Blogs from Osaka, Osaka, Japan, Asia - page 14

Good morning all. It is 6:48am, Saturday morning. Joyce and I are up but Ted and Nobu are still asleep. I guess they can't keep up with us veterans. Yesterday was a very long and exciting travel day but today we hit the ground running. We asr scheduled to meet with the ladies of Ted's dancing troupe in the morning, lunch with them, and then onto the Shakudo family this evening for dinner. Phew! I hope our jet-lagged bodies will be able to take the punishment. Last night Ted and Nobu took us to a local noodle restaurant where we feasted on noodles, tea, and some plum wine. It was just what we needed after the long travel day. Delicious! Right now, I going to have my OJ and my daily regimen of pills to help ... read more

Finalizing our wonderful staying in Japan :((( We wish we could stay longer... but definitely we'll come back and we strongly recommend you to visit the country... People, culture, food, countryside, cities, shopping, so many topics are surprising and interesting! We visited 2 opposite cities: Kyoto and Osaka. First, Kyoto looks like the very traditional Japonese city. It was saved from bombing during the 2nd World War and so many part of the city are aged. It's an amazing place to visit Buddhist temples and cycling around. We could finally do bicycle the whole day until we didn't fell our butt anymore! We stayed at a mini hostel owned by only one young Japanese guy, with tatamis in the rooms. Paradox is that people are very polite and never brake the rules... but once on their ... read more

After the day I arrived in my designated city, one of my JTEs M-sensei was kind enough to spend his two O-bon festival holidays to show me around Osaka, the central city of West Japan and more importantly my new home for the upcoming two years. Located at the intersection of Yodo river and the Seto Inland sea, Osaka has developed as the principle center of trade and cultural exchange with not only other parts of Japan, as well as S. Korea and China. The canals and bridges that were built to promote the movement of goods had been the foundation of Osakan culture that continues to shape its people's daily life until today. As I casually strolled around the city with M-sensei, listened to his tales as a child growing up in this city, I ... read more

Osaka, Japan... read more

The day of May 19, 2009 officially marks the day that my first foreign trip began. As I write this first entry, it is May 21. There has been an excessive and unending venture to come here. We left at approximately 5 pm from Bridgewater State College and worked our way to New York's JFK Airport. As soon as we entered JFK, we were taking our seats that would comfort us for the next 14 hours. Our connecting flight to Seoul, South Korea, was Asiana Airlines, a Korean airline that serves hundreds of countries. The group was stunned when, in the darkness of the distant runway, looked out upon a Boeing 767. The plane, of course was extremely large and held nearly 400 passengers. Movies and music kept us entertained but the never- ending thrill of ... read more