Osaka, 26 August 2025
I got up at ten in the morning and after relaxing for about an hour went out to get something at the same supermarket as yesterday. It's only about twenty minutes' walk to get there and back to my hotel. The weather was as nice and the temperature was as high as yesterday. Things are almost the same everywhere in Japan at this time of year. Wherever you are in this country during the summer, the heat and humidity will be with you while you are outside.
About the supermarket, I found it no different from the ones I frequent back in the Greater Tokyo Area. Yes, it was wrong of me to expect there to be any difference. We are Japanese and - roughly speaking - the things we sell and buy can't be basically so different. But as for the people who were there as sellers and buyers, they were totally different from those whom I had imagined to be. People in Tokyo imagine their counterparts in Osaka to be very noisy people, but, having come here and seen them with my own eyes, I've found the image to be completely incorrect. Yeah, they could be very noisy back home (Who knows?), but as far as I could see, those whom I saw working and shopping at the supermarket were as silent and as polite as their counterparts in the Greater Tokyo Area. Of course I haven't seen everything during my only two-day stay here (How could I?), but I put what I've seen here in Osaka with my own eyes far above anything people in Tokyo would say to mislead others into thinking negatively of people in Osaka.
Early tomorrow morning I'll say goodbye to Osaka, leaving for Tokyo, but I'd like to come back as soon as possible.