Osaka Fun

Okay, let's see. It's been two days since typing at all. It has been fun. Lots of walking, but fun. I was sitting reading my PDA-book waiting for the airplane with dad and Kevin to show up when somebody kicked me in the ankle. What do you know, it was Kevin! They had happily shown up and made my night. No more do I have to wander around alone in Japan, and that is the best part. We were an hour off of catching the bus to the hotel, so we spent it like any red-blooded Americans, by visiting Lawson's and getting a few beers! Well, Kevin got a few Cokes. It all works out. I led us unerringly to the bus stand (which I had figured out where it was before they came.. I had a bit of free time), and a 25 minute ride later, and we were at the fairly nice Ramada Kansai. They only had booking for 2 adults, no "child" (Kevin is hardly a child at 15), so I had to do some bargaining. They had no rollaway beds. Great. So I found out that they did have a room with two double beds instead of two singles. Okay, they upgraded for free, even better! We were up on the 12th floor, and had a happy fun silent elevator ride up to the room. It was pretty dang nice, for being the basic room. Two double beds, big shower, bidet toilet (they just don't have those in the states that much), two chairs, table, tv, and our own view of a multi-purpose game court. It was currently being used for soccer. It was snacky time, so we went wandering and found a Mos Burger, and dad and Kev got their first taste of Fanta Melon Soda. Kevin was instantly hooked. Since then, every vending machine that has it, he buys one. Not to mention he isn't as used to the heat as I am, but that's beside the point. After the Mos Burgering, we promptly fell asleep, after a bit of reading. In the morning, we leisurely got up, showered, and wandered over to find dad some hot coffee. He didn't want to get cold coffee from a vending machine. We found a 7-11, but its hot beverage machine was on the fritz, or something. He had to settle, and he was pleased with cold coffe and pan (bread) for breakfast. No melon pan available, but I had a really good french toast like bread, dad had a bacon/mayo bread, while Kevin had the standard of chocolate stick in a croissant. Not bad for their first introduction to crazy Japanese breads. At 11, we took the bus to get the train at the airport (quickest and simplest way to the hotel), got our rail passes, and set off on the country. I feel bad for all the Japanese people. The train took us directly to Tennoji with reserved seats on our special express train. If this is what it's like travelling with a bit of cash, I don't want to do it any other way, because, man, it's so much more comfortable than standing on a train for three hours at a time. At Tennoji, we decided to grab some food, because the pan was a nice filler, but not good enough for a meal. Yoshinoya was the first stop with butadon, pork and onions on rice. Just what Kevin wanted. Now it was time to wander for a while. We found the Tennoji garden, but it looked fairly dried out and cost 600 yen to see each, so we passed on it, and kept going to try to find Shitennoji, the oldest temple grounds founded in 593AD. Pretty darn old. On the way, we got distracted by a street with a wedding chapel and a temple at the end of the road, and though it was not what we were looking for even remotely, it was still kinda neat looking. There was a cemetary there also, the first they saw. It smelled of incense that has been offerings and rememberances of the deceased for years. We walked along the garden's edge and found a street leading downhill, a main street that I thought led to a 100 yen shop, but it ended up being a bank. Go figure. The place was called Yen Shop, I just automatically added 100 in front of it. We found a fun looking little covered shopping arcade and wandered down it for a while. Well, we stopped in a little tempura shop and had a big ol' beer first, but we wandered a while. It was a fairly seedy looking shopping area, but it actually kind of neat seeing it. Japan is usually so prim and proper, seeing this Abenobashi Shopping Arcade (not Magical, sorry guys), it really put things in perspective. I kept glancing up to try to find a pelican or tiger, turtle or dragon... Five points if you get that anime reference. Now it was an uphill wander back towards Tennoji station, because, surprise surprise, we were going in the right direction to start with, but dad pointing out the temple near the wedding chapel got us off course. Back on course, we found a Lawson's, got a few more beers and a sports drink for Kevin, who was drinking what should have been drunk by me all day in 95 degree heat and high humidity. I already omitted a few cups of sake... Whoops, there they are! In short order, we found Shitennoji which had a huge stone Shinto Torii out front, and a little flea market almost of vendors selling everything from traditional geta sandals to children's toys. In the temple grounds itself, we went into the pagoda, and there was a little open door leading up. So what else, we put on the little tiptoe slippers and went up! Crazy dad leading us. Five stories we spiraled up, past all the bodhisattvas with their offerings in front of them, until we conquered it. After the pagoda fun, we went and looked at the Buddha, which isn't nearly as large as the one we will see in Nara at Todai-ji, but it was big. And the paintings around on the walls were pretty cool, but nothing to write home about. It seemed to tell the story of a particular journey, and had a lot of Chinese and Indian looking people in it. It was time to meander back towards the Tennoji station to go to Osaka Castle. Osaka