Osaka Nightlife

So back in August in Osaka, we wondered around one night randomly. Here are some pictures of things we saw. Above is a Chinese restaurant. I just thought the dragon was cool.
Here are some nice lit up billboards. Asahi is a popular beer here and also a girls name. They also make good coffee drinks.


I took the above picture just to show how busy the city was and how many people there are. This is on a pedestrian only street.

Below, me still dying from the heat even though the sun has gone down! I felt like I was back in Memphis!

Above: A Fugu fish, which I would presume is a fugu restaurant. Fugu are the poisonous blowfish that if it's prepared wrong you die from the toxin. Mark ate some at a recent party he went to. He said there was not taste, but it was rather chewy. Not bad though.

Below: I think it was a Pachinko Parlor, but I can't quite remember.


Ok, above wins the best picture award. I had to read it about four times because I thought I was reading it wrong. Read it....the picture speaks for itself...
A ferris wheel and some lights. The lights in Osaka are very nice. Not quite as good as Tokyo, but pretty close. I'd forgotten how big of a city it is. It makes Hiroshima seem so small. Hiroshima seemed so big when we moved here!
I just liked the whiskey billboard. It was GIGANTIC but you of course can't tell that from the picture.

Oni

Some pictures I took in Osaka in August. So, while I've been having fun lately, Markian hasn't so much. A little kid pooped and peed himself while he was teaching him yesterday. That is never cool. I want him to write about it on here later, because I was amused when he told this story. but he probably won't. He's sick right now. I think it's a migraine or something. So today has kinda been poo (no pun intended). I'm hoping he'll feel better tomorrow.

Good news, the concert I bought tickets for a few months back is only a week away! I'm very, very excited! I can't wait! Trip plans are still in the air...I should know sometime this week hopefully.

A little pop quiz for you. This week a student wrote they wanted to visit the USA because of the "Freedom Venus". It took me a few minutes, but I figured out what they meant. I'd never heard anyone call it that! Can you guess what it is?

What a great day!

Seriously, I had such a great day; I thought I should write about it! Today was a national holiday, basically like a Japanese labor day, so I didn't have to work! This morning I got up and went out to the western suburbs to an ashtanga yoga class taught by my Japanese teacher. It was difficult and challenging for me, but I really enjoyed it! It was very good exercise. The students there were nice. My Japanese teacher and I and two of the girls from the class went out afterwards, eating and shopping. It was so nice to get out and spend time my girls, shopping, eating, talking...etc. I work mostly with guys, and I've really been missing my girlfriends from back home! The day went by so, so fast! We ate Italian for lunch and sushi at one of those sushi conveyor belt restaurants. It was really good and cheap!

The picture is of girl in the yoga class my Japanese teacher introduced me to. We went to a shopping mall that I'd never been too and it was all decorated for Christmas. She was really cool!

So yeah it was a super awesome day! Too bad I have to go to work tomorrow, but it will be an easy day, so no biggie. It's after one AM though and I'm not really tired, which is strange considering I got up early today...

Kitty Chan

I have a backlog of these so, here we go. Hello Kitty is known as "Kitty Chan" in Japan. Chan is a suffix usually used after a child or a young persons name. Anyone who knows me knows what a Hello Kitty fanatic I am. My first word as a baby was "kitty" because of Hello Kitty. It was my favorite stuffed animal. I've always loved anything to do with cats, especially Hello Kitty.

I was lucky one day to be in the Sogo when there was a temporary Kitty Chan merchandise section set up. Sogo is a fancy department store. I like their stuff, but I'd never have the cash to buy anything in there. Actually, I take that back, I did buy this sweet French hairpin for 60% off there. Anyhow, as you can see above they were selling these fancy Kitty Chan stuffed animals that were wearing kimonos. The ones above cost from about 8,000 to 7,000 yen a pop! Now if you thought that was bad, just wait 'til you see the price of the ones to follow.


The very top picture: A Hello Kitty outside a Hello Kitty shop at Osaka Port.

Below: A really cute Kitty Chan Banner in the Sogo. I want one for my apartment!

This is the same stuffed animal above and below. The one below I included to show you the price tag, and that I wasn't making this crap up. Get ready to take a crap in your pants when you hear this figure. 1,050,000 yen!!! That's about $9,500.00 at the current exchange rate. I mean it's a pretty freaking sweet kitty cat, but not that sweet! I think I was drooling when I took this photo. I want one!!! The blocks under her say haroukitei (Hello Kitty in Japanese).
Below: The temporary shop at the Sogo.


