May 31 The Last Day

It’s time to make the most of the last day of the trip and that means shopping, food, more shopping, and more food.  After breakfast we split up into groups and hit the streets of Osaka.  My group headed to the Nipponbashi shopping district, home to some of the most nerdy shops around.  We were on mission. First we headed to the figurine shops (and spent waaaaay too much money).   

I stopped by a used bookstore and bought some manga to take home (neeerrrrrrrd!!!!!).  After a quick lunch at a café it was time to head to a massive department store called Tokyu Hands.   Tokyu Hands = 8 floors of awesome.  The first seven floors contain mostly household or daily use items (so many chopsticks to choose from! @_@).   Seriously though, I spent about 2 hours just browsing.  Then I bought myself a much needed computer bag and moved on to the final floor. The 8^th floor contains the big finale: an arts and crafts store!  Just what I needed.  After staring rather longingly at the giant set of copic markers, I finally found jewelry making tools.  Now you may be wondering why I had been looking for those and the answer to your unspoken inquiry is that at the start of the trip, after we exchanged our US dollars for Yen, I decided that five Yen pieces would make excellent necklace charms.  And so I set out to find latches, links and ties.  Mission accomplished!  I can’t wait to work on them when I get home!

Shopping was a success and it was time to meet up with the rest of the crew to have our final group dinner.  Tonight we were going native and traveling to a different restaurant for each course.  First course = sushi.  The sushi restaurant we chose to invade seemed to place high priority on freshness (made apparent by the large tank of live fish in the front of the establishment.  And it is hard to pace yourself when the food is that good. >_< The second stop was for takoyaki and we did this one street food style. Ah yea, great food at scalding temperatures with a singing octopus overhead. Wait! What? A singing octopus?! 0_0 Yes, there was a giant singing octopus singing about takoyaki to the tune of the Hallelujah Chorus overtop the stand we stopped at.  Bizzare.

Our third stop took a little searching to locate.  The small local restaurant had been highly recommended to us by a bar tender from what was claimed to be that smallest bar in the world.  Struggling with the lack of pictures or English menus was undoubtedly worth the incredible food.  Yakitori, tempora, duck, tofu salad and ginger ale . . . . .  “KAMPAI!!!!”. We were all so full but we had one more stop to make.  It was time for dessert.  We went to a sweets shop called Zing that we had visited earlier in the trip and, after we were all reminded that Hannah had turned 20 on the first day, decided that birthday cake and soft serve ice-cream would be a perfect end to our food expedition.  Jesse then proceeded to fulfill another Osakan tradition: eat until you’re sick.

May 30_ Back to FOOOOOOD!

 

We left Okayama bidding farewell to our amazingly warm, delishus Western breakfast (mmmm french toast…). On our way to the Shin Kan Sen, a high-speed bullet train, we picked up some bento boxes for lunch. We got on the train, opened our bento boxes and then ate our emoticon mochi (immediately after).

We arrived in Osaka, stopped by a grocery store (we spent $40 USD on delishus grapes!) and then checked into our hotel. Then fab five headed to the Osaka aquarium. Thankfully, we didn't get blown away from the epic winds from Songda (Jesse says its a possibility that it was the typhoon or it may have just been the ocean). The aquarium was really well designed, as a side note the Tennessee aquarium was designed by the same architect. The circulation was really awesome because it was basically a ramp that brought you down to bottom of largest tanks allowing a constant change in the viewers perspectives. the biggest fish there was the whale shark (Amanda brought one home and it even squeaks! Yup, whale sharks squeak. I bet you didn't know that.).

During the dolphin feeding show, one of the dolphins decided to take a large poop right in front of Rochelle (apparently, she thought it was interesting…Jesse and Amanda disagreed). About midway through the aquarium, we decided to get a snack. While we ate our snacks, we were enjoying our view of the harbor when suddenly people on bikes came flying by (almost literally, the wind was really strong). We finally left the aquarium after three and a half hours of non-stop awesomeness and headed back to the hotel. We finished our day with our ridiculous grocery dinner (aka expensive fruit).

Sayonara,

Rochelle, Amanda and Jesse

May 29 - Typhoon Songda!

            Today was intended for a trip to Inujima Island to see contemporary art installations located in abandoned industrial sites. The group was looking forward to the ferry ride and a biking adventure. We had also hoped for a break in the rainy weather and to see and feel some sunshine. However, a typhoon impacting our area cancelled our plans. (Safety comes first!)

           Although we were bummed out about having to stay indoors with gloomy weather everyone made the best of it. Another day of rest, drying out our soggy shoes (Hannah learned they dry out faster if you stuff newspaper in them to absorb the moisture), catching up on assignments, and contacting family and friends is always good. Many of us went shopping in Takashimaya and picked up lunch. Having a hotel connected to a train station with tons of shops and food is very convenient!

