Chapter 52 (Picture heavy again)
Chapter 52: Time for explorations
When we started our tour through Japan, Mio advised me to borrow a smaller bag from her. I admit, my suitcase was a bit large after all (it had enough space for one human body and some more). But using Mio's bag in its stead was more of a curse than anything. I could hardly fit clothes for a week and a vanity bag inside, which made it heavy as hell and hard to carry around. It was a very unhandy bag :T
BUT THOSE DAYS WERE OVER NOW THAT I WAS REUNITED WITH MY GIANT SUITCASE AGAIN!! Awww~ how did I miss it! Being limited to only this few shirts, socks and underpants was slowly getting dangerous even. The last chance we had to do some laundry was in the second hostel on Yakushima. Which is a secluded island, so don't expect their washing machines to be any more efficient than those in Tokyo. Because no, not even the washing machines in Tokyo are all that good because Japan only washes with cold water.
So after I got my suitcase back, I returned to Shin-Osaka, sat down at McDonalds where I dined and wrote something on my laptop. While taking my time sitting there, something funny happened!
The manager came over to me with a phone in his hands asking me if I was Andrew Smith or something. Slightly bemused I told him I wasn't and continued with my meal/typing. But a few minutes later he came back and handed that phone to me in a "Sorry but it's for you" fashion.
Me: "Hellooo?"
Who was phone: "Andrew???"
Me: "Ah. Sorry, no this isn't Andrew. But look I speak Japanese maybe I can help you find him for you, is he lost in this station?"
Who was phone: "What? No, hand me back to the other guy"
...?
Then I settled down at Popeye's.
It was one of those large open-plan internet cafes where you get your own cabin, or should I say lockable leather-cushioned office cubes. Drinks (diluted) are free and there's also a vast selection of comic books for you to read, plus the option to use a totally agreeable shower. Sleeping was a bit hard, but I was so tired from the day that it didn't matter that there was no space for my legs or that the seat cushion was as cozy as a pancake...
The next day I don't remember exactly how I did it but I moved over to the Youth Hostel one block away. In fact you could spot the internet cafe from my dorm room window so it was really not far away at all.
The view is so formidable because they put this hostel in the 10th floor of a new building. They had this tricky stratagem to prevent burglary by programming the elevator in a way that it could only go up to the 11th floor where the reception desk and common room were. Only then could you take it down to the 10th floor where the dorm rooms are. Sounds good in theory, but it's not that practical after all.. Osaka, you guys. Also if you really wanted to steal stuff, you could just take the elevator up and then go down immediately before anybody notices. I'M JUST SAYING OKAY. But you get a personal locker in your dorm room anyway so it's alright. Oh yeah and I forgot to mention that the elevator stops working after 22:00 and it's the only way to get up.
I think the situation that morning was that they couldn't let me check in yet, but at least they let me change clothes in a spare room, rearrange stuff in my suitcase and then keep it safe. Now with a more appropriate outfit I was able to explore Osaka a little more!
This is what I explored next!!
Dogs and dog owners doing partner looks.
Where else would I go than to Osaka Castle! It's located in a large park where a lot of homeless guys have settled down. This is a slightly unnerving condition...! (Osaka is a merchant city so naturally they had more failures @ life after the Bubble Economy.)
The moat and the wall.
The garden on the castle grounds.
OH HAY GUYS.
There aren't enough photos of me so I'll just leave these here.
Whhoooooaaaaaaaaaa
Japan is very insect-friendly. I'm not sure if Germany has this many king-sized bugs.
Um, would you like me to take a photo of you and your baby? Because I want you to take a photo of me is that ok.
After walking pretty much everywhere in this park I called it a day and went to Namba, the second most important entertainment district in Osaka. There's a mall-like shopping mile with a billion stores where you can get lost pretty easily. The subway station has an underground city as well but it's not as handy as the one in Umeda. None of the fashion stores really piqued my interest here so whenever I came to Namba I merely checked out the Biccamera (Japanese "Saturn" equivalent), the few fangoods and the food stores. I felt adventurous and tried Wendy's for the first time. She's not bad!
Ron! Ron! Ron ron! Ron ron ron RoOOOOOOOoooooHOHOHOHOOOOOnnnn It's just Shogi :T
For some reason, Ali called me. He happened to be close by so he came to meet me there. I found this quite amusing because not even 24 hours ago he acted like this was the last time we'll ever meet.
On a side note, he recently admitted that he himself doesn't know what got into him back in those days.
Then I returned to finally check in. My roommates in the Youth Hostel were a Chinese father and son team. They were in the process of travelling the whole country and their English was horrible. I had to switch all my cerebral compartments to "Overdrive" in order to understand what they were talking about.
And uh...
I kinda started to counter their gibberish by... uh.. overloading them with rants about Ali and Mio? SORRY CHINESE DUDES IT WAS JUST SO FRESH AND I HAD TO TELL SOMEBODY.
