Sunday August 17, 1997: Osaka and Kobe
Ryokuchi Koen (Ryokuchi Park): 8:45am
Right now I'm sitting in Ryokuchi Koen, and there are these 2 guys who came up to me about half an hour ago and introduced themselves - they're maybe 50 years old or so. Then, they started to sing traditional Japanese songs, called Shijin (that's what the guy said). I mean, really singing loud, one at a time. One stands up and announces the song. Then the other gets up and walks so he's facing the park (so his back towards the bench where I'm sitting) and sings one song, really loud. Then they switch. The songs are kind of strange - they remind me of muslim prayers (the stuff coming out of mosques 5 times a day). Supposedly these songs originate from China, a long long time ago. Now I must leave -- off to tour Osaka.. I haven't figured out WHAT to do yet though...
Kobe - sitting in a McD's: 4pm
Well, I figured that I'd just go over to this park called Nakanoshima Park, because I'd read somewhere that it was the main attraction of Osaka. So I get there... and well, to be honest, it's not that nice of a park. I mean, it's OK, but I definitely wouldn't call it Osaka's main attraction. But hey, it was a nice stroll, nd I was heading that direction anyways to get to Osaka-jo, or Osaka Castle. Yes, another castle. But castles are so cool! And this one was especially neat - the moat was extra high and the main building extra tall. Oh, and in the castle wall there's this stone that has a surface area on one face of 48 metres squared!! Wow, that's HUGE! It weighs many tons, but I can't remember the exact number. It suffices to say it's very heavy though.
So I didn't go into the actual castly because (a) I figured I'd probably have to dish out some money, and (b) it's actually a 1959 reconstruction of the original castle, so I just wanted to get an idea for what it looked like.
From there I walked through Osaka-jo Park which was really great! It's huge! And there were rock bands playing. I stopped for awhile and listened to them play. Pretty good stuff. Then I went to the train station and exchanged my 9pm ticket home for a 5pm ticket home (from Nagoya, tomorrow). Then, I extended my Shinkansen ticket ride to start from Kyoto instead of Nagoya just because I didn't want to spend 3 hours switching trains like I had on my way here. And I figured just THAT would be worth a little more money... then I found out hte price. 500 yen ($6). That's IT. I have *no clue* why it was that cheap, but it sure beats the Y4,500 ($50) I paid on my way over! Argh!! Anyways, that was really pleasant news, to say the least.
So once I'd done that stuff, it was about noon, so I took the train to Kobe (having seen all that's of interest in Osaka). I'd been told to not even boterh with going to Kobe because since the earthquake destroyed pretty much everything interesting... oh yeah, and I completely forgot what station Hidaka-san had told me to get off at (he'd given me advice) so I just went straight to the Kobe station since that seemed like a good bet. After about 15 mins in the train I started to notice that most of the buildings had huge cracks in them or ahd been plastered over. Hmm.. scary.
The train ride took me half an hour, and I found myself in Kobe, a port town right at the foot of green mountains, with no map, no information, no clue. I remembered that I'd heard there was a good Chinatown in Kobe - and I love Chinatowns - but how on earth was I going to find it?!? Finally I managed to find an information booth where I picked up a map... and so I headed out to take on Kobe!
Wow, and this is a cool place! There are lots of European-styled old buildings... and just loads of foreign things. I mean, the station exit passed through a food court. At first, I though nothing of it... but then I realize - a food court?!? That's the very first food court *I've* seen in Japan!! Then, in this food court there was a McD's (ok, that's not uncommon), a KFC (getting a bit odd), a Subway (I've only seen ONE other Subway in Japan), and ... a TCBY!! Wow! TCBY!! That's even a Canadian chain! Ok, I was impressed. Not like any of these places are in my budget.. so I kept on walking.
Soon I was walking along the harbour - which is really nice. But I got sidetracked because I saw a sign for an L.L.Bean, and had to check it out. I've been wanting a new knapsack you know,, and I've never seen an L.L.Bean in Japan before...
I ended up just taking a quick peek. As I walked through the "Old Settlement" part of Kobe, I found more and more foreign shops, like Prada (!!), Gucci, Country Road, etc etc. And I did a very Japanese thing... I saw a stream of people heading in one direction and figured they must be going *somewhere* cool and followed... sure enough, they led me straight to this outdoor street mall. And that's when I caught site of the sign... "Second Hand Clothes". Yes! Not really!! So I went into the store to find that it was like any 2nd hand store in Canada, but better quality... and much (much) higher prices. Ah well, at least I checked it out. Actually, the whole area was full of 2nd hand places and funky shops... I even got fitted for a yukkata completely!
Then, I stumbled across Chinatown! Coolness - there were just tons of people (these street malls are only open to pedestrians) and tons of food stalls and tons of shops... I love it! I walked down the whole lenght of it... oh, it's called Nankin machi (South Capital City), not your usual "Chinatown".
Now I'm sitting in a McD's along the mall. Just taking a short break from all the walking. I've just been joined by about 8 18-year old school guys, up, time to go!
Osaka Youth Hostel: 8:30pm
Well I just spent an hour and a half talking to 2 American Mormon missionaries!! Yeah, I was sitting in Ryokuchi Koen (Ryokuchi Park - the big park where the youth hostel is located) when I hear "Sumimasen.. eigo o shaberareru?" ("Excuse me, can you speak English?") in some funny sounding Japanese accent. I was reading actually, so I hadn't seen the guy walk up. When I look to see who was talking to me, to my surprise it's a 20 year old American, in dress pants, shirt and tie! Anyways, he tells me that he's here in Japan for 2 years as a missionary... when I asked him where he was from he said "America". Ya gotta love that...
So his friend came over too and they told me what they were up to. Brandon (the first one) is a 20 year old from Utah who came to Japan 8 months ago, and Dakota (the friend) is a 21 year old from Oklahoma who's been here for about a year and a half. Now I must admit that I was a bit skeptical at first - I mean, I am definitely NOT the religious type. But actually, they weren't trying to press their religion on me at all - they were just chatting. It was great! They were both really nice. Dakota explained to me why he wanted to be a missionary - and Brandon agreed with every word... they just want to tell their story of happiness. Hmm, they were quite good about it all. Anyways, neither of them spoke Japanese before they came out here, and their job is basically to go out and talk to people. Hence they both seemed to be getting along quite nicely in Japanese. BUt man, they have to wear shirts and ties! Not that THEY were complaining at all, but in this heat, I woulda been!
I think it's really incredible how many neat people I've met on this trip! I've realized that the main reason I *have* met so many people is because in this area of Japna I stand out. Just because I am gaijin, and because I am female. In Tokyo I never get a second glance - no one's just going to come up to me and ask where I'm from just because I'm not Japanese. Well, in this area, people do! It's really g reat for a holiday but I wouldn't get much done if this happened to me everyday!
Well, since I only got about 6 hours of sleep last nigh, I am officially pooped. I think I'll actually go to sleep soon. Yeah, it seems that in this hostel it is impossible to sleep past 6:30, as I found out this morning... everyone who's up makes tons of noise. This didn't happen in the other hostels... ah well. I kinduv wanna get up early tomorrow anyways so that I can get to Kyoto while it's still cool.