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Published: April 17th 2006
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Having had as many temples castles and gardens as we could possibly wish to see, we jumped on a train and headed for Osaka. Andy was on a mission to check out Osaka university of art and catch up with lecturer and prominent Japanese artist Hiroshi Yamano.
But first I insisted that we go and visit my sister's (Felicity) old exhange family's restaurant. For those of you who may not know Felicity lived in Japan for 3 months on a school exchange when she was 15. The family she stayed with owns a dikitchi yakitori restaurant which is basically chicken and veges on skewers grilled over coals. Anyway, me and andy found our way there one the Osaka subway (surprisingly easy to use) and went for a meal of yummy yakitori.
Miki is Felicity's exchange sister, but she wasn't in osaka at the time so we met Ayako (Miki's younger sister) and her Dad and saw some pictures of both Ayako and Miki's new babies. They couldn't speak much english so many smiles and waves and gestures were shared before we retired with a full stomach.
The next day we headed out to Osaka art university on the
subway. At this point I may add a few things about japanesse train travel. I have never been on a local train in peak hour but at most times of the day (depending on where you are) the trains can be packed like peak hour times in Australia. And sorry, these are not like the 3 carridge trains we have in Adelaide. I'm talking 12 or more carridge trains that come every 3 minutes. Aparently peak hour trains are almost like being in a mosh pit (for all you rock and roll fans out there). You can't budge an inch!
When I was using the trains in Osaka, I noticed that there were carridges only for women. I asked my friend Shiz about these later on and she said that in peak hours, when the trains are packed some men have been groping women. And because the trains are so packed they can't tell where the hand is coming from so its really hard to catch the men doing it. So now they have one or two one a train that are train carridges just for women.
Anyway, Osaka university of art is absolutley massive. Massive for me
at any rate. It was bigger than monash caulfield with better facilities and the entire campus was just for art and design. It was orientation week when we were there so a lot or art students were out in force trying to get people to come along to this or that club. There was a small jazz band playing and people dressed in all sorts of costume. Very fun and vibrant!
Hiroshi Yamano was a really nice guy who was very easy to talk to. We had a tour of the glass area and then a breif tour of the surrounding buildings.
On our way back home at the train station we noticed a fairly long que outside a small shop. On futher investigation it proved to be a dumpling, steamed bun (nigiri) and gyoza shop. As they seemed to be the best dumplings in the whole of Osaka we tried them out for dinner and weren't dissappointed!
The next day we took a day trip out to Nara which is Japan's ancient capital. As it was a Saturday Lots of people were out in force to have their hanemi picnics under the cherry blossoms before the
flowers all dissappear. Nara has many temples and gardens as well, and most are located in a special park at the base of a mountain. The main one has a giant bronze buddah, but when we got there is so SO packed full of tourists we decided to give it a miss.
The park at Nara is also full of Deer - who were said to have been messangers from the gods. They are pretty mangy rough looking. You can buy deer biscuits from street vendors to feed them, so now they descend on any unsuspecting tourits hoping for a free feed. I also saw they chase a few small children around.
One of the temples we visited does a fire ritual in March. It seems like in march the monks run around the balconies of the temple with flaming torches while people below are cleansed by the ashes. It was a beautiful temple anyway.
The night we jumped on a shinkansen and headed for Tokyo....
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dave y
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hey tigers glad to know your all having a party. glad to know every last little detail too (hahahahahha i joke cos i love) just wondering when you stray cats are gonna be back so i can cleen all the blood and semen of the walls and roof and get rid of the dead hookers and crack pipes. actually just let me know when your gonna be back so i can get the fuck out of dutch befor your back. wuv dave p.s. wheres my postcard! p.p.s hope you had a well wicked birthday pitty your so old now. i had a birthday too so it's pretty much all over for me too. maybe we could go to the same retierment home?