My Book Ⅰ
Written by Hiroyuki Ikeda
No.20 Kobe Life or Osaka Life, Which Should I Live? 6.11, 2013
神戸暮らしか大阪暮らしか
Last Sunday morning, there was an extraordinary general meeting of the management association of the apartment where I live now. Raising the administrative expenses was the main subject of our discussion. 13 years have passed since we moved here, but reason we might want to increase the administration fee for repairing expenses in the future is because there is not enough in so far. Administrative expenses of about 8,000 yen per month seems to be a increase of about ¥ 1,000 per month. I gave up driving my car two years ago and at that time the parking fee was 9,000 yen per month and the administrative expenses were about 23,000 yen including reservation fee for the future. I was thinking the amount was rather cheap. It was not popular to have a car for many years in Osaka because the parking fee was 30,000 yen per month in my condo. For 10 years I enjoyed my car with a cheap parking fee here in Kobe. I lived about 25 years in Osaka and it was useful in the apartment life throughout the city but in some ways, it wasn't great : I was surrounded by noise and bad air where I lived. Living 13 years at this site in Kobe, it has been comfortable because it is near the sea and the air is good, but sometimes it's uncomfortable with the sound of loud cars and the sound of the noisy ship engines, but it is a nice cool place compared to Osaka. I think about the 41 years since I got married: we moved 3 times and every place was apartment living. We made a quiet, happy home, but the only drawback is not being able to keep a pet in our condo .
I was born in Kobe and moved around over10 times. I was born and grew up in Nada-ku ward but now it is very different from the old Nada, Kobe. I experienced moving 13 times, including from Kobe to Dalian, Nishinomiya, Saga, Fukuoka, Kobe, Takarazuka, Kobe, Kyoto, Kobe, Suita, Osaka, and Kobe again. Now, I can't stop feeling like moving to Osaka again because many years of living in Osaka grow on you. Living in Osaka was a lot of fun because you can go to any concert, and you can go to a variety of events and eat delicious food. The peoples are good natured, as well.
The meeting made me wonder if I should try to move again to Osaka with the increasing administrative expenses of this house.
June 14, night view from my house
