Adventure Weekend: Day 1 Osaka

Last weekend I finally caved in and realized that it was just about time for a haircut. I was apprehensive about getting my haircut in a foreign country due to the language barrier and the fact that I have never had my hair shorter than shoulder length. My friend Lamika had found a small salon in Osaka with a hairdresser that had lived in New York for many years and had been a regular stylist for Matthew Broderick and Sarah Jessica Parker, as well as working at a salon on Madison.

I got an appointment at 4pm, so I decided to wake up really early and go to Osaka to try to find

English mass at a church. I woke up at 6 am and left my apartment by 7 for the long train ride into Osaka. It was a great morning and the sun was shining just enough to have the perfect light. I followed my directions to find this church, which to me is still a mystery. I got to the location at about 8am and searched for the church until 930 before giving up. I then decided that I needed to head out and explore something new in Osaka. In the distance I saw the Umeda Sky Building. I had never been to the top and I had also heard good things about the basement, where there was apparently a mock Edo Era street with food shops and such.

I started my walk in the direction of the building. The air felt fresh and because it was morning nothing was crowded and the only people on the streets were police, construction workers, and a few morning walkers. A policeman said good morning to me in English which made me smile, and him as well. The smallest things can make a person's day.

Then I reached the building. It was just as grand up close and personal as it was from the JR and from far away. I noticed that on the second and third floor there were two movie theatres that were just about to open so I headed up the stairs to check them out. I decided that I haven't done enough research on any movie that is out in Japan right now to warrant buying an 1800 yen ticket to a movie, so I headed to the basement floor to check out the Edo street.

As I came down the stairs to the first basement level I was surprised at the dark lighting, almost like night, and the narrow streets. It was not very large, only about 3 or 4 streets, but was very interesting and quiet due to the fact that nothing was open yet. I walked through it all and couldn't help but smile because I felt that I had found something special (even though I know many people know this exists).

After this, I saw a shop outside that had something in the window I wanted to buy for my mom, but the shop didn't open until 11am, so I needed to waste another forty minutes. (I still haven't given it to her, so I will refrain from talking about it because she reads this blog). I decided I wanted to go to the top.

At first, I didn't see any sign postings that were telling me how I could reach the top. I headed up the nearest elevator and ended up on the 39th floor of a 40 floor building. From here I noticed many restaurants and a sky bar. The bar had these amazingly large circular, space age type windows. The morning sun was shining in at just the right angle to snap a few photos. I finally figured out how to reach the top observatory and headed up for 700 yen.

It wasn't really worth the 700 yen, but the view was nice and a man insisted to take my photo for me with my camera. It is funny how much some people want you to remember the things you see in Japan and have nice photos of yourself here. They really go out of the way sometimes to insist you have a photo with you in it.

The roof is apparently a good place for romantic couples. You can get a lock engraved with you and your boyfriend/girlfriend/husband/wife 's name on it and you lock it to a rope that goes around the top of the building. After this, you should sit together on a couch that has two place to touch, one for each member of the couple, and when you both touch the special light up floor says LOVE. It looks like a cute place for photos.

I got a message from Meredith that said we should meet at 1pm at Osaka station to go to the hair salon. I agreed to meet up with them and headed down from the building to get some more exploring in. I bought my gift and had an interesting conversation with the nice man in the shop. He told me that he likes to study English but it is difficult, and I said the same about Japanese. I have been studying a lot recently, and have gotten much better... although, still dreadful in all honesty. He wrapped the gift extra special for me, which was very sweet.

From here I walked to the station and saw a bunch of hiking stores in a row. I went in to check out some gear and some camping equipment as well. Next to this store was another shop with some smaller things, you know, just odds and ends that you don't really need but like to look at and consider what you would do with it. Novelty items really. But here, I found the best thing that I have been looking for for a long time. It was a small flat tin that, inside, had 20 small containers with clear lids. I was seeking something like this because I have decided to collect small soil/sand/dirt samples from the places around the world that I go. I kept some Fuji dirt (ash) and that is my first container. I am so excited to see it full someday soon. 20 countries. :)

After this I met up with the girls. We went to the salon where we met a very interesting Salon Owner. He was flamboyant and wonderful. He pulled out his portfolio, which consisted of magazine clippings and professional photos, a lot of celebrities and some interesting photos in the Meat Packing District of New York. He went on to tell me I have lovely long hair and how he wouldn't cut it short because it was so amazing. haha. It was quite entertaining. When my turn came I got a nice shampoo and head massage (standard in Japan) for about 30 minutes by a very attractive 18 year old shampoo man. The Owner kept making jokes about how he is cute and would be good for me but I would have to change his diapers. I don't know where all that came from, when I told the owner he was being harsh he said, oh it's okay he doesn't understand what I am saying (mind you, they are both Japanese). He cut my hair, quite short compared to how he was talking, but the most entertaining part is that he was cutting out my knots. If he met a knot while combing my hair he just cut it out...which made my hair very short very quickly. AHH!

