Japan: Osaka and Kobe

Day 3 of Japan:

I wrote this all out in my journal on the 5 hour bus ride back from Hiroshima. My phone was beyond dead. I'll explain.

I think my last post ended yesterday morning (in my journal I guessed it was Wednesday the 13th. I just located a calendar and figured it was Thursday the 11th. Days=irrelevant.) arounf 1100 on the Bullet Train. Almost as soon as I finished blogging we arrived at Shin-Osaka at 1130. Bullet Train=way bomb. We (we being me, Shannon, Sam, Tania, Nic, Becca, and JD) all decided it would be best to eat ASAP and figure out the day over lunch. We got some yen at the ATM/Post Office in the massive subway station. Strangely in Japan, American ATM cards only seem to work at Post Offices. Osaka has more signs in English, but literally no one knows or understands English. The complete opposite of Tokyo and Yokohama. I had read Osaka was easy to get around because of the English signs on the subways, etc. so I just assumed that meant the people knew it, too. No such luck.

Shannon picked a random restaurant on the lowest level of the station. The woman sat us down and then led us into the hallway to point out what we wanted via the fake replicas of dishes. For whatever reason, we let Shannon run this. Big mistake. Everything at this restaurant was seafood or soaked in pork sauce. I don't eat seafood, neither does Tania. Nic doesn't eat meat and Tania doesn't like pork. Nic, Tania, Becca, and I know these things about each other and check for these things at restaurants. So in conclusion: fails.

The woman pointed out "chicken" which definitely turned out to be fish. She was annoyed by our lack of Japanese and I really think she wanted to kick us out, but that would have looked really bad. We flipped through JD's book and figured out how to get to the aquarium. It looked fairly simple. Shannon and Sam tried to convince us to go to Kyoto first. I knew we'd never make it to the aquarium in time if we did that. And that was one of the things I'd been really stoked to do and actually planned. So 5:2 aquarium. I guess I'd managed to talk it up enough to my friends to get them intrigued.

The food turned out to be pretty good. Cold buckwheat noodles with a soy-onion-wasabi sauce, some tofu, pickled peppers, and fried rice with "chicken"/seafood. I'm getting much better with chopsticks. I tried JD's yellow/orange wasabi---WOW. That burned. JD had the weirdest meal. Not bad, just strange. One of the bowls was a tasteless white slime with the consistency of mucuos. It was tastey with some soy sauce. Apparently it's a known Japan delicacy. So that's kinda cool. He also had this sweet, sticky bean bowl.

We finished up and hopped on a train to West (I think) Osaka. When we got there we got 2 lockers in the station so we could leave our backpacks. They were somewhat heavy and annoying to bring around. Tania, Becca, Nic, and I shared one and the other 3 got one. This turned out to be the best decision of the day. Read on.

It was overcast and drizzly and cold. Low 40's. Good thing the heaviest clothing in my possession is a North Face fleece and jeans. Apparently our first day in Yokohama and Tokyo with sun and warmth is incredibly rare rather than the norm. We asked people about the aquarium. No one spoke English---are you seeing the theme? People in Osaka are much ruder to foreigners. But we knew it was close and that we were by the water. We came across another ferris wheel. The Japanese really love their ferris wheels. There was one by the Yokohama Terminal, too.

5 minutes later we spotted it. Massive with all sorts of penguin and dolphin metal structures that lit up at night. There was also a huge tile mosaic of cartoon ocean creatures.

A crowd was gathered in a circle around a street performer out front. He was juggling and dancing with fire while playing Ricky Martin's "Livin' La Vida Loca." That's something I've noticed, in a lot of stores and bars they play American music in English. I know they have their J-Pop, but I haven't heard much if any. And whenever we see a young, well-dressed good looking guy, we joke that he could be a J-Pop star and we'd never know.

It was getting colder and windier so we decided to get in line and buy tickets to go inside. The line was so long. I think every family in all of Osaka was there because of the holiday, which I believe was "Foundation Day," or as Nic referred to as "National Landscape Day." I'd equate to being on the level with Labor Day---people are off from work, but there's no real celebration or holiday event. At least that we're aware of.

