March 31st-Osaka
So today I
went from Nanao to Osaka. I had Saki
wake me up at 8:30am so I would have time for breakfast and to pack and get my
10am train without being rushed.
Everything worked out fine except that after breakfast (an interesting
mixture of an egg sandwich, tea, orange slices, pastries, and ummm…yeah…bread
filled with curry…yummm…not) I ended up having a long talk with mom about a
bunch of different things and we lost track of time and were kind of rushed to
get to the station. Everything worked
out ok, and the 3.5 hour ride to Osaka station was pretty uneventful. I didn’t even get that bored. Let’s see…what did I do? I wrote the journal entry that you read
before this one, I read my book for a while, I looked at my guidebook to see
what varied and sundry things Osaka has to offer, and I looked out the
window. When I got to Osaka station, I
had already examined the map of how to get to the hotel and I knew where to
go. So, after a little bit of fumbling
around, I found the right subway and was on my way. When I got out of the subway at Shinsaibashi, I wasn’t entirely
sure which direction to go. I knew I
had the right street, but left or right?
I knew I had to go south, but either way could have been south. I tried finding the sun (my faithful friend in
the sky to guide me) but it was too cloudy.
So I just went with a feeling and went right. It seemed like the right way to go. I figured out from the map and the landmarks that I was passing
that I had picked the right path. I wasn’t
sure which street I was supposed to turn right at so I just turned right when
it felt right, and I had just overshot the right street by 1 block. So, I got in the hotel and checked in. When I tried to pay, using my credit card, I
wasn’t at all surprised when the machine beeped with discomfort when my card
slid through. I was ready to get my
traveler’s checks or cash when I told the check-in lady to call the number on
the back of the card. She didn’t really
seem sure of what to do, so some other dude came out, and he tried another
credit card machine and it worked!!!!
So, that’s good that I don’t have to spend all this cash on hotels ya
know. Anyhoo, I changed my clothes and
took a shower. Then I headed downstairs
to call my friend Hiromi who I had made plans with to meet today. She told me that she and Hisae were in Horie
Koen (Horie Park) and that we should meet there. Of course I had never heard of that park…I haven’t heard of
anything in this place. So I asked the
chick at the front desk and I was like, “Sumimasen. Anoo…Horie Koen to iu tokoro shitteiru?” And she was like, “Ee, shitteimasu.” And I was like, “Dou yatte ikeru?” And she took out a map and flipped around for
a while and then found it. Something wasn’t
right because she was giving me directions to a place that was nowhere near
where we were. Then she got some other
guy and he just pointed down the street and got a map of the area from the desk
and just drew a little box where he thought it was. I tried to say, “Yo, this chick was totally trying to mess me up!” But it didn’t work to well in Japanese…whatever. So I walked off down the street and
discovered, after not long at all that I had no idea where I was going. I had gone in the direction that I’d been
told, but it just wasn’t working out. I
walked up and down the area that he said it’d be in for a about 10 minutes and
I couldn’t find it. So, I asked a dude
on a bicycle and I think he said he wasn’t from around here so he didn’t know. Then I went into a convenience store and the
chick in there had a book of maps, so I figured I’d really hit the
jackpot. She told me to go across the
street, go one block, make a right, and go south two blocks, and it would be on
my left. So I did that, and…..NO
park! So, I went into a film store and
asked the chick there and she got a map and it wasn’t on the map so she asked
someone else and I was supposed to walk further south another five minutes or
so and it would be on my right. I
started walking and after about 2 minutes I saw a park on my right. It was a park….but was it the right
one? It wasn’t where I’d been told it
would be…. I decided that if that were
it and I walked right by it to follow the directions of a person who had never
heard of the park, I would be kicking myself later. So I just poked around the park looking for a store called “Muse”
where my friends were supposed to be. I
wasn’t having any luck and I had decided to ask someone who looked like a local
to tell me what park I was standing next to, when I heard a voice say, “Maikeru.” And I turned around and there was Hiromi
standing in the doorway of a café! How
bout that luck of mine! I’d walked
right by the corner with the café with the people I was looking for. So we went inside and since I hadn’t had
lunch I wanted to order some but they’d stopped serving lunch. So, what did I get? Dessert!
