Advertisement
Published: December 24th 2011
Edit Blog Post
Beth's host family
We were treated to a wonderful dinner out and then we had the privilege of going to the Nakajima's home in Hirakata City. We arrived in Japan on Dec 23rd, Beth met as at the airport as planned and we took the train to Namba, which is in Osaka. It was about 2 in the morning for us when we got off the train. We headed in the opposite direction of our hotel by mistake so we wandered about for about 30 mins with luggage in tow before we found the hotel (with some help from a very nice Japanese man that has GPS on his smart phone.)
The people are super friendly and helpful here. The cute older gentleman at the front desk of our hotel literally start running around when I asked for towels. They can't help you enough or quickly enough and they don't even accept tips! It would be rude to tip here, the custom of tipping doesn't exist and it would actually be rude to do so! When we went to breakfast the next morning, the young man waiting on us ran to take our order and then ran to get us our beef rice bowls (that's what we found to eat closest to our hotel). He literally ran around the kitchen and then ran to us with
Grocery store next to our hotel
We stayed at the Weekly Green in Namba. It ended up being a great location, in a neighborhood with this nice grocery store, laundry mat, 2 blks to the station, lots of restaurants. our food. Quite coordinated! It is adorable. They are so eager to serve. Americans need to take some lessons!
Our hotel is quite comfortable, we are here for 4 nights and then we go to Kyoto. The hotel is called The Weekly Green at Namba. It has 3 single beds and a very well equipped kitchen. It's larger than I thought it would be. It's tucked away down a narrow street that no one seems to drive on so that's why it was hard to find. It's really only 3 blks to the train and 1 block to an awesome grocery store. We stocked up last night and had beer and sushi in our room. The sushi from the grocery store is amazing.
Yesterday we visited Osaka Castle that was first built in the 1564 by the shoguns to "show off" how mighty they were as they were trying to take over. Many wars ensued and the castle was destroyed twice but was rebuilt and it is in the middle of a huge park, and sits up high with awesome views of the city (2.6 million) so about the size of Denver.
After the castle visit we
Namba
Street scene outside our hotel, on the way to the train! rode the train and went to see the Osaka Sky Tower, a huge skyscraper you can take an elevator up and see an awesome view of the city and the rivers and mountains. There are plenty of shopping areas everywhere, fancy malls and narrow streets lined with shops. We ate tacoyaki, Octopus balls, kinda like dumplings with octopus in the middle. Served very hot with sauce. Yummy. I'm sure I spelled tacoyaki incorrectly.
There are quite a few signs of the season, Christmas trees, lights, a giant snowman in the mall, etc.. but nothing like the hype at home. The had a all male singing group performing in the Osaka traing terminal for the "Snowman Festival" with two beauty pagent winners, Miss Osaka Kimono, and another. They had two other Japanese women dressed as Santa's helpers handing out flyers. The group performed to a tape with tight vocal harmonies typical of an acapella group. Christmas decorations are sparse, and the biggest thing is SHOPPING. The malls in and around the train station and towers were crowded with people buying things. The biggest winter holiday is New Years and that should be alot of fun
since we will be in Tokyo by then.
Most of the Japanese wandering around seem to be late teens to thirtyish. They are groups of women, or couples. Most are dressed very nicely with matching ensembles. High top black or brown leather boots, either mid-calf or knee length, with a turn down top are all the rage. Color coordinated layered skirts with tights complete the outfits. Jackets always matched the skirts. A funny side: we ran into an older gentleman on a subway who was wearing black parachute boots, green shiny parachute pants, and a black ski jacket with burgundy muffler. He had no teeth, but smiled a lot at us. Beth remarked, "Hey Dad, we finally found somebody with your same outfit!" So I guess, my fashion sense is that of crazy homeless looking people riding the trains.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.129s; Tpl: 0.034s; cc: 6; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0462s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Dan and Robin
non-member comment
We love Greg's Camo coat, Careful that nationals might think Greg is a walking tree!