The Osaka Aquarium was sick. By far the best aquarium I've ever been to. Everything was kept up really well and the exhibits were huge---so you weren't feeling sorry for the animals. You walk through a tunnel of fish and rays and some sharks then take an escalator up to the top level, emerging into the "Japanese Rainforest" with plants, birds, otters, and some freshwater fish. Then you continue down and everything is separated by regions within the Pacific. Everything at this aquarium is from within the Pacific Ring of Fire. You see otters and penguins and Pacific whitesided dolphins. The dolphins would shoot around and propel themselves out of the water and hit a ball hanging from the ceiling. Also, a hose hung down with flowing freshwater. The dolphins kept swimming up to it and letting it hit them in the face and it looked like they were drinking from it. There was a huge Great Barrier Reef tank. It was beautiful and made me so jealous of everyone in Australia right now. You guys better be diving. It was so colorful with so many crazy fish I'd never seen before. At least in person. Check out my facebook, I uploaded some sweet pictures from my phone of it all. There were harbor seals and some giant rodents. I forget what they're called, but they're the largest rodents in the world. There were various other tanks, then you circled down to the center tank with 2 whale sharks. As you go down around it the other exhibits I mentioned are on the outside and you can see the different levels of all the tanks. You get great views of everything and see the penguins, harbor seals, and dolphins shoot by. The center tank is shaped like a giant plus sign. One side is netted off with several massive manta rays. Each window, as you go down, reveals more and more species of sharks, rays, and other fish. There were pitted stingrays, giant shovelnose rays, bowmouth guitarfish, leopard whiprays, brownbanded bamboo sharks, Japanese carpet sharks, tasselled wobbegongs, Japanese bullhead sharks, zebra sharks, blacktip reef sharks, leopard sharks, tiger sharks, banded dogfish, red stringrays, spotted eagle rays, scalloped hammerheads, and smooth hammerheads. Sorry, had to list them all out to remember for my Marine Bio and Bio of Sharks classes for papers and extra credit with my pictures.

Becca and I were so giddy to see all these sharks and tried to name every type. We were very successful and only had to check a few on the name plates. The tank is HUGE. I can't believe it had so many species in it. I have to ID a bunch of sharks and rays for Bio of Sharks, so this was pretty helpful. Becca and I shared our love for sharks while Nic rolled her eyes at this and her and Tania kept going. I think Becca and I spent almost an hour on this one tank. You get to see every level, so you get to see each level of fish. At the bottom there's a big tank with 3 or 4 turtles, pufferfish, and a few other fish. Next to it was a dark tank with spider crabs. These things are so crazy creepy and massive. They're actually like 4 feet tall. I think I'd have a heart attack if I saw one in the wild. It reminded me of the spiders from Harry Potter. (Aragog? I assume someone from NPRC is reading this and is more than knowledgable on the Harry Potter info).

The last exhibit was the jellies. All sorts; moon jellies, etc. I've seen my fair share of jellies. The New England Aquarium's got a pretty bomb jellies exhibit. So we skimmed this as we were growing short on time before we all met up. Nic got some great pictures of the jellies that I'll have to snag from her. Alright I think I've said jellies enough times now.

We met up at the gift shop at the end. We all got way too much whale shark paraphenalia. I got a whale shark tshirt with the scientific name on it. I'm actually wearing it right now. I can't wait to show Pat when he gets back from his Japan adventures. He'll enjoy it, as we sit around and try to name different species as lunch. Becca bought a white seal hat that has a little tail on the back. She's been wearing it since she bought it yesterday. She's even wearing it right now as I look across the aisle of the bus at her. Haha.

All 7 of us reconvened. It was now raining hardcore outside and it looked miserable, plus it would be dark in a matter of hours. There was an art exhibit at the Sunori Museum (I think that's somewhat close to the name of it. Or else I'm combining it with the beer Suntory) right next to the Aquarium and it had a famous manga artist's exhibit on display. It was called: Inoue Takehiko: The LAST Manga Exhibition." I recommend googling it and checking it out, it's sick. Nic really wanted to go and a few of us thought it would definitely be interesting to check out. Shannon, JD, and Sam were skeptical. So the 4 of us went to check hours and prices. 1500 yen and open til 2000. Not bad. It was only 1700. Again, I had to mediate and run back to the Aquarium and relay this information. They agreed to come over. We found out we couldn't get a ticket to get in til 1830. After much debate, the 4 of us decided to wait and check it out while the other 3 wanted to go to Kobe and get a hotel for the night close to the ship then come back to the Museum at 2000 to meet up to go to the entertainment district for dinner. Glorious. They asked to take my phone to BBM with us on Tania's to make sure we could find each other. So I handed over my phone.

The 4 of us went up to the cafe upstairs and got some pizza and drinks while we waited for 1830. There was a great view of the harbor and the ferris wheel was now lit up bright green in the dark sky.

At 1830 we got in line for the exhibit. We were the only white people there. It was all young couples who were well dressed and gorgeous. Here we were: dirty, white, Ameircans, in jeans, 4 girls. Everyone judged us so badly and would giggle at us when they looked us over. Rude. I don't think I've ever done that to foreigners, no matter how goofy I might have thought they looked. The line took forever to get in. They sent each party up individually on the elevator. One elevator. Not efficient, but it made sense one we got up for the space between groups.

