Wow, I've become really crappy at keeping this up to date. I haven't been terribly busy since I go back from Osaka, but the ability to watch movies and just hang out feels great after a day of work. Also, the 11 Second Club continues to take up most of my free time, and I'm really happy with this months entry even though there are still obvious problems. Other than that, work continues to be incredibly repetitive, but there are still things about it that will keep me here for a few more months. Like I wrote before, I teach twice a week in Kurashiki, and the students there are really great. I met this one woman who is a really high level, and it's really awesome to talk to somebody in a normal manner, who I can tell that I slept in my closet because I drank a little too much the night before. She even pokes fun at Japanese culture and all the crazy things that go on here. Good stuff, and as always, its nice to see people enjoying lessons and your company even if they don't understand you very well.
Osaka was another awesome trip that totally drained my paycheck one week after I got it. Haha, this trend will stop soon, but just being in those big cities is so exciting. The food is wonderful, and the lure of dance clubs is too strong to resist. The one thing about our trip was that it was raining the whole time. It was strange, but it never really bothered me. I guess I was too distracted by all the neon lights and hordes of people around me to get annoyed or think that the trip could have been better if it would've been sunny. I went up on Wednesday by myself and just got oriented in the city so when I met up with Joe later I would have some clue as to where we were. Luckily, Osaka was much easier to navigate than Tokyo, as all of the entertainment and nightlife is focused in just a few areas.
At first I just walked around the Shinhaibashi and Namba areas. The main shopping street is a few miles long and covered the whole way. Designer stores and 100 yen shops alike line this whole walkway, and its unbelievable how massive the place is. Being taller, its even crazier to be able to look far down the street and see no gaps in people. It really was like a herd of animals following each other. I stopped in a few shops, and ate at an awesome ramen place, and by that time Joe was arriving on the Shinkansen so I headed back up to Osaka station to meet up with him. After a little confusion, we finally got out of the station and were met by a brass band playing in the street. They were really good, and even did a cover of Waterfalls. The best part though was seeing how the crowd around them reacted to their music. When band members tried to get everyone to clap to the rhythm, instead of just feeling the music, the people watched the timing of the band member clapping and tried to match him. Anyway, they got me into brass bands, and if you like that kind of stuff, check out Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Their CD Voodoo is awesome, and they play with some great musicians like Dr. John.
Anyway, we checked into our hostel whose directions were "Take the colored road and look for the sign." It was surprisingly easy to find, and we got a great deal for a private room, about 25 bucks a night. Now that everything was set up for the night, I showed Joe some of the cool areas in Namba and we ate dinner. By now, we were ready to start drinking, so we headed to the area that our guide books suggested and ran into some hussie guy trying to get us in a club. It sounded like a lot of people were in there, but we decided to wait until later. For some reason the clubs here don't really fill up until 1 or 2 in the morning. The night was pretty dead, but we found a bar where we were the only people and took shots of tequila and had beers. This place was huge, and they had a shark swimming with a bunch of other fish in a tank in the middle of the bar. We stayed here until 1:30 or so, and headed over to Club Azure for some dancing. Again I was shocked by Japanese rhythm, and insetad of just dancing, most people were doing practiced routines. There were lots of people doing the robot and little pop moves, but a lot of the time their moves were off beat. I really love these situations because I get even more loose than normal and really enjoy just feeling the music. Dancing was a lot of fun here, and we stayed out super late and ate Yoshinoya at like 5:30 or 6 in the morning before drifting off to sleep.