We paid only 3,300 yen...which is super cheap for a salon here. Then we headed to Namba to shop and explore some more. After that we hit up the cheap 280 yen Izakaya we like we headed back to home to rest up for Day 2 of our adventure, Kyoto, Blog to Follow....

OO we also saw a giant cannibal octopus eating a takoyaki, which is made with octopus...

We're going to the Zoo...

Hello everyone! Long time no type. Sorry...yet again, for my utter lack of commitment towards this blog. I need to stop being so lazy and actually write more. I am on my computer enough... I should just type.

So, I went to Tokyo, yet again, because it was my friend Meredith's birthday recently and as a present, Miho and I told her we were going to take her to Disney Sea. It was a girls trip with only three of us going. We decided it would be a good time to go to Tokyo during what they are calling "silver week" this year because a couple of National holidays fall on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I already have Mondays off, but two extra days gave me a nice 4 day weekend.

We wanted to fly to Tokyo, to be more convenient, but the flight times were making it so we would lose a whole day just in flying. We decided that due to cost, we were going to take the overnight bus one way, and take the Shinkansen back. It is such a wonderfully convenient train, but way too expensive, so we could only afford it one way. While we were waiting for the bus on Saturday night after work, there were two very cute children that we were playing with for over an hour, or so it seemed. Their young parents didn't seem to really care, but the mother did look a little annoyed with us. They got on a bus about thirty minutes before us, and we waved goodbye.

We got to Tokyo Sunday morning on the overnight bus into Shinjuku. Here we got coffee at a Starbucks, where, ironically enough, there the family was from the night before. The shocked looks on their faces followed by huge grins matched ours perfectly, and even their father started to laugh. We got our coffee (short size...which we don't have in America...its SUUUPER SMALL) and sat in Starbucks to waste some time because nothing in Tokyo is open at 720 in the morning. McDonald's is, unfortunately, the only place you can get eggs and such (Western Breakfast) in Japan, so off we headed for Egg McMuffins.

Next, we headed to our hotel. Here was the next dilemma. We couldn't find a room in Tokyo. All of the hostels were full, all of the hotels with easy access were full. I found a place near Haneda Airport, but they said they would only take two people in a double room and we had three. We decided that we were just going to have to sneak three people into the room, because it was the only way. I went to check us in with Meredith and we left our bags with the counter. Now we were free to roam the city streets as it was nearing 10 am and things were starting to open!

We took our train, then connected to the Yamanote line to head to Harajuku. Here we wanted to go shopping since they put in an H&M and a Forever 21. It was just like it always is, full of people. Forever 21 had a line waiting outside to get in, so we decided to skip it and upon attempting to go into H&M, I was so overwhelmed that I gave up after just looking at accessories. We walked around the rest of the area and took some photos then we found a mexican restaurant. Now, let me give you some more information on Mexican food in Japan. Most of my students, unless they have lived abroad, don't know what Mexican food is. They sometimes say, "Oh, you mean Tacos?", and I respond with "Sort of". However, they don't know what a tortilla is (which is ironically humorous because they use them for pizza crusts here, another one of the many food flaws I HATE). We found a "real", or next best thing to real, mexican restaurant in Harajuku! I had a chicken taco and nachos, Meredith chose two different kinds of tacos, and Miho got Taco Rice, a Japanese variation on taco salad, but with white rice. It was not bad, but to Japan standards it was a delicacy. We took some pictures of crazy Harajuku fashionistas, then headed back to our hotel to get into the room, take a nap, and head back out for the night.

We successfully snuck Miho into the room, which I felt bad about after the manager gave us a discount for signing up for a members card after arriving back at the hotel. We saved a lot of money. We took a nap and got up, just like Zombies, to head to Shibuya to see the lights, walk the crosswalk (busiest in the world), and meet up with Anthony for a Hot Krispee Kreme doughnut. While looking for a place to grab dinner in Shibuya, we came across one of my favorites, the rotating sushi bar. MMM. Delicious. At only 105 yen a plate we were pumped and dove inside for a quick bite.

Upon our descent from the Sushi bar, we saw another H&M! This one had barely any people inside so we went in. There we met Anthony and tried on ridiculous new 70's and 80's throwback fashions. We aren't just talking any fashion either, we are talking Madonna and Michael Jackson music video fashion...alongside pink fur jackets... I am quite confused. We grabbed some doughnuts (I refused to eat them because they were not Hot..and everyone knows Krispee Kreme doughnuts that are not hot are just not worth eating) and then we headed back for the night.