I had tiramisu with vanilla ice cream and a glass of pineapple
juice. “Meccha oishikatta!” (Really delicious!) Hisae had made other plans with some friend
so she had to go after a little while.
So, we sat there for a while just talking and shooting the breeze. You know how these things are….sit in a café…speak
English for a while, speak Japanese for a while…look at the other people….She
wanted me to speak English because, being an English major, I guess she wanted
the practice. So I indulged her for a
while, but we periodically went back to Japanese. Today I learned some Osaka-ben!
(Osaka dialect). The Kansai area,
including places like Osaka, Kyoto, and Kobe are very fond of their regional
dialect. More so than any other region
in Japan, the Kansai people hold onto their way of speaking. For example, instead of saying, “Hontou…”
(Really…) they say, “Honma…” and
instead of saying, “Wakaranai”
(I don’t understand) they just say, “Wakaran” or “Wakarahen”. It’s really weird. I was nice about it though and used those kinds of phrases when I
remembered. After we’d been sitting and
talking and sipping our water for a while, we went into the park (a small affair,
but quaint) to look at the cherry blossoms that had already come. For the most part, I don’t think the cherry
blossoms with arrive until tomorrow or the day after, but they were in this
park. I took a couple of pictures that
I’ll put in the media section when I can connect to the internet. Hiromi had made plans to have dinner with a
bunch of her friends at a Japanese restaurant in the area, but she had told
them about me and they had said it was fine for me to come. So, given that I had no other plans, I
graciously accepted the invitation.
After going to take purikura (print club) pictures (little pictures that
are stickers) we went to the restaurant where we met her 4 friends. I don’t really remember their names….ummm…there
was Yuki and Aya and the other two…I don’t think they told me their names. Dinner was…how should I put this…interesting. Well, the food was really good. Even though people were casually dressed for
the most part, it was very nice in there.
They would periodically talk to me or ask me questions, but the last 2
hours or so (of the 4 hour meal) were spent with the 5 of them talking up the
storm of the century with each other about….GOD ONLY KNOWS WHAT. It was really ridiculous…I’d say I got maybe…hmmmm…1
word every 10 seconds. But the words I
always got were no use at all in determining what they were talking about. So, I set myself to daydreaming about….if I
sat here at the table and listened to them talk for my 4 months in Japan (it
seemed like they’d talk for 4 months….) would I eventually understand
them? Or would it take years of sitting
at this table? By 10pm they showed no
signs of slowing down. I think Hiromi
could tell that I was getting tired and that I wasn’t exactly too engaged in
the conversation, so we left. See…here’s
the good thing about hanging out with people that are nice, like you, and are
well taken care of themselves….they like to pay for things for you. I tried to pay for my dessert but Hiromi
explained that she was my older sister, so she would pay. And at dinner (way out of my budget) the two
of us left before we even got the bill.
Those nutty Osaka girls went through 3 bottles of wine, and were still
going when we left. Hey! Whatever floats your boat! I also found out that Hiromi has a 12 midnight
curfew, so that might be another reason why we left when we did since she had
to get a train before they stopped running.
This girl is 22, just graduated from college, and she still has a curfew….that’s
kinda funny. Hmmm….I don’t have a
curfew. Maybe I will when I get to
Miyazaki. Ittemiru! (I’ll go and
see). Ok, I think Hiromi and I are
going to go to Kobe tomorrow. I’ve
never been to Kobe so if we go, it should be cool. Choo sugoi! Yuki said that it’s going to rain tomorrow so if it’s
rainy or really nasty, maybe we’ll see a movie or go to the Umeda Sky Building
or something of the kind. I’ll let you
know….
-Maikeru