Planes,Trains and Automobiles

---

Pengiuns

Dolphins

Fish Everywhere

Main Attraction

Whale Shark

Nice Face

Big Fish!!

School of Fish

Whale Shark 2

Crabs

Ryan Being Attacked By Jelly Fish

Mini Jellies

---

Lisa always says that things just don't run smoothly in anything she is involved in. And my response is, " but it always works out in the end". This was true of our brief trip to Osaka. Our purpose for going was to get Lisa's work visa. Here's how we thought the trip should go: airplane to Osaka, train to Namba Station, go to the Korean Embassy, chill until it is ready to be picked up the next day, train to Tokyo. Sounds nice!! But here's what happened. The airplane ride was good. The train ride into Osaka wasn't as easy. There was three different ways to get to Namba station the fast train, the medium train and the slow train. At the ticket office I asked for "fast train" and even did some actions. The man seemed to understand. He gave us our tickets and we made our way to the platform for our 20 minute train ride. We ended up on the very slow train ( for nearly an hour)and we discovered that we needed to change trains one time. We finally got to Namba station, which we were forwarned was a difficult station to navigate through. But we were told all you had to do was go to Exit 11. So, we got off the train and started looking for Exit 11. After walking throught the Namba Maze ( that's what is actually called) and realizing that there is about 45 exits we decided to just head out the nearest exit we could find and try to find the embassy. We lucked out and saw a white person as soon as we got outside and asked him if he knew where the Embassy was. He said it was a 10 minute walk, very easy to get to, and impossible to miss because of the gigantic Korean flag in the front. So, we followed his directions. After walking for about 20 minutes we began to question whether we were given bad instructions. So, we started to backtrack. And we ran into another white person and asked him. He said we must have passed it. It's the building with the police in front of it. So, we made our way back in ther direction we had come from. We got in front of the building with the police in front of it and asked " Korean Embassy?", and he responded with " it's closed today because of a Japanese holiday, open tomorrow". This was very bad because it takes 2 days to proccess the visa and the next day was Friday. We decided to go find a hotel, phone our boss in Korea and then figure out what the hell we were going to do. We decided that we would go to the Embassy the next day a 9 a.m and beg for them to get it done in one day.
That night we made our way to the World Famous Osaka Aquariuma and spent about 3 hours there. It was amazing!! We had a lot of fun as you can probably tell by our videos and pics. We then grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to the hotel.
When we showed up at the embassy the next morning that there were about a dozen other people who were in the same boat we were in. No one looked impressed. It is our bosses job to make sure the Embassy is open before they send us on a Visa run and obviously no ones boss did so. We all pleaded our cases to the Visa lady and she said they might be able to get all of them done today. So, the waiting game began. We all went back to the embassy at 1 o'clock and waited, and waited, and waited. When the Visa lady came out of her office she was bearing very good news. All the visa's were finished. We thanked her profusely and got out of Osaka as fast as we could. Like I said, It always works out in the end.

---

Photos

Hotel
Hanging out in the hotel in Komonos, slippers and drinking Japanese beer.

Comments

[Andrew]

Wow
Looks and sounds like you guys are having the time of your lives! Sorry I missed your call but look forward to another opportunity to chat sometime soon. Lindsey and I just got away to Ls Vegas for New Years to celebrate our engagement. I proposed on Xmas night and we are looking at July 26, 2008 for the big day. It would be great if you guys get back for it but I can underestand if you don't. Rock on and enjoy your time! Love you guiys, Andy