Memories of Osaka (President's Choice Style)

Here was my first view of Japan, after the gruelling one hour flight (yeah, I'm a wimp).

Speeding by on the bullet train to Toronto. Did I just type Toronto? I meant Osaka. Oops, obviously shouldn't blog and talk to Zack on msn at the same time.

Japanese rice fields- ready for harvesting!

The street I was staying on in Osaka- or at least, the most interesting street near my hotel.

Club Sega anyone?

This was on one of the buildings in the street- hilarious computer animated dancers.

View of the street- actually, one of many.

My TV in my extremely small hotel room (but it was comfy!)

A temple I found on one of the side streets

A woman in traditional dress jogging past the temple

More temple-age

Praying at the temple


Little girl pouring water from temple well

This place was absolutely blasting Avril Lavigne all day. I hate her when I'm home, but I sat on a bench by this store and listened to her sing in English for a long time.

Evening in Osaka

Massive blowfish. I wasn't about to try it- remember that Simpson's episode where Homer eats the blowfish and has 24 hours to live (or so it seems)?

Is that my sister-in-common-law? If it is, she can do a mean summersault. How entertaining!


Traditional lady walking with not-so-traditional friend.

These are the laziest fish I have ever seen. I thought they were dead at first.

It was such a beautiful day!

I met a Punjabi man who made a living taking trekkers up into the Himilayas at this point. We both made fun of the fact that arcade games like these still consume the minds of full-grown businessmen. You'll find them in the street in Japan and Korea, and it's never children who are playing with them, but drunk men- sometimes even sober. At least the drunk ones have an excuse.


So much Korean won turned into so little Japanese Yen!

Osaka at night.

Yeaaaaah, I probably should have had sushi for dinner. But a kind Indian restaurant owner ambushed me in the street and I agreed to have Indian food instead- best Naan I have ever tasted!

Another night scene...

And this is the bench where I sat, watching people and listening to my friend Avril and talking with my new friend, Sonu (the guy I made fun of Japanese men playing arcade games with). He offered to make me a good Punjabi lunch the next day at his house, but I was regrettably pressed for time (one night in Japan is simply not enough!).

The shopping in Osaka is amazing. I love EVERYTHING that is being sold in Japanese clothing stores. It is the kitschiest of kitsch. On the downside, there was nothing in this store that was under 10,000 yen (or a hundred bucks Canadian).

Look Matt and Margret! The neighbourhood Eddie Bauer. I was not expecting to see this store in Japan.

Hello, Kitty. Wow, my pants make me look fat.

Nothing major, just a light morning monsoon/ thunderstorm. These ladies are two other Maple Bear teachers!

I didn't take this picture, at this point on the airplane I was almost convulsing from the panic the turbulence was putting me through, but I was sitting to a very nice (and very handsome!) Korean man who took the picture for me, and then proceeded to talk me through the whole flight. He found the turbulence "fun".

The last meal I had in Japan- we wanted tempura, but these things were the closest to it we could find in a hurry. I think they were fish/rice cakes, battered and deepfried. The green one had cheese in the middle and the other one had onion. Oh, and the cold tea was delicious.

I really wanted to buy this. What a happy kitteh. I took a picture of every cat I found in this pose, mostly as an inside joke, but I will spare you the boredom.

Wattschela enjoying her squid doughnuts, or whatever they were.

I stuck to my Asian staple: pork and noodles in broth. Yummy.



This woman's job was to pretend she was a robot statue, or something... she obviously loves her job! I think I would find it a bit repetitive.