OSAKA! Part 1

I know I haven’t finished my JLH Conference report yet, but I had to write about my recent trip to Osaka! It was awesome and I had such a great time, especially spending time with some great friends on Sunday.

As many of you know, I’m in the United States Navy, stationed in Atsugi, Kanagawa, Japan. After the final awesome session of the conference (which I’ll write about later), I had to rush back to the base and work all night. It was a bit of a rough night, but I managed through it. Afterwards, with absolutely no sleep at all, I went home, changed out of my uniform, packed up a change of clothes, my camera, and my laptop into my backpack, and started walking toward the train station. And so began my journey to Osaka!

Basically, the route from the nearest train station (Sagamino Station on the Odakyu Line) to Shin-Osaka station goes like this: Sagamino to Yokohama to Shin-Yokohama to Shin-Osaka, in all about a three-hour trip if you utilize the Shinkansen. After taking a few pictures of the countryside on the way out of the Yokohama area, I settled in for a much-needed nap, and those seats are COMFORTABLE! The only thing that would make the seats more comfortable is if they were recliners with a built-in footrest.

Shortly before the train stopped in Nagoya, which is about the half-way point, I woke up and actually felt pretty-well rested. I was glad that I woke up when I did because I was able to take some great pictures of the hills around the area for the rest of the train ride. It has been so long since I got to be anywhere close to the mountains, and I’d never actually seen people working in the rice fields! So cool!

Upon arrival at Shin-Osaka station, I was still tired enough that I was moving pretty slowly, but I was fortunate enough not to have a difficult time finding the Hotel Chuo Oasis, thanks to couple of very friendly people. One thing that I found surprising about the small hotels in Osaka is that the check-in time is SO EARLY! Most of the hotels and hostels in Tokyo don’t allow check-in until at least three or four in the afternoon, but in Osaka most of the places said that check-ins were allowed as early as 9 AM! I was amazed, as well as grateful that I could go to bed shortly before noon.

That evening, I decided to go out on the town for a few hours. Thankfully, the subway line that connected me from Shin-Osaka to the station near my hotel was also connected to a station near Hard Rock Café Osaka. I have a thing for collecting Hard Rock Café teddy bears, and they’re starting to make themselves a nice den on my shelf! One of these days, I need to write a blog post that gives the stories of how I got them, especially the very first one I got in Hong Kong. You would think that with all the restaurants I go to and order pasta, I would get sick of it, but I never seem to! Blame my Italian bloodline, I guess. At Hard Rock Café, I got blackened chicken pasta -- absolutely yummy, and the waiter looked like a totally cool punk rocker! Of course, if I’d had any cool outreach cards for Osaka like the church in Tokyo has, I might’ve invited him to church. Oh well…

After dinner, I went to the Shinsaibashi area and just walked around. There was so much to just look at, even without buying anything! I was surprised that there were so many little shops and tiny restaurants in the little side-streets in the main shopping district. Of course, since Osaka is the third-largest city in Japan after Yokohama and Tokyo, it shouldn’t have been such a surprise. I love the Tokyo area, but if I was to get used to the general Osaka area, I don’t think I’d mind living there!

When I finally decided to go back to the hotel, I kind of got lost. I made it back to the right train station, but I went out the wrong exit! Instead of going out of exit 2 like I was supposed to, I went out of exit 9! So, I ended up walking around for about thirty minutes and finally asked a taxi driver to take me back there. Of course, I learned another difference between Tokyo and Osaka: taxi prices! When I first got to Japan, the prices for a taxi in the Ebina area were the same as they currently are in Osaka (about 660 Yen for 2 km).

Well, that’s it for now! More on JLH Conference and my trip to Osaka next time!