osaka part one: osaka-jo, umeda sky building and a CAT CAFE

It's been almost a week since I got back from visiting Osaka, Kyoto and Nara with Gabby, and my head still hasn't settled back into Miyakonojo-mode. It was a pretty fantastic trip - although saying goodbye was even harder this time. 

I'd been quite apprehensive about making my way to Osaka by myself, but it was astonishingly easy - my bus arrived at each stop on time to the minute, and it took me a grand total of of 13 minutes after arriving at the airport to be seated at my gate, coffee in hand. Japanese Efficiency strikes again. 

I couldn't resist taking some shots from the plane - the sun and the prospect of seeing G again in my most daydreamed-about city made it one of the better journeys of my life :) 

Osaka sprawled out beneath us as we landed. Famous for its food, Kansai-ben dialect and friendly locals, it promised to be a fun place to spend 3 nights. 

We somehow managed to reunite in Yodoyabashi, and headed out to see Osaka-jo, the city's 16th century castle. The current building is a 1931 reconstruction of the original, which was destroyed by various armies and rebuilt many times.

 

 G got straight into the Japanese spirit of things. 

We had a classic soba lunch set by the river, and wandered around a wee museum with some very sweet dioramas. 

That evening we made our way to the famous Umeda Sky Building, described as a "space age Arc de Triomphe and designed by the same guy who did Kyoto Station. After wandering through the Kita underpasses and super-malls for a while, utterly lost, two locals took pity on us and escorted us to the right tunnel. 

 

While admiring the view we ran into a couple who'd taken our picture at the castle earlier in the day.

The two towers are connected by a circular viewing deck, sky garden and vertigo-inducing escalator ride, all of which turned out to be the apparent hot spot for first dates in Osaka. 

Hello, UV lights.

We finished the evening in a tower block of trendy pub-eateries, people watching and ordering Peruvian nibbles, Italian anti pasti and French fries. The people in Osaka were intimidatingly stylish in general - just about every woman on the tube would be dressed impeccably and wore heels with even the most casual outfit. 

The next day we headed to Amerika-Mura, an area in Minami full of young shops and bars, that was the place to buy Zippo lighters and Americana after the war. We were to fulfill a long-held dream of mine by visiting a CAT CAFE!!!!!!!! aghhh dj fioeifj

These establishments have been on the rise in recent years, presumably as a reaction to the difficulties of pet-ownership in an urban environment and the stress of modern working life. Unfortunately they can often ben pretty sad places, but this one, Neko no Jikan, was fantastic - clean and peaceful. The cats were clearly well cared for and had their personalities and histories detailed in albums lying about the room. For 1050 yen you could have a drink, play with the kitties for an hour, and rent toys and catnip to entertain them with for a small extra charge. 

As you can see, I was QUITE happy.

 

 Yes, that is a Halloween-themed bandana on his head.

 

Exactly.  

Box friends. 

We rounded off the morning with some pork ramen by the river. Each station had folding partitions in between, and a blind could be drawn down in front of you after you circled your options on the paper menu and your food arrived from the kitchen. 

 

I'll post more about Osaka very soon. Tomorrow I run a 5km race in Aya with a fellow ALT and 2 co-workers - let's hope my hours of training (a grand total of 1 hour) pay off...

aoshima beach weekend

This has been a week of excitement, planning and panic. Gabby is arriving in Osaka on Sunday and I can't quite believe it! As for the panic, I paid a visit to the dentist when a growing pain in my jaw suddenly hit the back of my mouth and I began to have visions of cancelled flights and emergency wisdom tooth removal. However, another ALT came to my rescue and made me an appointment with a salsa-dancing, English-speaking, dentist friend of hers, who saw me the next day. After some prodding and an xray - the layout of the surgery is quite different here, with all the chairs in one room and dentists wandering from mouth to mouth! - we determined that I have two wisdom teeth coming in, growing sideways under my back teeth, and that they will most definitely be coming out as some point. But, that bridge will be crossed when it must and not before: fingers crossed there's no more growing pains until after this trip. Overall, the visit only cost about 10 quid, since I'm covered by health insurance, and bore no resemblance to the horror stories I had read the night before of tooth extraction after a brief, gloveless inspection! 

