Last weekend in Osaka

On Saturday, Andy and I met up with Ryoko, Koppun, Kana, and Maho for our last rendezvous in Namba. We went to karaoke at Jankara, which was half off because high schoolers were banned from entering due to swine flu. I'm not sure if this was because they didn't want kids going out, or because they didn't want them to spread the flu, or both, or what. The downside is that we were limited to 2 hours (you must understand that the Japanese go to karaoke for absurdly long amounts of time, especially if your group is on the bigger side). So we went in, we sang and sang, and then when our 2 hours were up, what do you think we did? We went to a different Jankara, which you could see immediately upon exiting the Jankara we were in.

There was an hour wait however, so we took some purikura in the meantime.

It's kind of funny how the brightness/contrast in purikura does not deal well with white people's skin. Either you look really washed out or really tan, or in the case of this one, really red.

The video of the day once again came from Maho, and it is this one.

It's great going to karaoke with Japanese kids, because they pick new songs which have the music videos to go along with them.

After we had finally gotten our fill of singing (or did we?), we went to this Mexican restaurant that Andy had found in an English-language Osaka-area magazine. We had been dying to go to this place, because the photos and the review indicated that it would be incredible. And BOY, was it ever! It was super authentic, which surprised me a little bit, and absolutely delicious. We had tacos, a quesadilla, nachos, enchiladas, and some kind of egg and chorizo dish. It was so freaking good. We had really good times. My Japanese friends described me and Andy as ぺらぺら fluent, and that always feels great. We discussed kanji. I decided on the kanji for my entire name. My first name I knew from some language table at Oberlin where some people picked some out for me. They are...

詩絵奈

The first (shi) means poetry, the second (e) drawing, and the last (na) is in girl's names a lot, and also places like Nara. It's pretty cute.

薔薇

My middle name is Rose, so I can go for a direct translation. "Rose" in Japanese is bara and you don't see it in kanji very often because it's really complicated. Japanese don't have middle names though.

水私

And my last name, which in Spanish means "water" and "I," I picked the kanji for "water" and "I." Ahaha.

Anyway. It was really wonderful, and I will miss them. Koppun is studying abroad in America starting in this summer, so hopefully we can rendezvous at some point. The others have another year to go before they'll go abroad, but I have high hopes.

The next day, Andy and I went to Universal Studios Japan, which was pretty cool. The best ride was the roller coaster, entitled Hollywood Dreams: The Ride, which is pretty funny considering I'm from Hollywood, and the Universal Studios in Hollywood doesn't have this ride. But it was a great coaster. We also got to go on Back to the Future, which doesn't exist in America anymore, and I have to say it wasn't as good in Japanese. But still nostalgic. Jaws was terrifying, Jurassic Park was still cool, and the Spider-man ride was pretty sweet although it kind of gave me a headache. It was half ride half 3D movie... ask me about it sometime.

The weirdest thing though, is that USJ is really trying to be Tokyo Disneyland. There was an uncanny amount of similarly themed attractions, like Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, Arabian Nights (aka Aladdin), Cinderella.. I'm not kidding. That was pretty much all their electrical parade (sound familiar?) consisted of. And I guess licensing rights are different around the world, since USJ also had Peanuts. And no Nickelodeon, which was sorely missed. They also had this 4D Sesame Street movie, which was pretty cute, very faithful and in simple enough Japanese for us to understand. We ate dinner at a casual Italian restaurant, which felt familiar, even if the pizza I ate was curry-sausage-and-potato flavored.

Universal Studios was never my favorite amusement park, and I wasn't really that keen on going until we ended up at Citywalk by chance that one time and I was looking at the roller coaster from the outside.

It was a really great last weekend. I don't believe that I'm really going home.

天橋立 Amanohashidate

I am going back to the Motherland tomorrow!!! But before I talk about that I have to catch up a little bit.

Last Thursday, I took a bus from Osaka to Amanohashidate, which is one of the three famous sights of Japan (along with Miyajima).



The bus ride was a lot better than my previous experience busing to and from Tokyo on the night bus, and they even played a movie so I could practice my listening comprehension skills! I now confess I am mildly curious about what Madagascar (you know, the Dreamworks one about zoo animals) is like in English.

The walk to the youth hostel was through the little town, which was absolutely adorable, and then across the land bridge (which is what the town is famous for, because when viewed from a distance and upside down it looks like a bridge to heaven).







The hostel we stayed at was up a hill. Unlike all the other hostels I'd been to in Japan, which were international hostels, this one was a Japanese one, so that was different. The couple running the place were friendly and joked with me about Japanese people being too concerned about the swine flu.



I rented one of their bikes and we flew down the hill. We took a dip in the water, because I really wanted to. It wasn't as cold as it would have been if it were in Los Angeles.

The next day, before busing back to Osaka, we headed up the hill to get our view of the bridge to heaven.



You're supposed to look at it between your legs.



And then it looks like a bridge to heaven.



Like this.

There was a giant group of old Japanese tourists who went up with us. Andy said, "This happens to me all the time." I think old people sustain the Japanese tourist industry.

