May 15_ Departure from Koyasan/Arrival in Osaka

 

Woke up in the morning' (feelin' like P. Diddy, oh Kesha..). We mediated with others staying at the monastery. It was a really different experience from the last mediation session because a lot of the people were encouraging us to take part (although, Jesse messed up and is probably going to Buddhist hell, wait, is there a Buddhist hell??). Once again, Rochelle was mistaken as being Japanese. After meditation, we went to the Woodland cemetery of Japan and took epic pictures, played Where's Waldo (aka Jesse) and guessed what kind of ethnicity the asians we saw were (of course Rochelle won but Jesse did alright, absolutely no contest with Amanda). We finally left Koyasan (Sayonara, "soggy" Buddhist vegetarian meals =) ). 

 

After a four hour train ride, we arrived in Osaka (FOOOOOOD!!!! CAPITAL OF JAPAN). On our walk to the hotel, David pointed out our landmark, a GIANT moving crab! We all gathered to watch Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations episode on Japan highlighting Osaka's food district while gorging ourselves with snacks such as dried squid, dried fish, edamame chips, candy, koalas, soy snacks and more delicious snacks (Japanese people love the word DELISHUS [note: say it really fast]). Afterwards, a few of us decided to pre-explore the food district and we met this really awesome girl name Edigo. She made us promise her that we would eat at her restaurant and her selling point was that they served alcohol "very strong" (yes, we just got stereotyped). All of us felt really out of place because we didn't look like dolls (google image doll eye contacts please [disclaimer: we haven't actually done that, so be careful] ). We met up with the rest of the group, then broke up into small groups. We made our way back to the main food street and ate takoyaki (octopus balls, DELISHUS!). Then we found Edigo! She was so happy to see us she almost cried (for real). Bernice asked why she was so surprised to see us and if people don't usually keep their promises…Edigo replied, "Uhhh no, most of the time no". We ordered sashimi and our server was named Justin. During our long wait, we figured out Justin's life story (born in US, half Japanese and his mother is Japanese?) More FOOOOOOD specifically octopus balls. We were attracted to this specific stand because there was a dancing worker singing to New York by Alicia Keyes (he was also a fan of Elvis). 

Then it was dessert time (apparently we all have multiple stomachs), we found this really awesome bakery that had different flavored custard pastries. A couple of Japanese dolls helped us decide which ones to get by pointing and giggling (ask Jesse to reinact the ….squealing??"). We met back up with the rest of the group learned about the true nature of  love hotels (they're actually about love and not adultery), shared stories and learned about Avigail's "sexy bartender." Then we drifted off into a lovely FOOOOOOD coma. 

Sayonara!

Rochelle, Amanda and Jesse