Kampai Osaka!

My trip to Osaka started out extremely slowly but finished with a lot of fun. This Blogs going to be a bit long, sorry.

I originally only booked to stay in Osaka to get my visa and travel plans in order for china and Korea. I was 99.9% sure before I left Australia that I read, I could get my visa to China over the Internet, however it turns out now, but alas i did some reading along the way and i was lucky i did, as I could only get it here in japan and not Korea my next stop. The guide on: http://perrin3.com/japan/china-consulate-osaka/ was super helpful in the end.

In japan if you are a tourist, you need to keep your passport on you 100% of the time or a alien card. So having to hand my passport to the Chinese consulate was a bit of a sticky situation for me. Never the less i got my visa so China here i come.

Now onto more interesting things... lol.

I visited Universal studios one of my days in Osaka, it was "interesting". I'm defiantly grown to old to go to theme parks, it was fun but expansive on the large scale of things.

Got a picture with JAW's, got completely wet on the Jurassic park ride (much to the amusement of the locals, so glad my camera is waterproof), and laughed at jokes i could not understand on the Terminator 3D "thingy".... yeah "thingy" it was 1/2 way between a 3D movie and a theater production with actors. Very cool to watch.

Also went into the woody the woodpecker ride, again it was a theatre production but in front of the actors was a panel of glass, that they projected the anime onto and the actors interacted with this. It was funny and very cool to see.

When I was leaving I walked past a street show of a lady and a monkey. She was making the monkey do tricks, one of which was to walk of stilts that were at first only 10cm off the ground then the next set was 1meter plus... very impressive.

That night I was sick and tired of eating noodles or stuff rapped in seaweed, so I cooked my own dinner. It had potatoes. Was sooooo good, i couldn't wait for it to cook, the hostel only had a single hot plate, so i had it took a eternity to cook. I ate all the snow peas before they hit the water :( I love snow peas. I downloaded a few movies as well and had a good night in.

The following day again I did the tourist thing and went to Osaka castle, very very cool to see. They have built a museum inside the castle, and you can climb all the way to the top of the castle.

The outer walls are all made from stones crafted 1000s of years ago by noble families in the region at the time and each stone was stamped with the family mark, weight and balance point. then all collected and made 2 motes, and a central castle.

The castle had several turrets and bridges, some of the stones were 10+ meters and some 100+ tonnes so god knows how they moved all those stones, but it was a mighty impressive task.


I had just gotten my passport back from the consulate that morning so that evening I headed out on the town with a fellow Aussie from the hostel, we ended up in a Irish pub that was recommended to us by the hostel. It was "french night" in a Irish pub in Japan. Awesome mix lol!! They had all you could drink for $20 till 10pm, and it was 8pm... hell yeah!

I only know 3 words in Japanese, hello, excuse me, and cheers (Kampai). So with a stamp on our hands we proceeded to have a great night in the pub, every person that got a drink I would promptly say Kampai! It became somewhat a sport fairly quickly and the people in the bar loved it. Then came some free finger food that was placed right on the counter next to the 2 of us, and people looked a bit scared to try it... but hey "its ok, he runs the bar, and i made it" said Emmet. The bar tender was having a hell of a time with the "happy hours" as well she was getting a bit tired so, raising my glass to her I said "Have a drink!" in my Australian accent. Its not like you couldn't pick the 2 Ozzie's from the crowd.

The happy hour ended and we went looking for a club to finish the night on, we past a "guy" and old lady dressed up and just had to ask for photo op's. Some locals agreed to take us to a "happening place" and 30 min of walking later, we were back at a empty Irish pub that we left the hour before... thanks!
We made the last train home before they stopped at 12, by minutes, quite a work out.

The next day with my sunnies on I headed to Nara, it was only 45 min out of Osaka and has japan's largest Buddha and oldest Buddhist temples in Japan.
When i hopped of the train there was a tourist guide into station and a older lady standing there with a flag, she asked me if i wanted a guided tour for $20~ to all the major sights. that was cheap and i really didn't feel like walking for 5 hours in random locations. So asking when it started she replied "now", "its a personal tour, and takes about 3~4 hours depending on how fast you like to walk".

We started of at the Shinto shrine called "Kasuga-Taisha", its symbolic of the region and world heritage listed. Its symbolic because its where there are 1000's of lanterns and where the deity of the deer started which is now the symbol of Nara. The guide showed me how method of how they prey in the temples and pay there respects, its was truly very interesting.

From here we moved on the the Tōdai-ji Temple, otherwise known as the Great Buddha Hall of japan. A massive structure that houses a 15 meter tall, 500~ Tonnes Buddha statue, the building is specially built with a window directly in front of the face of the Buddha so on August nights when festivals are on, the monks can open the windows and let Buddha watch the festival. Very cool ;)

The Building is also a museum of types, showing how the Buddha was cast and the differences in the buildings over the years.

The rest of the tour was some other temples and explanation of the pagoda houses in the towns history.

That night again the Aussies headed out to the town this time joined by a fellow back packer, and we headed up the Irish pub again. Sadly it wasn't as active as the night before and no happy hour. *mega sad face* Special note: The pub manager was a french guy, who at last count spoke 6 languages and was extremely entertaining. Even recommended other locations to go as it was quiet in the pub.

There was a bunch of America's in the pub this night though so it was still entertaining, we met a few local ladies who shared our enjoyment for a good night out, and we stayed till closing then followed the bar tender at his recommendation to a club where the festivities continued, well into the night....

Again being myself, Kampai everyone!

The next morning I hadn't slept and I had a bullet train to catch. Im now back in Tokyo finishing off my trip, this Wednesday I leave Japan for Korea.

Peace Japan!

p.s Marcus I still haven't found out the fascination with the hand signs, but its completely addictive, guess you have to visit Japan to find out for yourself :-)