We took the chair lift down, which was awesome.



We didn't have that much time there, but I really needed the getaway. It was lovely to see all the greenery, and the water. I'm glad I got to get out of Osaka one more time before I leave.

Birthday Pt II: Hirakata Park and Toriki

The day of my actual birthday was really wonderful. I woke up late/early (late because class started at 11 instead of 9, early because I woke up before my alarm) and opened the tiny package my family had sent me. It contained a singing card with robots on it that sang Domo Arigatou Mr. Roboto which made me simultaneously crack up and want to cry at the same time. I can't wait to see them all so very soon. I was also relieved because the rain had stopped, and they don't run roller coasters in the rain.

After my one class that day, I met up with Andy and we went to Hirakata Park, which is a local theme park only one train stop away from Kansai Gaidai. You can see it from the train, and it always looks closed because nobody is ever there, so I thought it might be worth checking out. There were indeed very few people there, and we went on the good rides twice. I'm somewhat ashamed to admit that I only took pictures of the Ferris wheel, because it is giant and rainbow.




I like to interpret "circus" as a direct object here.





That night, we went to Toriki for dinner, which is where all the cool kids from Kansai Gaidai go to drink but for some reason I had never been there. It is a yakitori chain where everything costs 280 yen. Ai, Asami, and Mai came, and also fellow Californian Andrew, and we ate a lot of food and drank a little bit. I had invited a ton of people who ended up not being able to come, but in the end it was fine, since it would have been difficult to manage a big group of people. Afterward we had ice cream at 31 (which is what the Japanese call Baskin-Robbins/31 Flavors, and I am afraid I will never be able to switch back--actually they call it saati-wan). Throughout the day, I received many lovely e-mail and Facebook greetings, and felt very lucky to have so many wonderful people in my life. And now I am 21, at long last! What a strange feeling that is.

Parfait Orgy

Some of you more faithful followers of my blog may remember this post featuring photographs of giant parfaits that cost upwards of $100 USD. The parfait place, as it is known, was a favorite hangout of Jess and company, and I had the great fortune of being able to participate in the consumption of a jumbo parfait with Jess, Andy, Althea, and 5 of their AKP friends.



It was truly a sight to behold.



I tried my best to take some artistic photographs before we all dug in.





TAKE NOTE: Japanese marachino cherries taste absolutely nothing like the marachino cherries I am used to. In fact, they taste awful. The fruit in the ice cream was all frozen by the time we got to it (or maybe it was never unfrozen...) but the strangest to eat was the frozen dango. I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that Andy and I ate the most. I think we were probably a valuable addition to the team. By the time we got to the bottom, it was mostly yogurt, and it had all turned the same gross beige color, and I felt pretty sick to my stomach. I pressed on as long as I could. They served us black coffee in tiny cups at the end which made me feel a little better. Lord knows I didn't have to add any sugar to it.

Overall, it was fun, but perhaps not an experience I would be eager to repeat, though you could probably convince me. I would definitely go for one of the 2-person ones they serve in pitchers.

Adventures in Osaka

Andy and I had some crazy times in Osaka during Golden Week. It was interesting to suddenly turn into a tourist after living here since late January. But that did mean that I got to take Andy to my favorite spots, and discover some new ones.

On our most action-packed day, we went to check out the Osamu Tezuka Museum in Takarazuka (which I made a post about over here). Tezuka is the creator of Astro Boy, etc, aka one of the most influential manga-ka ever. The museum was really cute, and inspiring. It reminded me how when I was in 1st and 2nd grade, the thing I wanted the most in this world was to be a cartoonist.


That's Astro Boy's hand and footprints, btw. He's a small dude.

From Takarazuka, we went to Namba, which has the iconic neon sign Glico man view of Osaka.



We went to karaoke on a whim and had a grand ole time. Big Echo has a fabulous 飲み放題.

The next day, we had a picnic in 大阪城公園 Osaka Castle Park featuring food we bought at the supermarket and bakery by my station. Here I am with cheese.






Guess why I'm smiling.



One more for the road:

嵐山

Okay, catching up on blogging time.

When Andy and I got back from Kobe in the middle of Golden Week, we headed up to Kyoto to hang out with Jess (who has since returned back to the glorious motherland of the United States). She took us to 嵐山 Arashiyama, which means STORM MOUNTAIN which is totally badass, and we took lots of pretty pictures because everything was so green.








Boats!



The temple to see at Arashiyama is 天竜寺 Tenryuuji or HEAVEN DRAGON TEMPLE. Apparently this part of Kyoto just has badass names. Jess had been here a bunch of times already but actually was not sick of it. I appreciated her willingness to go there again with us.


















This picture came out blurry, but this was 4-flavored soft serve for the price of 1! How could I resist such a bargain. From top to bottom: sakura (which actually tasted like Cinnamon Toast Crunch for reasons beyond all of us), hojicha (roasted green tea), green tea, and vanilla.

