Dear All,
Wow, the blog is back. I can't believe that a whole year has gone by since we arrived home! And it only took us a year to find a new adventure...although a much shorter adventure this time. Mum, Dad, Dan and I are spending 2 weeks in Osaka, Kyoto and Hiroshima.
Saturday morning began way to early...at 3am..ergh. We originally were leaving sunday morning but Jetstar redirectedd our flight through tokyo which we werent happy with because we didnt want to go to Tokyo and the extra stop meant we got into Osaka at 11pm which is too late for all the transport between the airport and the city. So we swapped to the saturday flight. Melbourne to Goldcoast to Osaka. Thankyou dearest brother for the lift to the airport :) Mum and I were excited about the flight whilst Dad was asleep before the plane even took off. The flight was almost full and I spent most of the time still in teaching mode, thinking about school and lessons and the kids..its not till now on Monday morning that it really has sunk in that I have 2 weeks of holidays to NOT think about school and just relax and enjoy the break.
Our initial welcome to Osaka was to be fingerprinted and our photos taken at the customs desk..not sure why but it meant that it took us forever to go through customs because the technology was a little dodgy and strange beeping alarms kept going off.
We met kimiko and yasuji Hisanaga (my host family from Osaka) at the airport. Kimiko was so excited and their were hugs all around. We arrived at 6.10pm but by the time we got out of the airport it was almost 7 and had got dark. We caught the bus to Osaka and found our lovely hotel very close to the centre of Namba (a huge eating, drinking, shopping, socialising centre of osaka). The hotel is lovely and were staying on the 26th floor so have a lovely view of the city. Dads had fun testing out our hightech toilet seats..pressing all the buttons with a range of spurting, squirting, deodorising and seat warming effects..
For dinner saturday night we went out with kimiko and yasuji for Okonomiyaki...Laura, we paid careful attention so we can make it in Australia! Okonomiyaki is a pancake, made with lots of cabbage, egg, bacon and then all cooked on a hot plate in the table. It was delicious and lovely to spend the time catching up with Kimiko and Yasuji. My japanese is slowly coming back and we got by with a mix of japanese, english and dictionaries.
Slept like logs on Saturday night.
Sunday morning we wandered to supermarket under the hotel to find breakfast. Ended up wandering the supermarket aisles for too long and dad got grumpy so we found some tasty riceballs for breakfast and ate them back at the hotel. From the hotel we walked to the subway station along the underground namba walk which is lined with shops and restaurants. The plastic food, tiny restaurants, odd shops and pachinko halls were all new and interesting for mum and dad. Pachinko especially, even I dont understand why playing a machine where you feed ball bearings in through a kind of pinball machine setup could be fun. Its crazy noisy and definitely not fun. Stopped for curry udon (thick noodles) which were delicious but messy..mum wore half of the sauce. Dan and dad loved it because they could slurp all they liked and mum couldnt tell to them to stop because its rude NOT to slurp..hehehe.
We caught the subway to Kitahama, only 15 minutes away and met up with kimiko and a group of ladies from her local neighbourhood. They had all been for lunch and we joined them to go and see the cherry blossoms along the river. Although I must have translated only half the message because before we went to see the blossoms we stopped at an art gallery to see an artshow...an erotic artshow...all i could think of was "why is theis group of upperclass, very classy sophisticated women going to see an erotic artshow?" I still dont really know the answer to that questions. The small gallery space was full of wire sculptures of various women parts. Lol, who can say they've been to an erotic artshow in osaka?
From the artshow we walked to the river to see the cherry blossoms. We were so lucky..as the Japanese keep telling us "Rucky, Rucky!" because we made it just in time to see the blossoms in their peak. The blossoms will last only a week or so and their peak only 3 or 4 days. RUCKY!! The walkways were lined with trees and each tree covered in pink blossoms. They were gorgeous and the atmosphere was amazing. Under the trees are families and friends celebrating with picnics, parties and beer. Everyone was cheerful and having a great time. We ended up at Osaka Castle where we had our own cherry blossoms party under the trees with delicious food; sushi, fried chicken, squid chips, salads, rice crackers, croquets and lots of other delicious goods. The Castle was lit up at night and made for some amazing photos.
We only just made it back to the hotel..we walked all day and my feet were telling me the same thing! We're in Osaka till thursday and have plenty of other places to explore...Will keep you updated :)
Much love,
Jess...and Mandy, Steve and Dan oxo
