its been ages since I’ve written anything on here but that is changing as I type away my recap and newest adventures for your amusement. So away I type!
Chris and I went to Tokyo over our winter break. That was over two months ago so what happened to that post about our wonderful adventure to the heart and capital of modern Japan? Well, I keep forgetting to get all the pictures from Chris. As such an event has yet to take place, I will wait until I do. It was a great trip that does need pictures to be explained properly. Instead, what I describe to you is how my semester went. It went well. I learned so so much of the language and culture that permeates Japan that no blog can contain it. All that needs to be said is this: Its a wonderful place, and I’ve made wonderful friends. Each day I find something new and wonderful to add to my collection of ideas and experiences. Ritsumeikan University has been great to me. I’m looking forward to my next and last semester. Hopefully I don’t forget too much over the spring break.
So as I stated, it’s my spring break right now. In the United States, this would mean a break that was a week or two long and that entire time would be spent somewhere warm and preferably near water. No, not here. For one, it’s February, it’s cold. Second, the spring break in Japan is more akin to the United States summer breaks. This is the time between the school years. This is when you are supposed to go home and find a job. Also, hope that you don’t lose too much knowledge over that time. Seeing as its hard to leave this country and that would defeat the year abroad for me, I’m staying here. So 1) Going home. As for the getting a job part, yes, I’m doing that. I haven’t found work but instead have created work for myself. I’m working on various programs for projects and ideas I have. So far so good. If I finish something proper, I’ll post it. Otherwise, I’m not going to bore you with my computer mumbo-jumbo.
So what am I doing with all that free time I have found myself with? I’m doing some traveling in and around my city Kyoto. I’ve been to see all the temples and shrines that are worth seeing or at least trying to see. Honestly, there are hundreds if not thousands of them around this city. I’m also trying to see the area around the Kansai region. Kansai is, as it I typed, a region in Japan. Its a very old and populated region of Japan. It has many great cities in it such as Osaka, the third largest city in Japan, and it has Kobe, known for its fantastic beef. All this awaits me. I’ve been blessed with the luck of being in Kyoto. Kyoto is smack-dab in the middle of these places.
I went, for the first time, today to the large city of Osaka. We started off early and by ‘we’ I mean my friends Chad and Ayla and me. We went to Hanazono station to catch a train bound for the city. We wound up getting to the train station right as it left so we were forced to wait in the cold room. This room wasn’t cold but instead was quite the opposite. Its a room you can wait in so that you are warm. Those stations can be mighty drafty so its a great place to just wait. Finally we were off on the 10:40 AM train headed for Kyoto Station. It was just wonderful to know that we were headed to a place we had never been before. While at Kyoto Station, I bought a card for the trains so that I don’t have to buy any more tickets. Its like a prepaid ticket that works on all Japan Railway trains. I’m excited by this and will demo it in a video sometime. Any who, I digress. We were off to Osaka. Even though Osaka is about 30 miles away it took us only 30 minutes to get there as we took the Super Rapid Express train. This doesn’t mean that the train flies, instead it means there are less stops. There were only two stops between us and our main destination, Osaka Station. From Osaka we went to another part of the city called Namaba or Minami as it is known to the locals. Minami is the word for South in Japanese. This disteric is known as the shopping center of Osaka.
As we walked out of the station, we saw some Japanese youth practicing there dancing in from of a giant mirrored wall. This is much more common then one might think actually. So we really didn’t look twice. Instead, we headed upstairs to the open air and were graced with the presence of a great building that is nothing like I’ve ever seen before. We took pictures of course and then went on our way to find a place called America Town. Sounds wonderful, right? There is always places you hear of in bigger cities in the United States named “Little Italy” or “China Town.” America Town was nothing like those. This wasn’t a place of Americans yelling at one another in Southern accents. Instead, it is a fashion district that all the younger generation flocks to. It is filled to the brim with the latest styles and little boutiques that sell over priced pairs of used pants. It was fantastic. There are people there dressed in things you’d never have imagined existed let alone was worn by someone. That was American town. It was a place where fashion is King and we are its humble servants.
For now, I’ll finish this story up tomorrow as this post is getting rather long.
-Kyle