And for a touch of modernity:

スイーツみたいな毎日

So Andy and I did a lot of cool things over Golden Week, as per usual. We started out in Kobe　and did the hip things, like hang out at Harborland hitting up some Golden Week sales, since Andy had to buy some new shoes because he lost one of his. Yeah, just one.





For some reason, Harborland has a ridiculous amount of gelato and boba.



One of me and Andy's favorite things to do has become going to bakeries. These are turtle melon pan I guess? Really fucking cute.

I've got a lot more pictures and stories, so stay tuned. I'm doing a pretty good job convincing myself there isn't that much more school left and I can just chill out. And my birthday is in one week when I will turn 21! And more adventures are just around the corner.

広島 Hiroshima pt. II

So what else did we do in Hiroshima... we wandered around some department stores and ate bakery food, because that's what we do apparently. Of course we had some Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki, which in contrast to Osaka-style, is layered instead of mixed together and also commonly features soba. NOW, I love Osaka, and will thus defend it, and its okonomiyaki. My host father insists that they are entirely different and thus do not merit comparison... but I think eating it all mixed together is easier, even if it makes for a less dramatic preparation, since they generally make it on a hot surface at your table.

Our second day was a little cloudy, but we went and checked out Hiroshima castle, which is a reconstruction so Andy wasn't as interested in going in as he was in taking MySpace pics outside (though of course I love the MySpace pics and will never turn down an opportunity).





After that, we checked out the Hiroshima Museum of Art, which had mostly modern European paintings (impressionists and the ilk) but also some Japanese paintings in a European style, which I thought was interesting.

For lunch, we had Italian バイキング baikingu which is not biking, it is in fact viking and it means all-you-can-eat. The people working there assumed we couldn't speak Japanese, which I suppose is the product of being in such a heavily touristy area, but we reassured them that our comprehension level was at least acceptable. I realized a while ago that the first time I came to Japan after having studied Japanese, I thought that everyone was so impressed by the fact that I had some knowledge of the language, but now I know that everyone is just relieved that they don't have to try and speak English.

It was a little tough to come back to school after having such a fun weekend, but I studied all of my vocab on the shinkansen, so I didn't fall behind in my work. I'm really glad I decided to go, even if I didn't get to see Andy's mom who ended up arriving after I went back home to Osaka due to confusion about the international date line. And now Golden Week is only just around the corner, woohoo!

宮島 Miyajima

I've been feeling pretty down the past few days, but trying to keep myself entertained by keeping up with new anime (FMA, Bleach, Kuroshitsuji) and doing fun things, like going to Pokemon Center with Nella and eating various kinds of cuisine in Namba with Ryoko and friends; Jess and Althea, respectively. I still haven't caught up on the adventures Andy and I had last weekend in Hiroshima and Miyajima though, so it's time for a little catch-up.

Miyajima was overwhelmingly beautiful. It's an island off the coast of Hiroshima and one of the three famous "views of Japan" known for their beauty. On the ferry ride over, I stuck my face in the ocean wind and was exhilarated. The pictures I took from the ferry aren't too fabulous, but you can get an idea.





Luckily for us, we managed to catch the very tail-end of the sakura, as they are all gone now (at least where I live).

On the island, there are tons of wild deer just hanging out looking for some food from tourists. It was kind of hilarious to see them sauntering around, mostly minding their own business, completely accustomed to the whirlwind of human activity around them.



They even pose for pictures. We saw a tour guide of sorts persuading one to stand with a group of tourists as they were having their picture taken in front of the torii.

The torii is the quintessence of Miyajima, probably, so we took a lot of pictures. Supposedly, it is the most stunning at high tide where it looks like it's "floating," but we were there as the tide was almost all the way out. This did mean, though, that we could take off our shoes and wander into the water a little bit, which was a little cold but nothing years of practice in the Pacific ocean didn't prepare me for.









The rest of the day we spent climbing Mt. Misen, which we misjudged in terms of time commitment. We saw a sign warning about wild monkeys, which I did not believe until I saw some... much like the deer, they were just chillin'. There was something distinctly East Asian about climbing a mountain via millions of tiny stone steps surrounded by luscious foliage and wild monkeys.



Andy said, "Didn't you know, the days I don't bike 100 km I have to climb a mountain."

About halfway through I lost steam (when we started paying attention to how much more we had left to go, it was 2.2 km [1.37 miles]) but with a lot of encouragement, I made it. We were thoroughly rewarded with the view from the very top of the mountain and also the knowledge of our baddassery.









After that, we took the gondolas down (which we could have taken up, but after all that I'm glad we didn't) and gradually made our way back to our hostel in central Hiroshima and then had delicious, spicy, cold tsukemen for dinner at a restaurant called Bakudan, which means bomb, so I'm glad someone has a dark sense of humor somewhere. I am notoriously weak when it comes to spicy food, and on a scale of 0-20 I chose 3, although the gradation was pretty steep according to their chart... I think flames started coming out of your mouth at around 7 or so. After dinner, we did some very last-minute 花見 as the flowers were about halfway gone, and found a party organized by 外人 in the Peace Park and chatted with some New Zealanders about life in Japan.