18 July, 2007

T minus...

Browser fails. Typing this the second time...actually, changed my mind. Once was enough. Stupid blogger... this is why I'm making my OWN program to handle this: that way, the only one I can blame is myself :)

17 days left. It's coming quickly.

I'll see you guys all in a couple weeks!

11 July, 2007

Oddities

Hey guys - I've been back from Osaka for a day. The Aquarium I hit on Monday was absolutely awesome. It had better have been though - admission was 2000 yen ($18). I had a fun trip. I'd write more, but I'm within both memorizing a speech for later this week, and working on a presentation for class tomorrow. As Laura pointed out in her comment on the last post, there are new pictures up. Go look at them - they tell my Osaka story better than I can.

One minor parting thought: You can't order a foot-long sub at Subway in Japan. Not that they're too long, just that the Japanese have no concept of how long 12 inches is. Go figure.

Talk later.

07 July, 2007

Adventures in Osaka, part I

Hey everyone - made it safely to Osaka this morning at 7AM (for those not paying attention, it's currently ~11:00PM).

What a day! Hopped on the night bus at 9:00 the previous night. The bus was amazingly comfortable - I had leg room and everything(which is a surprise, considering my legs are a good 5 inches more than the regular here). I even managed to get some sleep on the bus - it was a good ride.

The bus pulled up to the Osaka station. Now, if any of you have ever ridden a bus/train/plane to a large city, and weren't sure where everything was, I had the same feeling, but increased because I can only read about 10% of what's available. Since Japan doesn't really start anything until around 10:00AM, I had three hours to kill. I spent the time walking around the station area, where there were only a few shops open providing breakfast. I managed to grab a muffin (humorously spelled maffen) sandwich, which was not only edible, but quite filling for its size.

At 10:00, I headed over to what I thought was a mall - it wasn't marked too well. I stepped inside, and then was home: the place, called yodobashi camera, was an electronics store. Now, when I say electronics store, you guys think, "Oh, like best buy or something." Nope. This was separated by floor - with each type of item on each floor. Oh, that and the fact that it was as big as Clarke's campus. And when I say that, I mean each floor stretched from the apartments to Eliza Kelly - so imagine Clarke stacked above itself 6 times, and you get the general idea.

11:30 rolled around, and I was starting to get hungry. Now, like a good student, I had already created a loose itinerary (basically a list of what I wanted to hit while I was here), so I started following that. Ended up going to Hep Five, which is a huge mall in the middle of Umeda (one of Osaka's inner machi).

Speaking of machi, FACTOID: Japan doesn't have street names/numbers. It has areas, or machi, to designate where things are. For addresses, they list by city, machi, house number. For example: my apartment in Nagasaki is listed as Nagasaki-shi Hanaoka-machi 13-15 Mine's Bldg. II Apt. 602. Unfortunately, it makes it a bit harder to navigate by road sign (an art of which I'm very accustomed to). It also makes it harder to find things, like your hotel(read on for more info).

Hep Five. AKA: Mall on steroids. This place was bigger than the electronics store, by quite a bit. It housed:
  • 9 Floors of clothing stores, Food establishments, and an arcade the size of SouthPark Mall.
  • A 106 meter ferris wheel, protruding from the top floor.
  • Two lifesize whale sculptures, hanging between floors 2 and 6.
  • A sea of people - supposedly for the whales to swim in.
  • Loud shop callers - people who stand outside the store saying, "hey - come here! Lots of stuff on sale!"
  • A movie theater complex(I don't know how many screens)

Quite big, but a blast to be in. Especially since everything, and I mean everything, was on sale. I managed to by a long-sleeved striped t-shirt (that actually looks good, but we'll see what people think when I get home) for 60% off. That was cool. I would have gotten more, but I figured I have only so much budget left, I need to be a bit careful.

After lunch, I started my hunt for my hotel. This turned out to be much more difficult than I thought it would. Apparently, it's down by the more seedy side of town, surrounded by bars, strip clubs, and what-else-have-you. Not the place I would end up looking for on the first try - it fact, I had to ask directions six or seven times before actually figuring out where it was. But, it's got a comfortable bed, a good tv, and (the clincher) Internet access. and for $80 for two nights, I can't complain.

I'll try to update tomorrow, with the rest of the stuff I'll be doing in Osaka. I'll see you guys later.