Near our hotel we stopped at a convenience store to try to buy our Disney tickets for the next day. However, it was sold out. SOLD OUT? I thought... is that possible? I have never heard that it was possible for Disney to sell out. So we went back to the room and I looked it up on my computer. Sure enough, Disney and DisneySea in Japan sell out. So we pushed our Disney day back to Tuesday and were looking for something exciting and different to do in Tokyo on Monday. Now, I have been to Tokyo many many times, I wanted to do something new. I looked up the information on the Tsukiji Fish market. However, they were closed on the holidays. Next, I remembered when I was roaming around Tokyo with a student before picking my mom up at the airport, I saw that during this time there was going to be a big SUMO tournament.

I looked it up online and there it said that Sumo was going on, and it was sold out, but there are tickets available every morning for the highest up seats for only 2100 yen! We decided we would get up early and head to the Sumo stadium to get in.

Somehow, we got up early and managed to make it to the stadium by 740 am. We got our tickets! Then we headed inside to find prime seats. After examining our schedule, we saw that the main, famous wrestlers wouldn't be starting until around 2pm. We decided to head to the strange area of Akihabara (famous for creepy men interested in girls straight out of Manga, as well as girls, dressed up like characters from Manga ((or little girls or maids)) oh... and electronics too.) We walked around, took photos, and since it was game day in America, (NY GIANTS were playing the Dallas Cowboys!!! ) we had to have a beer to start the morning off right. 10 am...so early for a beer, but our lucky sumo tickets, and the Giants winning at the Half made my day.

We got some convenience store food and headed back to the stadium to watch the sumo. At the stadium, I sat next to a family and a small boy who was about 9 years old. He was very interested in Sumo and would yell things at the players. His mom spoke very good English and also was fluent in French and the grandmother was actually a teacher of Japanese for foreigners. Pretty interesting and very welcoming family. I had the lucky seat because the boy told me about all of the wrestlers. He knew their records and which country they came from. As most people know, Sumo has changed a lot over time. The Japanese no longer dominate this sport, as the Mongolians have taken a massive number of the top spots. The boy told me his favorite wrestler and when we went to buy souvenirs I made sure to get him a small gift with the his favorite player. He was very excited, which made me feel very satisfied.

After this we headed to the Tokyo Tower where we met Anthony before his trip to Korea. We went up in the tower, which took hours, but the view was quite nice at night. By the time we finished at the tower we were STARVING. We ordered a Pizza Hut pepperoni pizza from the train on the way back and it arrived at the hotel at the same time as us. Now, I know there are Pizza Huts in Japan, but I hadnt gotten it yet...so it had literally been about 9 months since I had anything like real pizza. It was cheesy celebratory heaven (Giants won their game! :)). We went to sleep to have sugar plum dreams of Mickey Mouse.

The next day we got up and went to Disney Sea. I was looking forward to seeing my high school friend Elizabeth as Ariel, and to see what new things Disney in Japan had to offer. When we finally got to the gate there were so many people in a line that wrapped forever, just to get into the park. We finally got in, and there we were. Halloween decorations, and a Giant globe fountain... strange...much like Universal. Hmmm....

Then we headed through the park. It is set up much like Islands of Adventure in Universal Studios Florida. There are many different areas with different themes separated by water. There is an America area that had Cape Cod (where we got 600 yen Budweiser DRAFT! haha) and Tower of Terror, there is a 20,000 Leagues, and Journey to the Center of the Earth, there is also an Indiana Jones area, and an Under the Sea area (little mermaid).

We had a great day wearing our Minnie ears everywhere, taking tons of photos and waiting in line to see Ariel, who was actually not my friend. Elizabeth, consequently, got the flu, so we missed out on that opportunity. However, this other girl was quite cute. She told us when we took the photo to clasp our hands then hold them over your heart. She said that is the princess pose and even let us touch her fin... which made me wonder what she does when men come to see her... does everyone get to touch her fin... or just the girls?

Also, we met Pocahontas, who, when we asked her where she was from, stayed completely in character and said "Im from the Forest". for some reason we expected her to tell us "Cleveland" or something. Haha. I dont know why

I just want to say that the best part of Disney, hands down, was the Indiana Jones RIDE. It was amazing and the animatronics on Indie all three times you saw him were soo good it looked like Harrison Ford. I was blown away. I literally shed a tear and the end of the ride. We didn't want to wait forever so we went single rider and I was last to finish. I was expecting the girls to be as pumped as I was about this adventure, but they said it was just OK. WHAT??!

After a long Disney day it was back to the hotel then sleep. The last day we went to Asakusa where I managed to get the best fortune out of 40 something odd fortunes at the shrine. I was very happy to be that lucky. Then we ate and headed to the Shinkansen.

What a nice vacation.

Crazy Tokyo, you never cease to amaze me.