osaka;

Shot of our area outside of the hotel. We were mostly surrounded by restaurants, pachinko, and arcades.

Osaka update time!

day 1;

We took the early morning bus so we would arrive early in the afternoon. When we arrived at Kanazawa Station, we ran into other students from the KIT-IJST program. Others were heading to Kyoto and Takayama. Those who were heading to Kyoto were on the same bus as us...they sat on the second level of the bus, while we sat on the lower. It was basically a gaijin bus, so I bet it was hilarious for Japanese natives.

Honestly though, one of the more interesting things about the bus ride was when we made our first stop. Middle of the road stops here are way different than back in the US. I wish I had brought my camera because it was that awesome. The most amusing part was the bathrooms because they were so high tech and modern. There was of course the men's room and the woman's room but there also were specific bathrooms for the handicap and for the children. All of the toilets were Captain Kirk style, aka, they were more advance than most cell phones, and there was a map in the bathroom to navigate confused tourists. It was awesome. I really wish I had taken a photo even though it was a bathroom.

The rest stop itself was awesome too, because they were selling various types of food, and omiyage, also known as gifts. It was prett spectacular for a rest stop.

A few hours later we finally arrived in Osaka.

While we found the station alright, we had a difficult time figuring out which line to take and where to make our transfer. Luckily we looked so confused that someone went out of their way to help us. She not only helped us purchase the correct tickets, but she even went on our train and made sure that we got off at the correct stop...pretty sure she went one beyond her initial location just to make sure we were okay.

We stayed in the Business Inn Sennichi Mae Hotel, which was conveniently located within a bunch of restaurants, and various forms of entertainment such as pachinko and arcades with games ranging from crane games and this extreme drumming simulation game.

The rest of the night consisted of us getting our bearings in terms of locating major shopping areas, so we knew where to go the next day.

Yamamoto's Vongola ring~

day 2;

Day 2 literally consisted of shopping, shopping, and MORE shopping. We went to an area called Nipponbashi which was mostly made of nerd stores (anime, video games and manga), and electronics stores. We got a lot of personal shopping done, and a lot of gift shopping done. There really are not a lot of good places to buy gifts here in Kanazawa, so it was nice to be able to find a bunch of things that were not too expensive.

I spent a lot of my money on Katekyo Hitman Reborn items, gifts for others, and couple doujinshi which are fan drawn mini mangas. I cannot wait to give everyone their gifts~!

One of the stores we went into was an anime/manga store with four floors. On one of the floors had a worker cosplaying as Naruto. It was awesome to see someone cosplaying, and not being at a convention. It was out of context, but totally made my day. I love how Japan is more accepting in terms of fashion etc. Even though she was just an employee, her cosplay was actually pretty legit. She even had blue contacts!

Our first red meat experience in Japan!

When we started searching for dinner, we realized that a lot of the restaurant owners like this idea of drawing people into their restaurants through whatever means possible. We stopped at this one yakitori place where the owner really wanted us to come in. He acted like we were all tied up and pretended to pull us into the restaurant. After realizing that it was not working, he even offered a discount on our food selection since we had a pretty large group. We weren't really sure what we wanted so we passed on the first restaurant.

The next restaurant we found also did the same forceful type thing. They were not as theatrical, but they really wanted us to come in. I've found out that it is rather hard to just browse things in Japan, because the Japanese are so interested in interacting with you and making sure that they are able to make you happy. The foreigner thing does not help either.

While the food was delicious, it was rather expensive considering we did not get a lot in each of the servings, and we found out we had to pay for our tea which typically comes with a meal here in Japan. It was an interesting experience. But it was fun! We were given a mini thing of coals and metal mesh so we could cook the meet ourselves.

Since the food didn't really fill us up, we went for our first taste of Osaka takoyaki. Have to say that I was not totally impressed with the dish. I think people built up so much anticipation for it, that my expectations were rather high. It was good, but I'm never dying to go get it again.

Jellyfish from the Osaka Kaiyukan

day 3;

Aquarium day! Jackie found this aquarium in Osaka who are famous for having a whale shark. We woke up rather early to get to the aquarium, because we had to take the subway to get to where wanted to go. It would have taken way too long to walk.

I saw a lot of cool things at the aquarium including the infamous whale sharks which are HUGE. They seriously need to give the poor animal a larger tank D: I also got to see a baby penguin, which was adorable! He was so fuzzy~

Also, it was MAD crowded. Pretty sure I got attacked by a few Japanese children. It was quite the experience.

We also managed to do even MORE shopping this day. Next to the aquarium was this mini mall complex that had a bunch of food places and various places to shop. Apparently it was like, Hawaiin week or something, because they had native Japanese people who knew hula dancing perform in the middle of the mall complex.

But the most exciting part about the mall was the Studio Ghibli store that we found! I bought this Totoro bag and it's totally adorable. I cannot wait to get some use out of it when I get back to the states~ Besides that, the store had everything from Spirited Away to Princess Mononoke. Unfortunately they didn't have anything from Howl's Moving Castle which made me very sad. I even over heard some Japanese people saying that it was unfortunate that the store lacked any Howl Merchandise.

Ebiyaki from Osaka~

This was our last dinner before leaving on Monday. Ebiyaki is the equivalent to Takoyaki only it involves shrimp rather than octopus. I personally found this version much better since it had more flavor. Apparently Ebiyaki is an Osaka thing, so it was a nice end to our stay during the long weekend.

The owner of the stand was really awesome too! We had seen him earlier than morning and said that he had seen us on day one and knew that were interested based on the looks on our faces xD We were glad to see him again when we returned later that day. He even asked us to help him with his english since he wanted to find a different way to draw people in.

day 4;
Last day in Osaka! Woke up super early, beacuse the only bus available back to Kanazawa was either mad early, or really late which we did not want to deal with.

Made it back to Kanazawa around 2:30 and had to wait around the bus station for a bit.