gallery, maybe in a cool shop or something??

[thomas_highstreet]

hi brookee.

neither me or whiskey are out in osaka right now.. so probably couldnt hook you up with a place to show work. [im speaking mainly for me though of course]

are you experienced in putting together proposals etc.? im sure there are spaces you could find through the internet who will give you an idea of the kinda work they normally show and what they are looking for in future exhibitions.

t

[xcoldricex]

shinsaibashi is close to namba yeah - you can live a bit further out and commute by bike (not sure how far the uni is) - but osaka is very bikeable. transportation is more expensive than tokyo so i'd just bike...

[thomas_highstreet]

shinsaibashi is close to namba yeah - you can live a bit further out and commute by bike (not sure how far the uni is) - but osaka is very bikeable. transportation is more expensive than tokyo so i'd just bike...

my uni is about 10miles southeast from umeda.. so a bit out..

i think ill stay shinsaibashi. bike each morning to tennoji, then use train to kishi, then bike the last bit again to my campus..

ill just buy 2 shitty bikes from second hand and leave them locked at station/uni house/uni each day hehe