Good morning from tomorrow! Japan does not change time throughout the year, so now we are 13 hours ahead of Florida–it is Tuesday morning here.
Yesterday was Katie’s day off. Katie was sleeping in so I decided to find my next AirBnb, which I move to on March 24. Stupid, really, but locating it was causing me anxiety. The whole no-street-name is something I am not sure I would ever adjust to. In fact, the directions on AirBnb are obscure. The host can get you close by naming the train station, for example, but then they just show pictures of the front of the building–it drives me crazy. Even as you follow your map, it literally says “unnamed road” and your blue dot hovers weirdly over the area you are in. Finally though, I found a building that matched the picture of the next place–good grief. Then I found a much easier way back. Instead of being 2 blocks from Katie, I will be about 5. Stretching my wings, haha.
Walking on a new route, I saw this temple, which is near my current apartment. Arrow, in the background, is the casino of sorts; this is immediately next to my Life Grocery store with it’s orange shamrock symbol there under the Arrow sign. I just never noticed it sandwiched in between the parking area, store, and street.
Katie and I had considered many options for the day, but opted for staying in Osaka. Goodness knows I’ve still only seen a portion of it. And she and her coworkers are generally chronically exhausted, so we ruled out a day trip.
So we went to Orange Street. Don’t be fooled–it’s not a street name, it is an area. But the good news is that it does show up on a map, so you can get directions to the area. We walked a different route, but parallel to the route to Namba I had taken several times now. Again, this is always a great idea because you see new stuff. Even just being on the other side of Highway 25 (my favorite road because it has a name!), we saw again another temple, right on the main drag.
We saw some young men dressed in fancy silk robes, like big guys, maybe sumo wrestlers. There is a big tournament coming up so maybe they are here for that.
I noticed some fancy tall buildings and Katie said they were “Love Hotels.” The culture here is you can rent a clean, plush, fancy room for an hour or a night. It’s all very out in the open and important in Japanese culture. Katie has heard and I have read online that because homes are small and cramped and young people typically live at home, these inexpensive places provide needed privacy. They are so cheap that some people stay there just for the price, but 24 hours is the max.
On the way to Orange Street, we saw this cool looking building called Namba Hatch, which is apparently a music hall. It holds 1,500 people, so it’s bigger than it looks in this picture.
I’m not sure what to compare Orange Street to–maybe Greenwich Village. It’s kinda hipster, with cute restaurants and coffee shops, and is filled with vintage stores. The first one we went in was all high end bags and shoes–Chanel, Yves St. Laurent, Fendi, Versace–basically the brands I’ve never owned haha. Everything was displayed so lovingly, with colors grouped together and stacked cleverly on books. I realized the books were all in English–John Grisham, a biology textbook; it stuck me as funny, but I’m sure we do the same thing using Asian symbols! In fact one really pretty display was all in red, with gorgeous red bags selling for several thousands of dollars placed elegantly upon a stack of “Handyman’s Guidebooks” 🙂
We rummaged through a vintage store, this one more in our price range with the sale items 300 yen. One of Katie’s coworkers met us there and we went to lunch at Eggs & Things. Originally from Hawaii, they have all breakfast items and the best coffee I have had here so far! When we first sat down the waitress offered to take our picture.
We were there for a couple hours. There is no to-go food here if you don’t finish, so Katie and I split Eggs Benedict with spinach and bacon (ham, really) and chocolate chip pancakes. At the end of the table you can see the maple syrup, which was standard. I also tried the red, which was very flavorful strawberry. And the white, which looks like mayonnaise, was creamy coconut!
It is so amazing to talk to these young people! Clearly they all have the same sense of adventure, and each one comments on how much nerve the others have, even while what they are doing is equally incredible. Of the 4 I have met, 1 is from Atlanta, 1 from NYC, 1 from England, and 1 from Australia. Each is planning to move on to another experience next, though they are not really sure what yet. Their minds are completely open to new things. They are positive, upbeat, and unafraid, and they acknowledge their need for frequent change.
We went into a store called Flying Tiger, which is based in Copenhagen and found in Europe and apparently Japan. The girls explained it’s full of “stuff you didn’t know you needed” and it was true! Everything was adorable and/or practical. There were glamorous stores and a movie theatre, with many people wandering around as the lights came on during the evening.
Her coworker just got assigned to teach a Harry Potter class for their company–the first in Japan. We are all HP fans, so it was really fun to talk about on the walk home! We stopped at a bookstore called Junkudo so she could buy the first book again and it was the most massive bookstore I’ve even seen! Only 1% of the books were in English, but they have Harry Potter of course. Katie collects the first book in various languages. The one in Japanese is beautiful, with the cover on the “back” of the book and the symbols going from top to bottom of each page.
It’s supposed to be in the low 60’s for a few days–we are really excited and hoping that maybe spring is finally here, bringing with it more Japan adventures 🙂
Photo: Designer vintage bags atop American books on Orange Street
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