Takatsuki

Had a short trip to Osaka - Vivian is going to have her elective training there and I went with her to help setting up some of the things.

Although the place that Vivian is going to work at is the Osaka Medical College, it is actually in a small town called Takatsuki (高槻), somewhere between Osaka and Kyoto. We arrived late in a rainy evening after a slightly confusing journey from the Kansai Airport. (Thanks to the extra-ordinary railway system in Japan. I am sure the twin brother of one of our consultants is orchestrating all these - or is our master of the universe himself secretly doing a part time job here ?)

Small town as it appears to be, we found the street full of people when we arrived, and many restaurants were still open. We bought some octopus-ball from a "sheltered hawker" nearby as night food. Drink is never a problem here - you can find a flood of automated machine selling all kinds of tea, coffee, carbonated water, and many brands of other beverages around.

The only problem is we can hardly find anyone around who speaks English. Thanks god Vivian could speak some broken Japanese (she had some private tutorials before she came) and I could communicate by writing Chinese character and reading a few Japanese ones - which I learnt before entering the University.