As always, all the photos and some more can be found here for easy browsing.
When we started our tour through Japan, Mio advised me to borrow a smaller bag from her. I admit, my suitcase was a bit large after all (it had enough space for one human body and some more). But using Mio's bag in its stead was more of a curse than anything. I could hardly fit clothes for a week and a vanity bag inside, which made it heavy as hell and hard to carry around. It was a very unhandy bag :T
BUT THOSE DAYS WERE OVER NOW THAT I WAS REUNITED WITH MY GIANT SUITCASE AGAIN!! Awww~ how did I miss it! Being limited to only this few shirts, socks and underpants was slowly getting dangerous even. The last chance we had to do some laundry was in the second hostel on Yakushima. Which is a secluded island, so don't expect their washing machines to be any more efficient than those in Tokyo. Because no, not even the washing machines in Tokyo are all that good because Japan only washes with cold water.
So after I got my suitcase back, I returned to Shin-Osaka, sat down at McDonalds where I dined and wrote something on my laptop. While taking my time sitting there, something funny happened!
The manager came over to me with a phone in his hands asking me if I was Andrew Smith or something. Slightly bemused I told him I wasn't and continued with my meal/typing. But a few minutes later he came back and handed that phone to me in a "Sorry but it's for you" fashion.
Me: "Hellooo?"
Who was phone: "Andrew???"
Me: "Ah. Sorry, no this isn't Andrew. But look I speak Japanese maybe I can help you find him for you, is he lost in this station?"
Who was phone: "What? No, hand me back to the other guy"
...?
Then I settled down at Popeye's.
It was one of those large open-plan internet cafes where you get your own cabin, or should I say lockable leather-cushioned office cubes. Drinks (diluted) are free and there's also a vast selection of comic books for you to read, plus the option to use a totally agreeable shower. Sleeping was a bit hard, but I was so tired from the day that it didn't matter that there was no space for my legs or that the seat cushion was as cozy as a pancake...
The next day I don't remember exactly how I did it but I moved over to the Youth Hostel one block away. In fact you could spot the internet cafe from my dorm room window so it was really not far away at all.
The view is so formidable because they put this hostel in the 10th floor of a new building. They had this tricky stratagem to prevent burglary by programming the elevator in a way that it could only go up to the 11th floor where the reception desk and common room were. Only then could you take it down to the 10th floor where the dorm rooms are. Sounds good in theory, but it's not that practical after all.. Osaka, you guys. Also if you really wanted to steal stuff, you could just take the elevator up and then go down immediately before anybody notices. I'M JUST SAYING OKAY. But you get a personal locker in your dorm room anyway so it's alright. Oh yeah and I forgot to mention that the elevator stops working after 22:00 and it's the only way to get up.
I think the situation that morning was that they couldn't let me check in yet, but at least they let me change clothes in a spare room, rearrange stuff in my suitcase and then keep it safe. Now with a more appropriate outfit I was able to explore Osaka a little more!
This is what I explored next!!
Dogs and dog owners doing partner looks.
Where else would I go than to Osaka Castle! It's located in a large park where a lot of homeless guys have settled down. This is a slightly unnerving condition...! (Osaka is a merchant city so naturally they had more failures @ life after the Bubble Economy.)
The moat and the wall.
The garden on the castle grounds.
OH HAY GUYS.
There aren't enough photos of me so I'll just leave these here.
Whhoooooaaaaaaaaaa
Japan is very insect-friendly. I'm not sure if Germany has this many king-sized bugs.
Um, would you like me to take a photo of you and your baby? Because I want you to take a photo of me is that ok.
After walking pretty much everywhere in this park I called it a day and went to Namba, the second most important entertainment district in Osaka. There's a mall-like shopping mile with a billion stores where you can get lost pretty easily. The subway station has an underground city as well but it's not as handy as the one in Umeda. None of the fashion stores really piqued my interest here so whenever I came to Namba I merely checked out the Biccamera (Japanese "Saturn" equivalent), the few fangoods and the food stores. I felt adventurous and tried Wendy's for the first time. She's not bad!
Ron! Ron! Ron ron! Ron ron ron RoOOOOOOOoooooHOHOHOHOOOOOnnnn It's just Shogi :T
For some reason, Ali called me. He happened to be close by so he came to meet me there. I found this quite amusing because not even 24 hours ago he acted like this was the last time we'll ever meet.
On a side note, he recently admitted that he himself doesn't know what got into him back in those days.
Then I returned to finally check in. My roommates in the Youth Hostel were a Chinese father and son team. They were in the process of travelling the whole country and their English was horrible. I had to switch all my cerebral compartments to "Overdrive" in order to understand what they were talking about.
And uh...
I kinda started to counter their gibberish by... uh.. overloading them with rants about Ali and Mio? SORRY CHINESE DUDES IT WAS JUST SO FRESH AND I HAD TO TELL SOMEBODY.
As always, all the photos and some more can be found here for easy browsing.