The next day we met up with Karrah, a girl who teaches in Kurashiki. Our main plan for the day was to go to the aquarium, and we ended up spending a few hours there because it was so awesome. The Osaka aquarium is famous for its two whale sharks, but I was impressed with every exhibit in the place. It all started with otters. First river otters, and then giant sea otters that put on a great show for us. There were seals, some turtles, and then out of nowhere, a sloth. I've never really seen one up close, or seen one move, but this one crawled down out of the shadows and across a rope to where a woman was waiting to feed it. They really are amazing animals, and their claws are out of control. Their movements seem fake, and each push forward was smooth and controlled. I was impressed already, but the exhibits were just beginning. I won't write everything, but the whale sharks, and the tank that held them, were some of the coolest things I've ever seen. The water was crystal clear, and there was a huge variety of fish and other aquatic life in the tank. Right next to it there was a huge manta ray and some octopuses, and it was an over-stimulation similar to the neon lights in the streets. My battery ran out in the aquarium, but I got some good pictures while it lasted so check em out. When we got out it was a lot later than we thought it would be, but it was well worth it. Just outside of the aquarium was the world's largest ferris wheel, so we decided to go on out just to do it. It wasn't anything crazy, but it offered some nice views of the harbor and the surrounding area.
Next we headed into town and did a little shopping, stopping in at my favorite store, Zara where I found two shirts on sale for 20 bucks each down from 80. Oh, me and joe also got really awesome shirts from the aquarium with goofy whale sharks on them. They look like they're out of the 80's and you can't really tell what the image is, somebody here's confused it with a cadillac already, but they're cool nonetheless. We got some good food, and before Karrah left, we went to Osaka castle. It was a really long walk up to the castle itself, but the whole journey was a lot of fun and really beautiful. We walked through forests, and saw the original foundation stones from 1200 or so when the castle was first built. How humans built structures like these so long ago amazes me. It seems impossible that stones that large could be moved at all, no matter how many people were pushing and pulling. Since it was raining, there was nobody around, and when we reached the castle it felt great to be alone with such a magnificent building. It is a reconstruction, but they did a brilliant job with it. Normally, the new castles, shrines, or temples end up looking gaudy and ugly, but it was obvious that they took the time and hired the talent to make this castle feel like it once did. We hung out around the castle for a while, looked out across the city, and then headed back down so Karrah could catch her train back to Kurashiki. It was still kind of early, so we wanted to try going to one of the jazz clubs that were mentioned in our books. Stupidly, we left our books at the hostel because we thought they'd be a burden, so we ended up in a hostess bar part of town that felt real sleazy. Every building had women outside dressed in expensive clothes waving to passerbys, trying to get them to come in. It didn't take long to realize what we'd gotten ourselves into, so we decided to just choose a bar and drink until it got a little later. We chose one called Oldie's Bar or something like that, but it wasn't anything like we thought it would be. We walked in and immediately got a strange look from both the bartender and the one woman inside. He sat us down, and started calling out to girls. It was great because a few girls came out, and then he said that a set would be 10,000 yen each, or about a hundred bucks. We just laughed and left, and on our way out, we saw through a girl just putting on her robe through an open door. Hostess bar = brothel??? Haha, it was pretty funny, and we found a little restaurant that we could just drink at, so we sat and had a few beers, swearing to ourselves that we'd take the night easy and avoid shots of any kind.
We headed back to the area we were in the night before, and went to a different club that was supposed to be pretty popular. This place had a lot more people, and some that could actually dance, and for the first time girls actually approached us and talked for a while. Of course their English wasn't very good, and a few were pretty messed up on an assortment of drugs, but it was fun nonetheless. I met this girl DJ who gave me her number for next time we go to Osaka. She said I was a good dancer and rubbed my sideburns, we had an instant connection. Haha. We soon forgot our promise to ourselves to not take shots, and began a sort of ritual. A shot of tequila, a beer, and then back to the dance floor. Again, we stayed out super late, ate Yoshinoya, and then went to bed.
It's difficult to really explore a city in a few days, and really experience the night life on Wednesday and Thursday nights, but I had a great time while we were there. My fascination with Japanese cities hasn't died out yet, and every alleyway continues to grab my attention. Our next stop is Kyoto, which I think will be a lot different than the last two cities we've visited, but I really can't wait to see all the temples and the old districts that have been there for centuries. I'll remember my camera charger too, so I won't run out of battery so early into the trip.
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