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Published: January 14th 2011
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I'm in Osaka!! And it is sooooo crazy and busy and noisy, I can imagine that Tokyo will be just as bad, if not worse! But it's good to see the big cities as well as the small ones.
Last night I went back to the YH and was reading in the common room and another foreigner came in and we got to talking. He is from France and his English is not all that good so we were conversing in Japanese. It is really cool to think that two people from opposite sides of the world who have so many things not in common, except the fact that we speak Japanese can talk to each other. It's a little hard to explain how weird it felt, but good at the same time. Later on two Japanese guys came in and joined our conversation as well, you can meet so many different people when you stay at YH and little guesthouses and the like. One of the best things about this is the information you can gain from fellow travellers. The French guy had lived in Nagoya so he could tell me some good places to go while I am
Osaka castle grounds
Small children riding unicycles. there and the other guys were from Tokyo and Kyoto, and they are both places that I will be going to next. They even wrote down a few good things to see and do and gave me their email addresses if I wanted to ask them anything. I've made so many contacts whilst on this trip it is unbelievable.
This morning I left Kobe, it is only a 20 minute train ride to Osaka from there, so it was fast and cheap, double whammy! Arriving mid morning on a Sunday meant that there were people everywhere, the crowds were pretty crazy. It took me a while to try and locate the lockers which were, by that time, completely full. Actually that's a lie, they did have a few small ones but trying to fit my bags in a locker like that would be like trying to fit an elephant down a drain pipe! So I didn't even bother. A few seconds of contemplation later a light bulb appeared over my head: why don't I go to my hotel early and ask them if I can leave my bags there before check-in? Sometimes I amaze myself with my lack of
common sense, I mean seriously, why hadn't I thought of this earlier, or in the other places where I had been? Think how much money I could have saved!
After making the disappointing trek to the Osaka Human Rights Museum which is supposed to be really informative and thought-provoking, only to find that it was closed for renovations, I made my way back to the subway and went to Osaka castle park, where not only do they have Osaka castle but also Osaka peace memorial museum. So I went and had a look at that, they had 3 different sections, one was dedicated to what happened in Osaka during WWII, all the bombings and stuff, and brief info on the rest of Japan. The interesting thing about this museum was it wasn't a one sided argument because the next section dealt with the countries where Japan had inflicted pain and its own military forces. For example, the biggest sections were about China and Korea, and how the Japanese had tortured and starved POWs and invaded those countries. It was very eye-opening actually, and the photos were very graphic. Especially the ones from China where the Japanese had massacred thousands
Osaka streets
A cute little bridge and river in the middle of the city of people in a place called Nanjing, and left their bodies to rot or had decapitated them or even burnt and buried people alive.
They also had sections on other countries where Japan had been, Pearl Harbour too. After seeing all that it made me realise why some people who survived WWII did and still even do despise them. What they did was terrible, but I do believe though that they felt they had a reason to do it, maybe not a reason that any of us can rationalise but a reason nonetheless. And I still do not understand why there is resentment towards today's generation who had nothing to do with it. But enough of my thoughts, I realise that many people feel differently.
The third section of the museum dealt with other areas in the world and other wars etc. Like the situation in Africa and Iraq and so on, after the devastation from WWII have we learned nothing? Why are there still people inflicting pain on others? As a human race we still have so much to learn.
So after that I went to see the castle but I had heard that the inside isn't all that exciting, especially after seeing all the castles that I have on this trip, so I just went to see the outside. It was really beautiful, white walls, green roof and black and gold carvings all over it. The gardens and surrounds were really pretty too, and there was this guy there doing tricks, not magic as such but juggling and I don't know what the other things are called, but he was doing all sorts. It was very entertaining! The park that surrounds the castle is a nice recluse from the hustle and bustle of the city that surrounds it. There were young people there on bikes and rollerblades and also some unicycles that look extremely hard to ride. And the people who were riding them were small children! It was an interesting place to go and watch the things people do.
On my way out a Japanese guy came up to me and asked if I knew where the subway station was, and so being nice I showed him the way as I was going there myself. I was a bit skeptical though cos he actually lives in Osaka and so really he should know where it is, and even if he didn't why would you ask a foreign tourist? The chances that a foreigner would know are very slim. His true purpose became known not too much later when he asked me out "for drinks" that night and my phone number, but I uh...politely declined. And then again later on while I was in another area of Osaka trying to find somewhere to have dinner, I was walking along the street and all of a sudden a guy comes up to me and says "Would you like to have tea with me?", I always wonder why I get these people who seem interested in me. Surely in a place like Osaka, a foreigner isn't a rarity? In fact I know it isn't because I have seen them everywhere! In Hakodate, where we non-Japanese outsiders are a dime a dozen, I can understand it, but in the second biggest city? That particular request seemed a little strange, and by tea I mean tea the drink, not dinner. I politely refused, again, and made up a lame excuse, I have no doubt that he was trying to be nice and wanted to practice English or something but being a lone female traveller I tend to err on the side of caution.
Anyway, that was my first day in Osaka, two more nights here and there are a few different things that I want to see, so just like everything else it will go fast. Can you believe that I only have about 3 weeks left of travelling? Man time flies.
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