WARNING: This is an extremely long post, so it will be split into 5 parts.
At the end of December, I was able to take some time off and visit other parts of Japan. Although it was only two months ago, I have forgotten a lot of details. Consider this a blessing. I love putting in as much detail as possible and this post would probably be even longer if it weren't for my short term memory loss. Or is is long term memory loss? I don't remember.
Anyway, lets start with my first few days in Osaka. Classes for the 2nd term ended and I was able to take five days off on top of the days every teacher had off. This sounds confusing, but basically the students have two weeks off at school, while the teachers continue working at the school with the exception of 4 days off at the end of December.
12/28/2009The Monday of the 28th was the beginning of my trip. I bought tickets a few nights before with my friend Liz and we headed down to Osaka together in the morning. It was a comfortable trip with swivel-enabled padded chairs and it lasted less than 3 hours. When we arrived at the main Osaka station, we walked out into the busy streets of Osaka and proceeded to find the subway line we needed. The walk was farther than we thought and we realized that we should have taken advantage of the connecting subway lines while we were still at the station. In any case, we made it to our first destination: The Osaka Aquarium! Kaiyukan!
The Osaka Aquarium is one of the largest public aquariums in the world and holds a pair of huge sharks, called the whale shark. Of course, there are other sea creatures that are cuter in comparison! Unfortunately, Liz and I didn't realize there was an area where you could see the babies and also a touch pool. So we left after an hour of wandering the first section. We went and grabbed some snacks and then headed back to the area just outside of the aquarium where all the decorative lights were set up. That was pretty much our whole day including the travel time.
We headed back to the station to meet up with our friends. My first Osaka meal was self-cooked Okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is one of the foods that Osaka is known for and its similar to a pancake, but there are various savory ingredients mixed in. After dinner, Liz, Kazuki, and I went to a nomihoudai. We had all you can drink in two hours for about 1,000yen per person. Before we missed the last train, we headed back to the station and parted with Liz. My new traveling buddy would be Kazuki.
12/29/2009Waking up in the morning after a night of drinking is easy. Finding the strength to battle off that feeling of laziness isn't so easy. Kazuki and I didn't leave Osaka until close to noon and when we got to Kyoto we were starving. We met up with Mike, another ALT in Ishikawa, and some of his high school buddies. They just finished visiting Kiyomizu-dera. That was supposed to be our first Kyoto destination, too, but we were too hungry to walk around the temple first. So, we had lunch with Mike and his friends and then parted ways. We made promises to see each other in Osaka.
Kiyomizu-dera was amazingly beautiful, even though it was in the middle of dreary winter weather. Luckily, it didn't rain that day. I got my first omikuji, which is a fortune, for the 2009 year. It was the BEST FORTUNE. Too bad the year was ended a few days after I got it. But, I must agree with it that I had a pretty good year considering I got to come to Japan. :) I also got my first omamori, which is an amulet of protection for something. There are various amulets: for good studies, for driving, for happiness, for romance, etc.
By the time we finished walking around Kiyomizu-dera, all of the temples and shrines were starting to close. They usually close around 5pm and we finished at 4pm. So we just walked around the streets of Kyoto and tried some yatsuhashi. Yatsuhashi is sort of like a mochi triangle with something inside and the mochi is usually flavored. It is also, currently, my favorite Japanese sweets. We sampled a ton of different flavors and I ended up buying orange flavored and green tea flavored yatsuhashi. Since the temples and shrines were closed, we just took a few photos of the sunset and the scenery viewable from the outside.
Kyoto isn't really known for its nightlife, but the downtown is pretty busy nonetheless. Kazuki and I had dinner at an izakaya, a tapas-styled restaurant. It was delicious and inexpensive for the cost of each plate. Because of its close proximity to Osaka, we hopped back on the train to spend the night in Osaka.
12/30/2009The second day in Osaka was spent at various tourist attractions including Dotonbori and Den-Den Town. While walking to Dotonbori from the station, Kazuki and I came across some people doing mochitsuki in the street. They were pounding rice into mochi and giving it out with red bean. It was delicious!
Dotonbori was bustling with people because it was lunch time. There were numerous street vendors in addition to the vast selection of restaurants. Dotonbori is known for its neon lights, but we were there in the day so it just looked like any other downtown to me. We were going to eat at a recommended ramen restaurant, but the line was ridiculously long. Instead we went to a ramen shop that requires you to order from a ticket machine. First you put in money and choose the meal that you want. Then you take the ticket it spits out and you give it to the staff there. They prepare your meal quickly and usually you can pick it up within 5-10 minutes.
