So September holds a Korean Holiday called Chusok, basically the Korean version of Thanksgiving as I have been told. Koreans spend the 3-day holiday spending time and eating with their extended family. What this means for foreigners is this - 3 days of no work! While many of my friends got an extra day off and had a 6 day holiday, I was not so lucky. Chusok this year fell on September 21st-23rd, which was a Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. I still had to work Monday and Friday....so pointless.
Anyway...While I was originally planning to explore Korea I made a last minute decision and book tickets to Osaka for about $400. So Tuesday morning I headed to the Busan airport and arrived in Osaka that evening. After a grueling 2+ hour line just to get through passport control (a 2 minute procedure) I finally got on the subway and made my way into the city.
Before I left I got in contact with a few people on
http://www.couchsurfing.org/ and asked if they would show me around and hang out while I was in town. After leaving the airport I met with a CSer named Tim who took me to a Japanese bar. It was very similar to a Korean bar. We ordered a few chicken side dishes, some rice, and of course beer.
After we finished our food and drinks, I made my way to my hotel, which luckily was only a 10 minute walk from where we had eaten. I stayed at the Hotel Mikado for less than $20 a night. The facilities were very simple, there was a public bath area (but was women's only from 630-8am and 930-12 pm so I didn't use it since I was either sleeping or out, and it was men's only or cleaning the rest of the time), one shower room, hot water for soup, two computers, and the simplest room to sleep in. But really what more do you need?
Wednesday morning I got up and did some site seeing. First on my list was Osaka Castle. It was really easy to get to using the subway. (I bought a one-day pass which ended up being a really really good investment that day!) Osaka Castle is one of the most famous castles in Japan. It was built in 1583 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a feudal lord who played a major role in the unification of Japan.
Before going into the castle grounds I walked around the park that surrounds it and made my way to first gate and crossed the first moat. It was a nice, peaceful area. There were families walking around, people jogging around the park, and of course all the tourists. For the tourists they had a train that went around the park, and I believe to the gates of the castle. No, I did not ride the train.
After walking around the park and the areas surrounding the castle I finally crossed the second moat (a dry moat) and saw the castle.
Though Tim had told me the night before not to bother buying a ticket to go inside because it wasn't that great, I did anyway. And I must say, I'm glad I did. Inside there was a museum of the history of the Castle and of Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Also, at the top you get a great view of the city.
After exiting the castle I continued to explore the gardens around the castle. It really was beautiful!
Eventually I tore myself away from the castle grounds so I would have time to explore the rest of the city. I took the subway again and have the intention of going to the Shitennoji Temple, but after getting out of the subway, it wasn't immediately obvious where the temple was and I didn't end up finding it. Instead, I wandered around the area and found a few smaller shrines and temples. While these were still nice, I was a bit disappointed.
When I got tired of wandering around this area I made my way back to the subway station and went to the Kaiyukan (the aquarium). The Kaiyukan is one of the largest aquariums in the world, and I was definitely impressed! This was also great, seeing as before going I wasn't actually fussed about making it to the aquarium, but I'm really glad I did! The first thing I saw when I was walking up to the building was this..
The building of the aquarium is actually really nice, and I could have sworn I took a picture of it, but i can't find it =(. So instead I stole a pic from the internet...
When I paid my admission and got my ticket I also got an English Guide. On the front of the guide said "Ocean, You Meet Whale Shark". Random, but I know my fellow expats will appreciate it =)
Anyway, inside the aquarium there are 8 floors. You take an escalator to the top and work your way down. Each floor has tanks on the outer part of the path and a large exhibit in the middle. The path you take wraps around and kind of spirals down into the next floor.Each floor has a few different sections (i.e. Japan Forest, Aleutian Islands, Ecuador Rain Forest etc.) but the main attraction is the Pacific Ocean Section which was in the middle part of floors 4-6. I think the biggest attraction were the 2 whale sharks.
There were also a few other interesting animals, but I will share all this with you through pictures...
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| Quack! |
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| Capybara: The largest living rodent in the world. |
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| Japanese Spider Crab |
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| Goblin Shark |
Following my adventures at the aquarium I made my way to the hotel for a nap. I was hoping that some of the stores and market area around the hotel would be open, but most of it was shut down.
Then I met the second CSer that I had contacted, Deon. He's an English teacher in Osaka. I met up with him and we went to Dotonbori, the touristy shopping and eating district. The first place he made sure to take me was to see the Glico Man, a giant neon sign which is the symbol of Glico Candy.
We walked around the area a bit, then went to the local foreigner bar. It was owned by a westerner (He was either Canadian or American, can't remember). We got a sake bomb, which was more fun than it was delicious. The bar tender gave us two cups (which were fairly wide, more like a mug size) filled with cheep japanese beer then laid 2 chopsticks across the top. On the chopsticks he put a shot of sake. Deon and I had to bang the table with our fists until the shots fell into the beer, then we had to chug the drink. I won! haha. Again, I'm always lame and forget to take pictures of things so...I guess that leads us to the next thing.
Since I was taking the subway back to my hotel I had to make sure to be at the station by around 11:45 pm. We left the bar and went to get food at the famous Kinryu Ramen restaurant. You buy a ticket from a vending machine saying what you want, then hand it to someone behind the counter. When your food is ready, you eat it standing at the counter where they also have kimchi and garlic you can help yourself to. I tried the kimchi, it had nothing on Korea! The ramen was really good! I mean really good!
I got to the subway and spent my last night at Hotel Mikado. In the morning I gathered my stuff and checked out. Thursday was pretty uneventful, I did my souvenir shopping. I went back to the Osaka Castle area to a souvenir shop, then back to Dotonbori and wandered around there and the surrounding areas. It was still really neat during the day and had lots of shopping!
Though I did meet this Japanese guy...For the most part (I was told, and it's what I experienced) Japanese people don't pay a lot of attention to foreigners. I got a few guys saying hi to me, but nothing like it is in Korea. While I was walking around Dotonbori this guy on a bike passed me, smiled at me, and I kept walking. Before I knew it he was off his bike, walking beside me and trying to have a conversation in his very broken English. It wasn't charming or cute, he was kinda wierd. After trying to tell him I wanted to be left alone, then that I was meeting a friend in 5 minutes and he was still trying to talk to me, I just turned a corner and walked a different. The guy found me again within 10 minutes walking down the street. He just wasn't getting the hint. Eventually I managed to loose him and just went back to the subway station haha.
I made my way back to the aiport to catch my flight back to Korea, and reluctanly to work the next day (so stupid especially since Fridays are just game days...I'm still a bit irritated! haha). But it's ok....I made a new friend on the plane! Sitting next to me on the plane was Tanguy. He's a French guy who is currently living in Korea (though not a teacher! He works for a French Company), and as we got to talking we discovered that we actually live right down the road from each other! His apartment is literally a 5 minute walk from mine. Planes have been good luck for me lately with making friends (Miss you Matt!)
Well that's all I have on Japan so far. For Christmas I get 9 days so I'm thinking Tokyo and Beijing. We'll see...
More pics can be found on my Picasa site.
