Weekend trip #3: Osaka

And yet another weekend outing. ^^

This time, I went up by myself all the way to Osaka! I was a little nervous at first but I went through it and it all worked out well. Mahahaha!

So, this time I went up to Osaka to meet up with Terence, Kelly and the organizer of it all, Steph! None of us live in Osaka so we all had to travel there on our own. However, I traveled the furtherest…

Anyhoo, because I had purchased my tickets from a store…not really sure what to call it but they sell travel tickets at a cheaper price. Well, because I got it from there, I was able to hop onto any train really. So, once I got them and let the others know, Kelly found out that we could actually ride the same train!

So, once Saturday morning came about, I got up really ridiculously early because I anticipated things going wrong and having long conversations with workers and overall trying to figure out how to sue the tickets/search for the right train, etc etc. So, I got up at…5:30 I think it was…and after train hopping arrived at the station to get on the shinkansen. What I didn’t know was that my ticket was for the “unreserved seat” car. And I never learned the word before so after I got to the platform to get onto the shinkansen (for which I was like 45 minutes early) so I texted Kelly, “what’s ‘jyuuseki’?” Then she let me know it was “unreserved.” Then my thoughts were confirmed, Kelly and I wouldn’t be able to sit next to each other since she had a reserved seat. But at least we could ride the same train, ne? Oh yea, after we had settled that and she told me that she’ll got on the train around 9:20/9:30 I noticed that I probably woke her up…and then I felt really bad about doing so… ><” (My train was to leave at 8…and I was there really really early for it…yea…sorry Kelly!)

Well, anyway, I think the train started at my station. So I was able to get a seat. (hurray!) And a really nice older woman sat next to me. We got to talking and it turns out that she lives in the same city as me! And her son graduated from the high school that I’m teaching at!!! Hahaha. Life is funny sometimes. So she gave me her name, phone number and address. I gave her my name and the name of the school I work at. I’ll try to call her sometime and have coffee or something. Oh yea, she bought me a cup of coffee. She seemed a bit amazed that I drank it black though…

Anyhoo, the train arrived to Shinosaka and I got to meet up with Kelly!!! It’s always great to reunite with a great buddy.
:]
And then we had a small snack at the station (evil McFlurry strikes again!) and then we hopped onto the subway to get to Namba station, where we’d meet up with Terence and Steph! This time though, it was rather easy to find them. They were both wearing yellow shirts. Hehe^^

So off we go to the hostel, checked in early and left our bags in the room. We immediately headed off to explore. On Saturday we went to the aquarium which this crazy tall building and then you kinda just circle around various tanks. So at one level you’ll see the animals on top or floating about and at a lower level you’ll see them swimming about the deep ends of the tank. It was really great. Oh, and they even had a whale shark!!! Though it didn’t look that huge in the tank (then again…it could have been a young whale shark), a chart off to the side was comparing various sharks to the size of a human. Yea…we’d be like a popsicle to a whale shark at it’s full length…
Then we hung around the area. Went into a shopping area, bought towels (hostel didn’t provide any), ate okonomiyaki (one of things Osaka is known for), conbini hopping, toy store browsing and then ending with karaoke! We all sang songs together for 2 hours. We originally went in thinking we’d be there for like 1 hour but once the call came in that we had 5 minutes left, we asked for another hour. It wasn’t that bad. It was about $10 per person per hour. And they had a great selection of songs. Afterwards we walked back to the hostel and went to bed. (oh, but the day was filled with many exciting events, I’m just giving you the jist of it and let it be known, we rode the subway like crazy! And we had these awesome whale shark day pass card)

The next morning, after being awakened by our hostel roommates that turned on one of the lights to get ready for their day, we got up early and prepared for another day of adventure. After having a conbini breakfast, only to notice a bakery right next to it afterwards, we went off to find another day pass. Though it didn’t have a cool whale shark on it, it did come with a “coupon book” that provided us with free entry to various places. So we went to the Osaka castle, Shitennouji temple, hung out at another shopping mall (where we went to the arcade, played taiko drums, did 2 sessions of purikura), and then headed off to a floating garden observatory.

Here is where things get really interesting. So after getting directions to the floating garden observatory, we wondered if the area was good…since it seemed to be a bit lonely…but eventually we found the building and as we headed towards it, we noticed some music was being played live. At first it sounded like opera…but then it started to remind me of backyard quincenera parties in my neighborhood. So we got into the building and noticed that there’s some sort of gathering going on in the middle of the building, where it’s an open area. So we decided to check it out and I swear it felt like we were tellaported or something. It was a Mexican fiesta! There were mariachi (hence the familiarity to home) and they had taco stands! So we walked by them all and decided that the first one seemed the best choice (I told them that it smelled it right. Like actual Mexican tacos). Sadly though, no beans. But the stand that we went to had a Peruvian cook! And since I talked with him a bit in Spanish, he gave me more meat in my tacos. Mahahaha. And boy were they good. ^^ We then watched people dance, listened to mariachi and eventually made our way up to the observatory.

After going up an elevator and then an escalator and then another elevator, we got the “floating garden.” There was nothing “garden” about it! But apparently they were trying to include the wind as part of the garden. Something like that. But the view from that area was really nice. I’ll post photos of it later.

After sometime up there, we came back down, had one more taco for the road (tried a different one and then Steph and me got 1 more of the good ones), hit the conbini for fluids and then headed back to the hostel. But we didn’t go back to the hostel. Oh no. We went back to the karaoke place and sang for another 2 hours!!!

This morning, we had breakfast at the bakery, went to the station, found Kelly’s friend, went off to another mall/shopping area, checked out a Toys R Us, had lunch at a bagel place, headed back to the station and sadly, went our separate ways. Kelly, her friend Gene, and I went on the subway to the shinkansen station, and then Gene went off back to his hotel. Kelly bought her ticket and we rode the shinkansen together ‘til we got to her station. Then I rode alone ‘til my station. I kept zoning in and out. I was so tired. But I managed to stay awake for the end (didn’t want to miss my stop!). Then after some confusion at the station, I got onto the train for home and after nearly 3 hours of traveling, I got home.

And I’m on my couch right now, and I’m still really tired. I’ll be on my way soon. Rather earlier than other nights (definitely earlier than this weekend).

So…more details maybe later, and definitely a round of pics later.

じゃね！