It's been very quiet at school since the kids are studying for exams, but Christine and I managed to hold the first English club meeting (kick-started with learning the Gay Gordons!), and I've really enjoyed teaching junior high. Right now they're working on speeches about their future careers. Not a single kid aspires to be a J-Pop star or a movie celebrity it seems - most of them dream of being pharmacists or doctors, with a smattering of future policemen, teachers, travel agents, and nurses in there too. One boy wrote "My dream is to be a government office worker because I will have a nice stable income." No one can say they're not pragmatic. 

It's also been quite a British week - I spent one evening watching the recent BBC Richard II with two fellow Shakespeare geeks. 

"My native English, now I must forego:

And now my tongue's use is to me no more

Than an unstringed viol, or a harp;

Or like a cunning instrument cas'd up,

Or, being open, put into his hands

That knows no touch to tune the harmony.

Within my mouth you have engaol'd my tongue,

Doubly porcullis'd with my teeth and lips;

And dull, unfeeling, barren ignorance

Is made my gaoler to attend on me."

I feel ya bro.

Last weekend was also pretty packed. After work on Friday I headed up to Aoshima, just outside Miyazaki City, with another ALT, for another beach barbecue camp. The wind had a nip for the first time, which was happily offset with umeshu, meat platters and guitars around the fires. It seems that in Japan you can pretty much camp where you like, and our tents were set up on the little strip of green here - although some opted to rough it out on the boardwalk in sleeping bags.

The next morning we were up bright and early. As I opened my tent bleary-eyed, surfers already bobbed about in the bay like seals. 

After some makeshift breakfast, we headed along the beach to visit Aoshima Island. 

The rock formations are known as Oni no Sentakuita, or 'devil's washboard.' 

 

This shrine was nestled in the middle of lush palms and creepers. 

Off to the side was another, smaller shrine along a path leading to the heart of the  island. It was incredibly peaceful listening to the waves crash on all sides from within a jungle.  

 

Here visitors throw clay disks at the  smaller shrine for good luck.

For about 60p you can find out your fortune. Apparently this signifies good love! 

Delighted!

After playing in the sun for a while, we packed up and started thinking about heading off, only to be confronted by my first angry Japanese experience. A scary man zoomed up to us as we packed up a car, nearly running over someone's foot, parking us in and demanding a hundred dollars. While most people headed into the nearby hotel to talk things over reasonably, my ride and I panicked, squeezed the car through a tiny gap in the trees onto the beach, and drove along the decidedly non-vehicle-sized path in the first picture, smiling maniacally at confused sunbathers as if we knew what we were doing. 

Eventually we escaped via a back alley and made a hasty exit. 

Next stop was a post-apocalyptic beach accessed via a forest and the bumpiest road I've ever traversed. 

While my chum surfed I gave up worrying he might drown in favour of napping and trying on his various hats. 

 The woods were gorgeous. 

A quiet recovery afternoon back in the 'jo followed, in preparation for a night of beer and trivia. A bunch of ALT's and other English speakers in town were teamed with Japanese people for an international quiz night! It proved to also be a somewhat St Andrews-centric evening! My ears pricked up at this question...

There was even a St Andrews beer! Needless to say, this was my poison of choice for the night. 

I also picked up some sweet recommendations for samurai movies and shrines in Kyoto from my teammate Shigeo. 

Our team name was his suggestion...

Much to our collective disbelief, our team won second prize! Our considerable swag included a bottle of umeshu, a bottle of shochu, liqueur, cooking sauces, some yogurt, green tea, and a box of meat. 

I'm finishing this post as the wind howls outside, praying that the typhoon approaching southern Japan will diverge - at least until I'm safely in Osaka.