The exhibit was completely black and white. And silent. We got an English guide for the drawings with Japanese characters on them. Now I don't know if all art exhibits in Japan are almost silent or if this one was special. This artist was incredible and is, apparently, really well known. The drawings were phenomenal. I always thought anime and manga was childish and stupid, but this changed my mind. It was incredible. The detail was obscene. The canvases ranged in si2 from 1' by 2' to whole walls over 30 feet high. We followed the story throughout the exhibit walking from room to room. The last 2 rooms were the best series of huge drawings with a half black rug and a half white rug and black walls. The last room had a series of drawings at a beach. The walls and rug were white and half the room was covered with sand. I wish I could have taken pictures because these were truly incredible. What better place to check out a manga exhibit than in Japan?

So. Here's where the day takes a new turn. I get a BBM during the exhibit, and read it as soon as we get out. When they left we told them to find a hotel within reason, both in location and price. We needed to be at the port for a trip with SAS and be there by 0745 at the latest. The BBM says they've booked a hotel near Kobe, one room for the 7 of us for $180 USD; kinda sucks but "we can look for something else later." Later as in post dinner and bars and an hour transit from Osaka to Kobe. It's already 2030.

Among the 4 of us we decide this is unacceptable. Oh, wait, I forget the best part. They were already in the entertainment district and asked if we wanted to meet them there. Not even remotely within out plans. Both phones were dying when we made the original plans. So we'd have to meet up with them to get the key and go back together now. Sickkkk.

We later find out that they didn't even bother going to this hotel. They just called and reserved it and it's not even close to the port. Sick. The 4 of us are completely competent and could manage on our own. We say fuck it. The phones gonna be turned off. We go back to the metro and get our bags and head in what we believe to be the direction of Kobe. At each station we need to change between we ask strangers for guidance. We get lucky and a 20 something, young guy decides to take us to Kobe. He takes us on 2 trains. We're getting close. We thank him and go to get more info. We find we need 2 more trains to be at the Port Terminal where the ship will dock the next morning in Kobe. Finding this out was no easy feat. The info desks don't know English. We ask for a nearby hotel. The woman at the second desk eventually understands and starts googling. She can't seem to find anything. It's getting late and raining harder. We have no idea where we are or where we could possibly stay. We decide the best idea is to take one more train to get us closer to the water to where we THINK the ship will be. None of the info people seemed to know this port, even though we have a sheet that says it both in English and Japanese characters. Wonderful. We realize it's almost 2000. Most hotels in Japan won't book a room or take a reservation after 2000 for whatever reason. We have no idea where to go, but decide something must be near the port. Also, we need to we can afford a room, as some are really expensive. We get tickets to head to Sanninomya. As we're waiting for the train, a young man comes up to us, looks at all of us, yells something to his friends and they all crack up. Wonderful. Now we know we need to get a hotel. We can't wander around all night for free without a boy. And we left JD with Shannon and Sam.

At Sannonomya we get off, the Port Line is here, which we'll take to get to the Port Terminal. So we think. We gte out of station and it's well lit and active. So we don't mind walking around, but we have zero clue as to where to go. We ask a delivery man by a truck if he knew of any nearby hotels. He struggled to understand us and after a few minutes pointed to the tall buildings around us. Duh. We thanked him and ran off for fear they might stop taking reservations at 2000. The first building---OPA---was not a hotel, or at least we couldn't figure out what the signs said at the elevator. Then we saw a huge building that said "Terminal Hotel." It was 1957. We can in and got in the elevator to the reception desk on the 4th floor. This hotel was actually connected to the metro and we'd walked in a circle to get there. It was 202 yen/night. The guy told us we could only have 2 people per room. Being clever, somewhat, we had Tania and Nic go downstairs while we got one room and they could sneak back in. Either the guy was really oblivious or just didn't care. We got the key to 609, put our stuff down in the one bed room and went downstairs to get them. We brought them back upstairs to drop their stuff off so we could go eat.

We ventured out into the lit streets of Kobe. We stopped at a little dessert cafe. It turned out to be much bigger than we thought with a lower level. We ordered, sandwiches, toast, dessert, and tea. It was all much better than we'd anticipated. Post dinner we made it back to the hotel and got ready for the next day. 4 of us had to share the one bed. Haha. Just like spooning bananas. It was only a queen sized bed. We were so crammed and we didn't get to sleep til late. I don't think I got more than 2 hours of sleep.