大阪に行きましょう! (Let's go to Osaka!)

Alright. So I'm in Japan - living on Shikoku to be more exact. That doesn't seem to mean a lot to many people and I understand. After all, no one says to themselves,

"I want to go to Japan. Hmmm, it's made up of four main islands. Let's pick the most obscure, least visited one!"

It's understandable. When I think of Japanese cities off of the top of my head I come up with:

Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, Nara, Hiroshima, Sapporo, Nagasaki, Kobe

These span three of the four main islands: Hokkaido, Honshu, and Kyushu.

Eh...Shikoku not so much.

Don't get me wrong, Shikoku is gorgeous with untouched beauty and spiritual landmarks. It's nice to live in a peaceful manner after battling University for four years. However, there are times when a big city is appreciated, or a city in general. That is where traveling comes in. Last weekend, I ventured to the main island of Honshu and stayed in Osaka for the weekend with four (charming) lads: Alan, Derry, and Louis of Dublin, Ireland and Tom of London, England. Here they are drinking energy drinks to prepare for the Osaka nightlife

The girls all had school obligations and it's always good to travel with men in foreign countries for safety purposes. We stayed in a capsule hotel (think a classy version of the morgue) where the men and women were divided into different wings. This is true Japanese style.











On the first day of my trip, Tom and I hit two major sites: the Osaka Aquarium KAIYUKAN, which is one of the largest in the world and manages to include monkeys; and the Osaka Museum of History, which (surprise!) gave a Japanese rendition of the history of Osaka. The aquarium was amazing, though so crowded I could hardly breathe. I was ready to go foreigner on them and smash my way through but as an "ambassador" of America, I just grinned like an idiot while thinking bad thoughts.



We also went on one of the "largest" Ferris wheel's in the the world. I was excited until I discovered that it took 15 minutes to complete one rotation, that we only got to ride for one rotation, and the point of the ride was to enjoy the view - which on a cloudy day in an industrial city like Osaka - wasn't much. YAY!

That night we met up with the Irish boys and enjoyed a night of dinner and dancing which ended with me trying to drag them back to the hotel in the wee hours of the morning as the only sober and coherent person left in the group.
Later that day we said goodbye to one member of our group as he returned home to Ireland and then headed off to the famous Osaka Castle were I was attack by mosquitoes yet again. The site itself was impressive though. However, only two of our four remaining members went inside. The idea was to take turns, but the boys were so enamored that they took over an hour until the castle was closed for the evening! Grrr.

The evening was spent at a game arcade before catching the night ferry home.

So ends my first traveling experience in Japan.

I'm still exhausted thinking about it.