weekend

We are going to Tokyo!  We are soooo excited!!!  We leave by bullet train Wednesday morning–just a 2 1/2 hour train ride, instead of 6 hours by car.  We are staying in a capsule hotel.  $200 for 2 capsules, 3 nights–a bargain!  Now we will see if we get any sleep haha!  Here is the website if you’re curious:

http://www.booth-netcafe.com/english/English_top.html#top(English)

Yesterday’s 70 degrees and sunny Saturday morning coaxed me into trying to go to the bird sanctuary on the west port side of Osaka, near the aquarium.  I took the Chuo Line to the end, but  wasn’t to be though.  The further I got out there, the more deserted it was and I felt uncomfortable.  It makes me mad to feel that way.  I decided to pretend I was Scarlet Johansson touring Japan, so I gave up and as soon as I was back in the crowds it was no problem!

Instead I explored the area around the coast, where I had wanted to return in better weather.  There were barges and small ships, and people were enjoying wandering around the parks in the area.  There were not any people fishing, but perhaps you are not allowed.  It was interesting to see how the roads, highways, bridges, boats, and trains all merge together.

The aquarium and ferris wheel looked busy again.  Across the water from here is Universal Studios Osaka, so I could see tops of the roller coasters off in the distance.  LegoLand is between the ferris wheel and aquarium.  You can see from the pictures the sun kept going in and out with a change in the weather coming.

The area out west of the city includes an art museum, as well as several skyscrapers and beautiful buildings.  This area is called Cosmo Square.  When they pronounce it in Japanese on the subway, it has 5 syllables, like coz-i-mo squay-ruh 🙂

Now that I’m getting around Osaka better, I decided to look into more Mexican food in Umeda.  Just as I was eating chips and guacamole, though, Katie texted to see if I wanted to have Mexican at the other place in Shinsaibashi.  This place was called El Pancho and it is right near the Dotonbori River on the 7th floor.  The sign said it had been there since 1977.  It was dimly lit and full of Mexican stuff with Mexican music playing.  Corona beer is not that easy to find here and was excellent too, with a Happy Hour price of 460 yen!

It is halfway through April already so soon this part of the trip will be winding down, which is why we decided it’s now or never for Tokyo.   We used a machine in the Tennoji train station to book our tickets.  We had everything all entered only to realize you can’t use a credit card and we didn’t have enough cash.  So off to the ATM then restart, confirming each date, seat, and time carefully.  Apparently we pass Mount Fuji on the way, so we thought we were being clever determining it would be on the left side of the train and get seats on that side.  Well apparently everyone knows that because we really had to search to find 2 seats on the left side haha!  You can save a few bucks by waiting to see if there is a seat that day, but that sounds too dicey for me, especially since we have a fairly tight schedule.

While we were in the train station we wanted to stop at Kaldi to get some American snacks.  The sign said it was on level B1.  No kidding it took us 20 minutes to find it, because you could not get to the basement levels from anywhere!  We nearly gave up.  I typed Floor B1 in my translator and even with 2 different people’s assistance it took forever to twist, turn, up, down and finally we found it.  Imported food must be pretty popular because the Kaldi stores are always busy!

It is raining and 55 degrees now on Sunday morning, so it’s a good day to organize, do laundry, rest tired legs, and watch Netflix.  We are also researching where to go next and determining the best way to ship stuff home.  I have to be out of Japan by May 25 when my 90 days are up.  We are thinking of South Korea as a quick exit–there are dozens of flights a day since it’s like going from Orlando to Atlanta.  From Seoul, maybe Hong Kong or Europe or home for me.  Like many things it comes down to the money and dates.  It’s exciting to plan and see how it all works out!  It gets a little complicated.  Since I am on Japanese wifi it wants to put everything in Japanese and yen.  Even when I try to translate, it doesn’t always work, so we have to be really careful or who knows where we will end up!

Photo:  Capsule toy from Katie