Above: Another Sogo kitty for half the price of the other one, but still a whoping 520,000 Yen!!!! Roughly... $4,728.00 Don't think I'll be getting one of these anytime soon...

Above: The Hello Kitty in the Sanrio Shop (the company that makes Kitty Chan) in the Fukuya (yet another expensive department store, though this shop is permanent).

Below: A view of the Fukuya Sanrio Shop

Now we come to the mega of Hello Kitty shops. No, this wasn't a Sanrio Shop, this is actually a Hello Kitty only store! It's in Osaka, and it's freaking sweet. This picture makes me look high (which I can assure you I'm not), but I love Kitty Chan so I'm posting it anyway. Below you can see the "Tree of Happiness" which they had in the store. It's supposed to make you happy. Well, it did me anyway. I think I scared Markian a little I got so happy! They had these Kitty Chan yukatas there and I wanted one so badly but it would have cost me over $300 bucks to get the entire set! So I sadly walked away, while Markian dragged me out of the store.



A pretty piece of Kitty Chan stained glass. The store was spectacular. I'm glad there isn't one in Hiroshima because I wouldn't have a paycheck left!!

When I get angry, this is how I feel...

ARGHGHGHGHGHGGH!!!!! So I've just been kinda pissy all weekend. I had my meeting about new year and it irritated me for reasons I'd rather not say online. If you've talked to me lately, you know why. But yeah I feel like this guy in the picture above here.

Everything to do with everything is really up in the air right now, and anyone who knows me at all really knows that I hate that. I can't stand uncertainty, and I'm constantly getting that from everyone right now, except Markian. It makes me wanna scream! So, I'm hoping things will become clearer in the next few weeks.

On the plus side, I went shopping this weekend and bought a beautiful, new long, soft, fuzzy, gray winter coat. I also bought some pretty sparklely ballerina style flats for really cheap. So, I got some shopping done. I got to go with a friend of mine shopping who is always busy, it was really cool to spend some time with her! I still need to buy some more warm clothes. It's starting to get really cold outside. We did finally manage to make the air conditioner spew out a little heat. I was beginning to worry we only had that tiny little, dangerous electric heater for the entire winter! If it gets colder we'll need that one too though. I can't stand being cold, as it makes it difficult to sleep! However, it's not as bad as being hot or anything like that. I fixed some salmon for dinner using the tiny fish oven in our little portable stove for the first time. It turned out quite nicely surprisingly. I will have to start buying more fish now because it's so fresh and affordable!

Portside

So after the aquarium visit in Osaka, it was getting later and it had cooled off very slightly. We walked out to the water and watched some ships go by.
I thought it was a nice looking bridge. Underneath the bridge you see a "pirate" ship, if you want to call it that. It was some touristy looking boat tour you could take. You could buy it at a discount, if you purchased the ticket together with your aquarium admission. We decided to pass on that one, as the aquarium was very expensive anyway, 2,000 Yen a piece! I wasn't very into the idea of riding the lame pirate boat while someone explains things to me in Japanese while I understand maybe two words of it.


Above you can see a picture of the whale shark. Seriously, if you ever get the chance to see one of the these, you should do it! They're unbelievably huge!

There was some lite up whale shark, but it didn't look so cool yet because it hadn't gotten dark. Oh well, I was still amused and took a picture of it anyway, cause that's what I do! :)


Oh and last but not least, I found another ferris wheel picture from the port.

Osaka Aquarium

Here is the outside of the aquarium. This place was so freaking crowed. You can see all the people standing in line for tickets. Once you finally got your tickets you then had to wait forever and push through people to see exhibit. It was claustrophobically crowded.




These crabs were awesome. They were little and cute, but they lived on the rock wall.


Above: A sloth, one of the coolest creatures ever of course!

Ok, here is the reason I went here. To see the whale shark. It was freaking awesome, but the thing moved really fast so I didn't get a good picture. The sheer size of this thing can not be seen in pictures. That's what's so impressive. Also when it opens its mouth to swallow fish it opens it so wide it looks like a crazy alien or something. It's really cool. And yes, that manta ray was just about as big. They were buddies and were swimming around the HUGE tank that took up the entire middle of the aquarium together. As you go down you get to see different creatures that live in the different levels of the water. I've never seen a tank this big or a sea creature this big. It was pretty freaking sweet.