Osaka Kyoto GO!

At 9 pm on Thursday night Jon-O and I boarded the night bus to Osaka, our would-be home for the next 10 hours. It was miraculously comfortable with legroom that put most airplanes to shame. We arrived at 7am Friday and set right to work finding a place to stay. After consulting Lonely Planet we decided, with many doubts and hesitations, to stay in a capsule hotel for the night. For those who don’t know, a capsule hotel is exactly what it sounds like. You are given a capsule that has about enough space to sit up in, fitted with almost all the modern hotel requirements (TV, AC, night light, alarm clock, and radio). These spacious sleeping cells are stacked two high and in our hotel’s case they fill four floors. So with sleeping taken care of we set off to tour around Osaka (second largest city in Japan). We boarded the subway system and without any complications found our way to The Osaka Aquarium. This nicely organized and stunningly clean establishment boasts one of the world's few captive whale sharks, a huge manta ray, not to mention dozens of otherworldly denizens of the deep. The whale shark was stunningly large without a doubt, but as whale sharks go he is small. He keeps a slow meandering pace, circling his huge enclosure being continuously followed by a cloud of darting and dashing, silver and gold fish. While this is going on the elegant and admittedly more impressive manta ray is flying through the water in rollercoaster loops and cartwheels. These two giants are in an enormous central tank that spans four floors. All the other attractions sprout off from this huge tank. The most photogenic creatures where the apathetic jellyfish floating in their neon tanks without care about the bad imitation Christmas music that was creeping through the sound system. We stayed in the aquarium for about three and a half to four hours photographing and staring in awe at the creatures from a world we may never truly know.

After a nice Chinese lunch we headed across town and started towards the outside Osaka traditional farmhouse museum. This naturally sounds....... well. . . boring. I have been to many a great museum and I had my doubts about what this museum’s entertainment value would be. It blew me away. The houses are wonders of human early creation. The sun started to set and the leaves, bamboo, and houses seemed to just sing out in twelve-part harmony TAKE MY PICTURE! And pictures were taken. There were twelve traditional houses (all originals not recreations) taken from all over Japan. Being somewhat tired from our travels thus far Jon-O and I found a nice patch of grass on a hill beside a traditional Kabuki theater and ate some snacks while discussing international politics and how we missed big breakfasts. Then after thanking the museum staff we headed back to the subway system to accomplish the true purpose of the trip. For those of you that don’t know my dear friend, Andrea goes to Wooster just like me and is a major in Sociology. She has spent all semester studying at Kansai, a huge international school in Naga, Japan (somewhere inbetween Osaka and Kyoto). Her boyfriend and good friend of mine, Corey, is also studying there. These two are definitively, a joy. We decided to meet each other while in Japan, and I must say the feelings of excitement that welled up within me while spinning around in Shinsabashi station like a watch dog looking for that one familiar face in a country filled with such unfamiliar things is quite the experience. However, it pales in comparison to actually finding and vigorously hugging that loved face. I haven’t had a proper hug since my arrival in Japan, and damn does it feel good. After many hugs, how are yous, and happy smiles we dashed off to all you can eat pizza. The good company made Japan’s attempt at pizza taste closer to the real thing, and the night drifted on with many stores to tell.

The next day, after a nice night in a comfy capsule, started poorly and ended even more poorly. We were supposed to get to Kyoto and find a place for Jon-O, Andrea, Corey, and me to stay. Nowhere had any affordable openings. We liked the capsules so much we just decided to go back. So after a huge and nice lunch of Dimsum (Chinese food) the four of us headed out to see the fabled temples of Kyoto. Unfortunately rain and hordes of tourists followed, as did getting lost and high winds. We eventually found a nice small temple dedicated to famous Japanese Magicians and a small neighborhood temple. Then the rain picked up a little and we took shelter in a itty-bitty coffee shop where I drank hot cocoa and exchanged more stories. Home to Osaka, capsule pass out, up for breakfast (rice, meat, and raw egg) and back to Kyoto. Sunday was incredibly successful. We started the day off with a small shrine that was connected to a mountain top monkey park! After a twenty-minute hike up a very beautiful red and orange themed forest walk we reached the top. Here hoards of monkeys ran amongst the humans clearly showing their control of the situation. There were park hands with brooms that walked around poking at the more aggressive primates, but it seemed to do little more than agitate them more. Though intimidating, these creatures were remarkably cute, and the views of Kyoto were incredible.

Quick lunch and a riverside walk later we found ourselves in a bamboo forest with light filtering through the tops of the trees like tiny spotlights. Lonely Planet suggested getting out of Kyoto to the more rural communities and temples so we went to a beautiful neighborhood and found a huge wonderful temple. In the height of the leaf season, I walked amongst trees ablaze with red and yellow and thought of the spirits that this temple was surly meant to pay homage to. These temples are all across Japan, but this little gem hidden away in Northern Kyoto drove their purpose home. Then after a bit more neighborhood wandering the four of us boarded the subway for a final time. We said our goodbyes all too quickly on a train, and I must say it hurt as bad as it always does. When you leave the company of those you are most comfortable with it feels like a part of you is missing. So with a heavy heart I gave Andrea and Corey each a quick hug that betrayed exactly how little I liked seeing them go, and watched them quickly disappear from sight. (A note to them if and when they read this. THANK YOU BOTH SOOOOO MUCH! What memories we created, and what sights we’ve seen. I’m so glad I got to share them with you. Thank you, thank you.) Jon-O and I then jumped back onto the night bus and rode back to Nagasaki for Monday classes, smelling only slightly stinky from all night travel. I also want to take just a moment to thank Jon-O for being my travel buddy, good friend, British travel connection, fellow bar philosopher and Japanese interpreter. I wish my friends back home could meet him. He’s 6 feet 5 inches of great “proper fun”.

This whole trip was remarkable, and showed me that you’ll never ever see it all. Kyoto has so SO much more to offer than I got to see. I have a sneaking suspicion that I’ll be saying that about Japan in two weeks when I bid it farewell. Until next time.