Blogs from Osaka, Japan, Asia
May 21st 2012
In early May I was able to go to Osaka for two days for a judo tournament. The team left on Saturday, using the Shinkansen to get there. The Shinkansen cut what could have been a 7 hour bus ride into a three hour train ride. (yay!) The Shinkansen is a nice way to travel by in Japan but it is very expensive. It cost around triple the price of bus ticket. The train took three stops on the way to Osaka. (Shizouka, Nagoya, and Kyoto) We got to Osaka in the afternoon, which gave us plenty of time to play around in Osaka. Osaka is famous for its okonomiyaki and takoyaki. So of course I had to go try it. My friend and I found a small okonomiyaki shop that could seat only ten people ... read more
May 7th 2012
Osaka was great. The people were really nice. I usually did not know what I was eating because most of the places I went to either didn't have English or pictures of the food. I pretty much just picked random things on the menu. However..Every single thing I ate was incredibly good! Definitely want to get back there some time...Was having too much fun to take pictures..... read more
April 30th 2012
We took the Shanghai ferry to Osaka, a two-day journey accomplished during beautiful, calm weather – thank goodness. Most of the time, Tom the Sailor said that the wave height was 3-4 feet, but the ship just smoothed them out. We traveled on the Suz Hou Hao (www.suzhouhao.com) for two nights; our comfortable room was a double, though there were also dorm rooms and a couple of “VIP” rooms that weren’t much nicer than ours. We only had a couple of complaints: first, there was no water to drink, except that in the vending machines, which quickly ran out. We thought we might have been the only ones worried about drinking the tap water, but quickly realized that everyone else wanted the bottled water too. Second, although the web site states that departure time is 11:00 ... read more
March 28th 2012
All the while Osaka plays second fiddle to New York City, the place we loved so dearly but left it for practical reasons. We can't help it,New York City was the backdrop of our love story. Me and my wife in a romantic and fun city, while being young and without parental responsibility, thats New York. While Osaka is a place where we toil and raised our children all on our own apart from our families. Sadly, our perception of Osaka falls victim to our new circumstances. But this time this change a bit. We have been constantly checking the weather, days ahead our prenuptial photo shoot. The forecast changes slightly on a daily basis, but never on the good side. It was either cloudy, rainy, or partly sunny At this point, we are not counting ... read more
March 26th 2012
La version française suit. Coming and going we forget how time flies. Not too long ago I was working on a mushroom farm. Now I am in Osaka working part time teaching English to Japanese children (with song and dance of all things). Our hosts were really kind to us and we will miss them greatly. Looking back at the three weeks I spent at the Iisaka residence it seems almost like a dream. It seems like a dream because it’s like we stepped in and out of a different world that I now keep only in memory. It was more than a glimpse into the lives of others. Living with this family and living as they did offered a quick look into the infinite variability of possible existences. I understood half of nothing and probably ... read more
March 24th 2012
K- In his last blog Mark stated that he could hardly believe how much we had done in the few days since arriving in Japan. Our trip to Osaka took that statement and quadrupled it. We went to Osaka purely to try and attend a Sumo tournament, six of which are held each year, each of 15 days length. We were therefore lucky that one was in progress. However the tournament was in Osaka and we were in completely the wrong end of Japan – in Aso, Kyushu, 450 kilometers away. Fortunately our JR pass and the bullet train meant that we could take a quick side trip to Osaka to try and see the Sumo. I say try because it is very difficult for foreigners to buy advance tickets – you need to purchase in ... read more
March 17th 2012
Saturday 17th March 2012: Just a quick blog today as the Japanese authorities won’t allow the ship to use its satellite communications equipment once it’s in their territorial waters. So no telephone and no internet once we get to within 12 miles of the Japanese coast and that will be later this afternoon – it’s midday here right now. The temperature continues to drop and it is now 18º but it’s very humid with over 72% humidity. I think we’re just about to be glad we packed some British winter clothes as it’s forecast to be down to around 11 or 12 degrees in Osaka. The waves are quite high and there are loads of white horses but as the QM2 was built for the transatlantic route, she copes brilliantly and you are barely ... read more
January 22nd 2012
What a New Year for the books. I guess you could say I doubled down on holidays this year, which is to say I celebrated twice over, each time with the same gusto, gluttony and bad music, but with slightly different decorations. When Christmas was done and dusted, I got myself on a night bus to see my Osaka "family" for the Japanese New Year お正月. I know the ugly images you must be getting when I say "night bus" - and you're not wrong. This time, however, those of us getting a crappy 5 hours "sleep" in the reclining seat of a highway bus had the last laugh. I arrived crabby and sleep-deprived to footage on the news of unhappy Japanese, home for the holidays, pouring out of bullet trains running at 150 percent capacity. ... read more
The Pilgrimage to find a Whale Shark
Published: January 22nd 2012Asia » Japan » Osaka » Osaka » Shinsaibashi
January 22nd 2012
It has just dawned on me that I had not written anything in my blog about my weekend in Japan. It was never my intension to go to Japan but when Ed wrote to me expaning that he needed to go while I was here to get a new visa and would I like to join him, I was very excited about the idea. We spent three nights there which gave us a full day in Kyoto and a day in Osaka. I should really tell you about our day in Kyoto, it being the more 'cultural' expirence. We vistited three temples (among them were: The Golden Pavilion or Rokun-Ji Temple and Kiyomizu Temple). Both were breath taking, awe-inspiring places truely worthy of their role as a place of worship. I however was in no fit ... read more
January 13th 2012
Hello We went to Osaka at the weekend and had a lovely time, I'm not saying there isn't a lot to do in Osaka but you will see we mainly visited the castle. We took our lonely planet so we knew where to go and we found some bars. Well the first bar we went to was dead it was just us which was alright we chatted and drank beer. It was happy hour so the beer was very cheap. Then we went for dinner in what felt like the ladies living room, she made us some really good okonomi-yaki. The other people in there were drinking red wine with ice, apparently that's how you drink red wine in Japan. After dinner we decided we wanted to have some more drinks and came accross a darts ... read more
