April 1st-Fool’s Day…I don’t think so…
So, today was my second day in Osaka. Only second day? It seems like I’ve been here longer, I guess not though. Anyway, this morning I got up at 10am and just kinda hung around in bed for a while and took my time getting dressed. Then I went out to meet Hiromi at Shinsaibashi station. On the way I had a little snack of sushi and orange juice. We had planned to go to Kobe (about 30 minutes away from Osaka) because it’s supposed to be a nice city and I’ve never been there before, so that’s more than reason to go. When we met though, it was sort of raining. Well, not really raining. We felt a few drops so we decided not to go. We just walked around for a little while and then decided to see a movie. I really didn’t want to, but Hiromi really wanted to see “Catch Me If You Can.” So, that’s what we ended up seeing. It was alright the second time around. I was amused, though, that I was the only person in the theater (I guess about 100 people were in there) that understood what was being said. There were subtitles, but that’s different. So, I felt special. I was thinking, “Well, I can’t speak Japanese and they can…but…I can speak English, and they can’t!” And someday I’ll be able to speak Japanese and then I’ll be one step ahead of them! I should go to movies in Japan more often. The theaters are REALLY REALLY nice. The seats are big and really comfy, the screen is massive, and everything is sparkly and clean. There are a few other differences between Japanese theaters and American theaters. First, they sell beer in Japanese theaters, which I think is interesting. What else…well…you can buy little movie booklets for the movie you just saw after the movie is over. During the movie, I got to wondering why so many American movies are released in Japan. Maybe this one was different than it is usually, but they didn’t seem to enjoy the movie so much. Like…they didn’t laugh at any of the jokes—not even the funny ones. I was laughing cuz it was funny but everyone else was dead silent. I think it lost a lot in the translation and there are things that they just wouldn’t know that you have to know in order to get the jokes. After the movie, it was too late for lunch and too early for dinner so we just kinda hung out for a couple of hours. Then we were really hungry so we went to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant. We both ended up getting the Spring course (starting today) that included: champagne with cherry blossoms floating in it, a salad with raw fish, a pasta dish, a baked fish dish with onions, a sushi dish, coffee or tea, and chocolate musse cake. We ended up having dinner for about 4 hours cuz we were just sitting, talking, looking at people, guessing the ages of the waitresses, sipping our ice water, learning English and Japanese, and whatnot. After dinner she had to go get her train and I walked around the sketchy Doutombori section of Shinsaibashi. Everything was pretty quiet. So, I ended up going to an Internet café about a 30 second walk from my hotel so I could check my e-mail because I can’t get online from my room here. Tomorrow, Hiromi has work until 5pm so I think I’m going to meet my other friend in Osaka. I’ll let you know what happens.
-Maikeru