To Osaka!

Sat morning after breakfast we were off to the train station. As usual I had to stop to take various photos.

The Kuala bears are saying Stop! Look left and right! Its on the ground beside the road.

And this one is rather self evident.

It was insanely hot, as usual actually, and my shirt was pretty wet already before we even got on the bus to the train station. While at the bus stop I am pretty sure about 90% of the car drivers would slow down a bit and stare at me as they went past. Especially the obasan's (old ladies).

Nothing eventful to report on the way, so heres some train pictures.

After getting off I finally got to see some of those more stereotypical streets. Made me happy.

We stopped at a stall so I could get a snack. Its called Chigiri Mochi. Basically...baked sticky rice with a sweet sauce on it. With seaweed wrapped around it. On a stick! I know the face you might be making, but trust me it was good.

That old lady serving was also sporting the single tooth look. Old chomper as they call it in the south! (America, not Japan).

Also want to point out, those streets feel insanely dangerous. As you can see its basically a single lane, with cars going both ways, bikes zooming all over and people waking where they please. The cars almost brush right up against you. A tad unsettling.

We had about 2 hours to kill till we had to be at her sisters house so took our time walking around. We stumbled across Sojiji temple on the way and decided to pop on in.

It was a big place. Lots of different shrines for different purposes. Its all very confusing really. The atmosphere is a tad ruined when on main building there was a bunch of posters and adverts plus vending machines at the gate..but I guess thats what happens when modern times catch up. But it doesn't do much to take away from it all. There was also a coy pond that also had turtles in it too. All in all it was a really beautiful place.

We still had about an hour to kill and desperately needed air conditioning, so we found a nice little cafe/bakery and went there. Was a good 'ol mom and pop joint, with dad in the back baking and mom and daughter serving/cashier. I enjoyed a nice coke float and naomi had some chocolate bread sticks (soft bread) which were delicious.

We spent about 45min or so in here then finally headed to her sisters. Which will be documented in the next part!

Downtown Part 2

After lunch we did some window shopping. For some reason Darth Vader is big now for promoting cell phone covers... I have seen his face everywhere. Makes the inner geek proud.

After that we decided to head over to the next mall. Downstairs I found my first KFC!

Apparently they have that ceramic Col. Sanders in every KFC here. Its very inviting.

Basically you walk out of the one mall and theres a big walkway connected to the train station and the other mall too. This was right in the middle. Its all like 2 stories above ground the ground too. This arch looks like we are going into an old town or something but its just randomly there outside the station on the way to the next mall.

And this a random shot from up there.

When you go into the next mall, the first floor was alllll food vendors. It is kind of like in Sears or something..but every area was just food stands. Cakes, chocolate, hot food...everything. Was crazy. And it all looked amazing too. That last quarter or so turned into a grocery store..which was random.

After this, while trying to find a train ticket place where we could get discount tickets, we found ourselves down 1 floor. It was so bizarre. It was all done to look like an old fashioned Japanese street. It was all restaurants..but only about a quarter were actually real. Kind of like walking around in one of those old fashion towns in the BC museum...kind of. Very strange, but certainly cool.

I managed to buy a couple of shirts at the mall, one being XXL which was basically a large for Canadian size. I was trying to find some shirts with crazy english that makes no sense I always saw coworkers wearing. I always thought they were great and was able to find 1 good one anyway. I also picked up some much needed sandals. We did a ton of window shopping of course, since I find everything fascinating. After that it was time to finally head home. I think all in all we were out for about 5-6 hours.

Spotted this extremely fancy looking bakery too. If it wasn't for the poster on the window you would probably think your looking at a jewelry store. Actually these kind of places are all over.

And here a picture of a Japanese family restaurant. Kind of like Dennys. But they have a ton of plastic food to show you what your in for. Actually the plastic food is everywhere here. You might see it at a couple restaurants in Victoria (I know Koto does it) but not sure where else.

And that basically raps up that day. We passed out pretty early that night too. We had Mackerel that her mom made for dinner, which was very good. I didn't think I liked it but turns out I do..

The next day we just lazed at home all day really, it was hot and we were tired. I find that I am not really sure what the date is nor the day of the week usually, so if I make a mistake on days you will have to forgive me!

Sat we headed to Osaka to stay the night with her sister and her family. I will post the first part of that journey later today I hope.

Day 2! Downtown! Part 1

The next day we woke up and I thought I would try watching some TV. I was watching the news, and during the weather report..for some reason Pikachu started to dance across the screen. I really don't know what the point was....but it was funny. And Japanese.

That day we decided to go downtown to do some shopping. After getting here and experiencing the heat first hand I realized most of my shirts were to hot. And I really needed sandals. So on what should have been a 30min walk to the station turned into about a 2 hour walk because everytime we went around a corner I would find something exciting.

The first stop I had been waiting to make was to go to a Japanese 7/11!! It was everything I hoped it would be. Unlike ours where you are treated to a bunch of degenerate, drop out, gross looking staff, here you get a bunch of well dressed, friendly people greeting you as you walk in. Instead of the premade frightening looking meals you can get at ours, you find a ton of delicious looking bento boxes, sushi and other treats. The only downside was no slushies.... However I had to get something, so decided on a single piece of chicken karage (Japanese KFC). It was just as good as any restaurant here can serve.