   The day ended with a group dinner out at a Japanese restaurant. We all were given 1500 yen to spend. It is amazing how much food we receive and even more astonishing how every time we manage to clean our plates and still have room for dessert! Our table was filled with edamame, octopus, eel, salmon sashimi, eggplant casserole, dumplings, steak, chicken wings, squid, salads, and spring rolls of sorts. After a delicious dinner, seated around an ambient-lit private table in a Japanese environment, we left for some soft serve ice cream. We found an open soft serve shop at the train station and enjoyed the single mystery flavor they served. It was rich, creamy, a little nutty and doubled as a lip moisturizer. What ever the case may be, it will forever be known as Jergens to the 2011 Japanese Tour Crew.

Sayonara,

Piper, Bernice, and Hannah

May 28 - More Adventures in the rain.

Well, we found out that the rainy season in Japan has officially begun, and were caught in the middle of it. It's nothing that will stop us from trekking around Okayama, however. 

 

Our first stop was at Okayama Castle. While not as large as the last one, it wasn't in a box, which was nice to see. Upon entering we explored a little, looked out over the scenerty and played with some of the feudal time toys, and then discovered something wonderful. There was a dress-up area where a lady would outfit you with period clothing to look like the lords and ladys of the time. We had to try it. And the results were amazing. 

We grabbed some Japanese Italian cuisine which was more Japanese than Italian and then moved on to the museum which had wonderful screen paintings which weren't allowed to be photographed. There was even a screen painting which had the charted "known world" on it. The Philippines were noted on the map, but no Australia.  

Next we went to the Okayama gardens. These gardens are in the top 5 of Japan, and let me tell you, they were spectacular. We saw giant lilly pads, large groves of cherry trees (not in bloom *sad face*) and rows of tea plants. We awed by the scenery.  

After our feet grew weary we decided to take a break and feed the coy fish, which was an adventure in itself. Click HERE to watch the video.

Seeing how it was Avigail's last day with us, we decided to buy her a gift. As we were wandering around the city we found this awesome pottery shop with handmade dishes. We found this wonderful tray and decided that this was the gift for her.

Click  HERE for a bonous clip of some singers we found in the subway.

Tonight we have planned to watch Spirited Away while dining on a course of Japanese food prepared by the students!

Only a few more days left!!!

May 27_"Friday, Friday, gettin' down on Friday..."

"7 AM wakin' up in the morning," had to get down to breakfast where we had a choice between Western or traditional Japanese food (soggy, cold food organized in a nine-square of death). Rochelle was asked by a hotel employee if she was in fact Asian (because she looked so Asian). "Had to get down to the bus stop" We made our way to a sky car (fyi Amanda is afraid of balloons and sky cars), grabbed some walking sticks ("which walking stick can i take?") and found out that we were hiking up the new and improved Women's Pilgrimage Trail part 2(too bad you didn't get to read our version of part 1). This trail was much more gracious and filled with buddhas and viewpoints to the city. 

 

Once we made it to the overlook to the city, we finally realized that we were still in Himeji (we spotted the Castle in the box). We arrived at the main temple complex where some of the Last Samurai was filmed (starring Rochelle and Bernice, check out Facebook if you get a chance). 

 

Finally, it was FOOOOOOD time! We all had a bowl of vegetarian (aka algae) udon soup, it was DELISHUS especially with the added spices. Afterwards, we enjoyed an ice cream cone (for Jesse and Amanda this was their second) and headed back to the city. We grabbed our luggage and headed to Okayama (Okasa to Rochelle who managed to rearrange the letters in Osaka to create a new city she claims that it may exist). On the long ride there, Rochelle and Bernice of course fell asleep, while Jesse, Amanda, and Alicia were surrounded by school children who were singing Hanshin Tigers chants in response to Jesse's hat. 

Upon arrival in Okayama, it was raining (apparently it's the rainy season), and we managed to get lost on our way to the hotel (fyi it was attached to the train station we were at). Once we settled into the massive Western styled rooms, decided to get dinner (Takashimaya part 2). The meal comprised of springrolls, edimame, seafood fried rice, "white meat" balls (they were actually fish, we'll we think), pot stickers, soba, tuna sashimi (but for Jesse and Rochelle, they had to add chicken curry with rice….well maybe chicken?) and 10 Belgium waffles. "Tomorrow is Saturday, and Sunday comes afterwoooords, I don't want this weekend to end (we don't want this trip to end).

Sayonara,

Rochelle, Amanda, Jesse and Rebecca Black