last time i was in japan, it was Nagoya, and i've been very much looking to forward to returning to japan and seeing Osaka.
japan is always such a fun place to visit because it is just so dramatically different from any other country, and it's culture is so evident, everywhere you go.
from what i could tell, a lot of japanese people can speak english, so i was soon relieved of my terrible attempts at recalling any high school-level japanese that i may have learned, though sometimes i still found myself resorting to charades...much to the amusement/confusion of the locals i was attempting to converse with.
while i may have promised myself on my last visit that next time i wouldn't concentrate so heavily on japanese food...well, what choice did i have this time around? i love japanese food, and i'm so rarely in japan, so i guess while i was here, i was going to take full advantage of being surrounded in such great japanese food.
osaka is one of those cities that is great to just walk around in. you'd think that after growing up only in australia, that ANY city would fascinate me when i walk around it...and i guess every city is in some way interesting, but not every one of them fascinate me.
osaka has something cool to see every which way you turn your head.
my adventures in Osaka:
after checking into the hotel room, jump straight onto the free shuttle bus to the city centre . navigate throughout a seven story department store, spending quite a lot of time on the floor dedicated to cameras and photography equipment, though my finances didn't allow for much of a purchase . purchase the obligatory fridge magnet for the collection. buy the obligatory set of origami papers and instruction manual . consider sampling the massage chairs, but find that there's already an elderly japanese man who seems to have so thoroughly enjoyed his massage that he is now asleep in the middle of the department store -- deciding i could avoid that sort of embarrassment, keep walking past...but not without taking a photo of the old man first . leave the store hours later, and discover that it's actually quite late at night -- those dreams of a beautiful japanese dinner are shattered as i realise nothing is open anymore...dinner is a couple of dry biscuits before bed but not before promising myself i'll eat my body weight in sushi the next day . the next day, wake up and jump back onto the free shuttle bus, and proceed to eat your body weight in sushi...and noodles...and miso soup . after walking along the street taking photos of oneself, be approached by an angry looking japanese guy who doesn't speak a word of english, making mad faces and pointing to my camera and then his girlfriend -- after many minutes of me getting increasingly more worried yet calmly trying to explain in japanese that i don't understand, we finally both realise that he thinks i was taking photos of his girlfriend over my shoulder whilst walking along...when i showed him the last twenty photos taken on my camera were of myself and not of his firlfriend, he was extremely apologetic and walked away backwards, bowing profusely -- i think the moral of that story is "vanity is trouble" . have a hard time making up my mind as to whether or not i want to ride the giant ferris wheel, only to find that it wasn't in operation anyhow -- i love when decisions are made for me . having spent the whole day walking around sight-seeing and shopping, decide that you've got just enough space in your tummy for a bit more food, so scoff down some more noodles bought in a tiny japanese restaurant where the lady cook doesn't speak any english and i had no japanese relevant for our situation, but that didn't stop us talking for fifteen minutes.
here are the photos:
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also, this deserves a mention:
now, i've been in quite a few cockpits of big planes in my time, and they tend to have a multitude of buttons in there, and certainly look very complicated and confusing.
but i reckon even a Boeing pilot would've been intimidated by the control panel i found attached to the side of my toilet in my hotel room.
i'm used to toilets with a maximum of two buttons -- half-flush or full-flush -- so you can imagine my confusion when it came time to flush the toilet.
but let me tell you, my confusion at that was nothing compared to what i felt when i flushed the toilet, and a GIANT, POWERFUL STREAM OF WATER shot out and hit the back of the bathroom door a whole three metres away!
thankfully i was standing to side at the time, could've lost an eye!
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stay tuned, next week: COLOMBO, SRI LANKA!!!
let the good times roll!!
