Blogs from Shinsaibashi, Osaka, Osaka, Japan, Asia - page 2

It has been a little while since I updated, and I apologize for keeping out of touch, but I haven't been around all that much the past couple weeks. Last week was called "Silver Week" - three national holidays back to back, from Mon-Wed. Awesome :D So I decided to take the Thursday and Friday off too, make a week of it and head to Osaka with the boy. It turned out to be an amazing time! We met up with a bunch of other ALTs there and went exploring and drinking. I will definitely need to plan a trip back. Osaka was ridiculously crowded due to the holiday, so going to places like Kaiyukan (Osaka Aquarium) was an ordeal and a half. We ended up getting on the Giant Wheel (note: apparently not a ferris ... read more

My flight from Singapore to Osaka was wonderful! I had a whole row to myself..the three seats I was in, plus the four middle seats and the three on the opposite side of the plane that were all empty, which made sleeping that much more comfortable. Singapore Airlines is phenomenal! The food was wonderful, I had everything I needed and I was so relaxed. I got a bit of rest, woke up for the most delicious airplane breakfast ever as well as the sunrise, then arrived in Osaka at 8am. Now Japan is a whirlwind! I picked up my bag and immediately changed into pants, socks, shoes and sweater, because I had definitely underestimated how cold it was going to be in Japan in March. I grabbed a coffee to warm my insides and started on ... read more

I heart Japan! I know that I have said this about a lot of the countries I have been to in the past few months, and it is true again--Japan is awesome. I arrived into Tokyo & my friend Karen was waiting for me as soon as I got out of customs--a familiar face in a new city. Yay! We made our way to our budget accomodation which turned out to be pretty nice for going cheap. We had a room with 2 bunk beds so we each got our own bottom bunk--no camp nightmares of falling off the top bunk when having to get up to pee in the middle of the night! We explored Tokyo for 2 days and everywhere we went friendly people helped us--some even approached us when we were looking ... read more

So on our first official day here in Japan...we don't just stay at the dorms and sleep of the jet-lag like everyone else. Our butts are up by 8:30...and we are off to Osaka by 9:00. I really don't understand how anyone can come to this country w/o speaking Japanese. We had to ask all the time where certain places were. So first we had to get on the bus..to head to Hirakatashi eki. We had to make sure we got on the right bus. hehe! But everyone was really helpful. So that was like a 10 minute bus ride. Then at the train station...yeah..we had no idea how to buy s stupid ticket. So we had to ask...again. Which btw...super easy. So we are on the platform....having no idea which train to get on...and each ... read more

Our accommodation location in Osaka seemed a bit seedy at first from the direction we approached.... a bit 'reddish' you might say. However a block away was a well known restaurant and shopping strip. There was no shortage of restaurants to choose from, and it had a carnival type atmosphere at night. Our room at the ryokan was quite large, and was the first time that the futons were rolled up during the daytime and laid out for us in the evening . Osaka is known as the 'friendly city', and they even did our washing for free. We visited the Osaka Aquarium on a very rainy day, it has the largest aquarium tank in the world. We may not have seen a whale shark in Exmouth (Western Australia), but we did see one in ... read more