Our next stop was back at the station. We went to meet up with Stacy, who is another ALT from Komatsu. In the meantime, I started some shopping in the Station shops. That was a bad idea for many reasons...I missed Stacy's phone call, I bought too much and I used too much money. When we finally found Stacy we decided to go to Den-Den Town, which is the Akihabara of Osaka. For those who don't know what Akihabara is, its the area in Tokyo that you can get a lot of cheap electronics, get anime paraphernalia, and go to maid cafes. The three of us chose to go to a maid cafe.
A maid cafe in Japan is geared towards men who have a fetish for maid costumes and behavior. The waitresses there will be dressed in cute French maid costumes and will serve you as if they are actually maids. Most of the time they have cutesy voices and will call you "master" in Japanese. Because Stacy and I are women, they called us the English equivalent of "Milady." The cafe we went to was small, but it was crowded with people. Other maid shops included ear cleaning, or we could have gone to a cat cafe in which kittens roam freely as you eat and drink. I think we chose the right cafe. When Kazuki got his iced tea, the maid asked if he wanted liquid sugar, called gum syrup in Japan, and he said, "yes." OMG I could not stop laughing when she poured it in, stirred it, and said in Japanese, "mixing mixing until it satisfies my master." When I received my "magical parfait" my maid, who was actually dressed not in a maid costume but a middle school girl's gym uniform with short shorts, presented it by saying, "hayaku genki ni naru~ poi!" I think the translation is something along the lines of, "get energy quickly. poof...or bang...or power up." I'm not really sure how to translate "poi." Anyway, were weren't allowed to take pictures in the cafe, unless we paid 600 yen for a photo with a maid, so we just took some pictures outside.
At night we met up with some other Ishikawa Jets near the main station. We went to an Izakaya and had nomihoudai (all you can drink). I drank way too much in those two hours. Let's just say I felt so bad that I left early to go back and sleep. End of day 3.
12/31/2009
I woke up close to noon. Although it was New Year's Eve, I didn't have the energy to do anything. Kazuki and I ate takoyaki in his little part of Osaka. It was delicious! We also did some shopping and then went to the grocery story to get food to make in the evening. The rest of the night was spent watching dramas, watching the K-1 fight, and then watching kouhaku (which is one of the New Year's Eve programs in Japan featuring numerous artists). Kazuki made ginger pork and soba. It was a simple New Year's Eve free of alcohol, until midnight struck, and even then I just had a small cup of wine.
1/1/2010
Shin nen akemashite omedetou gozaimasu! Happy New Year!
Get up! It's oshougatsu and it's time to go to hatsumode. The first day of the year is the busiest day in the year for many reasons. Obviously, everyone has the day off so everyone is out and about. Most people spend their time doing the following: visiting a shrine, eating with family, and shopping. During the first few days of the new year people go and visit a shrine to pray for good luck in the new year. This is what they call hatsumode.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatsumode
Usually there are a lot of vendors there selling omikuji and omamori. There are also food vendors who sell street food, like takoyaki or karage. If you are lucky, like I was, then the shrine won't be too busy. However, most shrines are busiest during this first week of the year. I went to a shrine in Osaka. To be honest, I can't remember the name of it.
The second stop of the day was the mall. Why is shopping so important on New Year's Day? Because that's when all the sales are. New Year's Day is the Black Friday of Japan. Actually, their sales are even better than those of the U.S. Not only are the prices reduced for most items in the store, they also have grab bags that are called Fukubukuro. They put in lots of different items that will soon be out of season into these "happy bags" and sell them for about $50, $100 or $200, depending on the store. Most of the time they won't allow you to peek inside, so you have to trust that you'll like the style of clothing. The first store I went to, I threw away $100 in an instant. In my defense, I did see the style of clothes included in the bags and there were only two left by this time. I figured it must be good if they sold all of them already and it was only 11am. Within two hours I had spent the $200 that I withdrew earlier that morning. By 1pm, I was tired and ready for lunch. I don't know how all those people do it. I think they must do research beforehand.
I can't remember what we did after this. And, unfortunately, I have no pictures to refresh my memory. Flash forward to 9pm.
Later that night
I got on my first overnight bus. This bus would be driving all night from Osaka to Tokyo, with various stops along the way. It is the cheapest method of transport in Japan, but it takes up so much time! Luckily, you can sleep on the overnight bus and when you wake up you are magically transported to a new land. :) Thus ends my Osaka trip.
