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Published: December 1st 2006
Checked out of our hostel in Osaka this morning - I think we succeeded in breaking most of the rules, by eating and drinking in the room, making noise after 10pm and doing our washing in the wee hours of the morning...
We caught the train to suburban Osaka (everyone must have gone to the city, because we saw about 3 people here, and 2 of them were the museum staff...*images of tumbleweed blowing down the street*). The purpose of our foray into the 'burbs was to visit the human rights museum th ere.
The museum visit was pretty interesting but would have been a lot more informative (for me anyway >_<) if english translations for everything were available. It was quite disturbing to consider all the marginalised groups in Japanese society, past and present - from the homeless and unemployed to sexual minorities, people with diabilities, koreans, women (but of course..), native minorites (such as the Ainu), Okinawans (who are part of Japan)...well, pretty much everyone really O_o i guess the first step towards building a better future would be ackowledgement of such prejudices, which is essentially what this museum does...it's just sad that not more people
are visiting it.
We had lunch at Osaka station; there is a complex of about 30 tiny restuarants packed tightly together directly below the station...its super busy during the lunch time and dinner time rush, filled with business men and women grabbing a beer and a bite.
We caught the shinkansen to Odowara that afternoon and arrived at my friend's place in Ebina that evening after 3 x train changes, and much lugging of stuff up and down stairs. On the skinkansen we met a random canadian who we thought was a Tiger Woods look alike, who was passing through Japan on his way home to the States.
On a side note, I think the toilets in Japan are the best - self lifting seat covers, etiquette noises when you pee, heated seats, sensor flushes and taps on top of the cistern that turn on following the flush so you can wash your hands...*envy*
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