castle grounds were pretty cool looking, and on the way, we passed Osaka-jo Hall (Osaka Castle Hall) which is a concert hall near the castle. They are doing some sort of Disney princess show, because the kids (ages 2-8) were flocking to it. the castle grounds were pretty nice, but the view from the top was the reason we were there. Osaka castle is pretty darn high up, and we got to see a lot from up there. The corners of the castle has golden fish-dragons on it, and they are traditionally meant to protect from fires. On the way down the castle, was museum stuff, and we saw everything from books written by the guy in the castle, to the sword said to take the head of one of the rulers when he committed seppuku (seppuku is where you honorably commit suicide by slicing open your stomach, first horizontally from left to right, and if you have enough strength, up from the groin to your sternum. When you cannot take it any more, your second will take your head to stop your suffering. Gruesome, eh?). When we left the castle, and headed back to the Tennoji station, I had stopped to look at a map for a minute, and dad said "New Otani Hotel" which was written on the side of that hotel. It sounded familiar, somehow... Two mistaken trains after some stationside curry (how very delicious I may think it is, I don't think dad liked it, and I know Kevin didn't), we were back at the airport to catch the bus, which we barely made by running. That just about ends the first day in Japan. Pretty full, eh? Waking up once more at Ramada Kansai, we went to the Circle K for a pan and coffee breakfast, not the 7-11. Circle K actually had warm coffee, and dad and Kevin braved the various egg salad sandwiches with other stuff in them, like ham and cucumber for Kev and fried ham that seemed glazed like sweet and sour pork for dad. I had some inari sushi and a curry onigiri. I was happy with mine. We confirmed the room for the 23rd at that hotel and then checked out, heading to the airport yet again as our jumping point to Osaka. We realized that I don't have a paper ticket for my flight home, so we went to see if I could get one printed, and they couldn't, but if I didn't need to wait long after my dad and Kevin went home, why should my flight be the 27th when they leave on the 24th? So I made a phone call, and now I am on the waiting list for the 25th. Sorry I am changing it so much, but at least I may be coming home yet earlier!! I will know for certain next week, but until then, I am still definitely coming home on the 27th (be home on the 28th). We went to go check in at our new hotel which happened to be the New Otani Hotel. Like I said, I knew it sounded familiar! I had to argue with the lady at the front desk. For the second night in a row, dad forgot to book the room with Kevin in it, and I was left to the bargaining. In my best polite-yet-insisting voice, I told them that, for the orignal price we will take the room, but will have the third person, and we will not pay the extra 4000 yen for that, thank you very much. It turns out that this room is even better than the one at the Ramada, including a mini bar! Dad of course checked the price after he cracked open a can of Kirin, which cost 750Y, and we decided to replace it with one bought from a convenience store for 200Y. Sounds good to me! Our room here overlooks Osaka-jo Hall and Osaka Castle itself, and it is lit up beautifully this night. Could not ask for a better view. Back to the day, at 2pm, we went to find Den Den Town, the electronics district. We were hungry, and I wanted ramen (like usual...), so we got off one stop before Tennoji, where I saw a sign that said "Ramen" and we found the shop and went in. We each got a little bit of Kimchee (slightly spicy Korean pickled, fermented, stuff...), the best chahan I have had in Japan (fried rice), and a bowl of ramen. Even now, 6 hours later, I am not hungry. And everyone knows that that is saying something. From there, we walked towards Den Den Town, for over a half an hour, past Shitennoji where we were yesterday (of course! I guess our tour of Osaka was just this small area...), and finally find it, but it wasn't as cool as Akihabara was when I was there. It was neat, wandering around, and the iPods were still pretty dang expensive, so my dad has no new fun toy. We walked for quite a while, but didn't want to shop, so we crossed, and walked back on the other side of the street. We walked past three porn shops in a row. THREE! of them all displaying their 'wares' with no regard to whom may be walking past. So very different from the states. But still fairly amusing. The shop after that was a 7-11, but with it's magazine rack against the wall (the backs of many Japanese magazines have pretty girls on them), and dad and Kevin thought I was taking them into a fourth porn shop. I wonder how they all stay in business. Do they specialize? Does one pervert walk in to shop A and request porn genre 2, and then get sent to porn shop C because they specialize in that form of debauchery? Who knows. I didn't investigate. Another ten minute walk took us to another JR station. If we went there in the first place, we would have cut about 35 minutes off of our walking, and off of Kevin's hurt feet. He isn't used to walking across Japan in his sandals yet. Yet. So we came back here, and they are reading while I type this. Apparently there is a McDonalds and a Subway nearby, and my dad wants to try the Fish McNuggets with Wasabi sauce, because they're weird. So tomorrow, we head off to Nara to go to Todai-ji (giant Buddha statue, Buddha's nostril), Hou Ryu Ji (oldest wooden structure in the world), and Kasuga Taisha (lanterns). More to come!