After that we went into a store kind of like London Drugs. I love how in Japan they have alcohol everywhere. Naomi tells me they still have to get a liqueur licence though. They also had some great store signs too, very in your face. We were treated to many loud "Irashaimase!!!" Some in VERY weird high pitched voices. It's like every staff member has their own style.

After that we got sidetracked by a big media store. Kind of a combo of HMV and Chapters and Blockbuster. First floor all stuff for sale and also had a library. Second floor was a rental floor. Full of great stuff and I managed to find a couple of WW2 books on Japan for me, full of photos. I was quite happy with that. Was also funny to see about 15 Japanese guys all hanging around the magazine rack looking at dirty magazines. They really don't seem to care about it lol.

Then it was back on the road, where I found my first weird Japanese business logo in English.

It was *BE FREEK*. I don't really know what they were wanting to say, I thought Be Free would suit it a lot better..but alas Naomi persuaded me to not go and tell them, since they already have their business licence.

Once we got downtown we found our first two minis! One old and one new!

Along the way I found a bunch of places I was dying to eat at as well. The first is a Japanese curry restaurant. The other a Gyudon store (like beef stir fry) which is one of my favourite foods at work. Only $2.50 for a full bowl!!! Thats like $8 in Canada. They are both chain restaurants.

Pretty soon we made it to the mall. First thing we thought we should do was grab some lunch, so after walking around in the *Restaurant Dining* hallway. Basically a hallway and along it on each side are various Japanese restaurants.

We decided one place and had a very nice meal for cheap. We got Tako Karage (Japanese Octopus KFC) for starters, then I got a pork teriyaki combo which came with a huge rice bowl and bottomless miso and a big piece of cold tofu. Naomi got the "western combo" (my name, not theirs) which was a hamburger and spaghetti. I guess they think thats what we whities like to eat. It also came with miso and rice and the cold tofu. The restaurant looks like what would be a fancy place back home, but is actually quite cheap. Like white spot or something.

It was all very good! As usual.

I realize now this was a long day. I will post part 2 later tomorrow hopefully!

First Day!

After we finally got up, we had breakfast that Naomi's dad made (he is in charge of breakfast and lunch everyday) which was clam miso soup, bowl of rice and some veggies. Actually, its the same thing everyday haha. But its very good.

Actually they think its to embarrassing if we take pictures of their food, so you wont see many. But Naomi managed to sneak that one in.

After that we lazed around the house then had lunch, which was toast and a salad. After lunch her mom took us out to do some shopping. We had a nice drive through country side as well, which was very beautiful. Funny how you can from seemingly downtown Victoria to the middle of Saskatchewan in about 10-15 minutes. Their hometown is right near Japan's largest lake as well, which we will go to at some point.

We headed to a big store..kinda Wallmartish. Basically the same as here..just much louder. Tons of little video screens on isles promoting stuff and yelling at you. You also have staff constantly yelling out "Irashaimase" randomly, which means Welcome/Welcome to our store. Some do it in very weird and strange voices too. Its veryyyy odd. I am still not used to it.

We went to the grocery the grocery store after where I couldn't stop finding amazing and cheap food. The seafood area was huge and full of fresh and many different kinds of seafood. They also made sushi and other foods as well you could get, kinda like Thrifty's...but of a much nicer quality. I was going nuts over all the snack foods and stuff you could get too. So cheap.... But everything is so much smaller than here. Portion wise anyway. We also found some Canadian Pork! Which we bought. Dunno what makes it Canadian other than..it was bigger than Japanese ones lol.

That night her parents took us out for sushi! Very exciting .

I was totally confused and lost as to what to order or what to get. The menus all being Japanese of course.

Since everyone got lots of food ill just explain what they are then put all the pics after.

1. Tuna Nigiri, Tuna Belly Nigiri, Better Tuna Belly Nigiri. Totally amazing. It has been ruined for me in Canada...

2. Karage! More of that "Japanese KFC" dad enjoyed. Quite good actually!

3. Sashimi plate. The red ones are Tuna, white one is Hamatchi, the fluffly looking one beside it is Hamo, the one with skin on it is Tai. Her dad got that one, and gave me some. All very good!!

4. This was a weird one called Otchazuke. Her dad got it..basically green tea with rice in it..but they put in sushi rolls instead of just rice. Just mix it and eat it.

After the great meal, her parents kept trying to get me to eat more. They didn't believe i could possibly be full (we had more food than pictured, but those were the best ones). On the way home her dad was trying to get her mom to drive us to a convenience store to buy me more food. Took about 10min till naomi convinced them I was ok. OI.

Next update: Downtown adventure

To Kyoto and First Day!

After we got our tickets we got on our first train and were on our way！ I saw a poster of one of my favourite Japanese actors and had to take a picture beside it…and Naomi just happened to buy the same kind of water he was advertising from a vending machine..it was fate.

It was about 5pm when we got on the train (which was super comfy and had wonderful wonderful air conditioning) so I had a nice view a long the way.

Once it began to get dark I started to drift off. After that it was a bit of a blur between transferring trains over 2 and a half hours. Couldn't get any photos since it was to dark outside and bright inside, but I could see some cool bright city lights as we went through them. But mostly I slept and slept.

Once we finally got to our destination Naomi's mom picked us up, thankfully, since it was about 10 30 pm..

We went back to her house, quickly met her very quiet dad, had a shower and passed out. Surprisingly I woke up around 7ish the next day..far to early. Probably from the heat..

Next update: Day 1!!