Music: bedoin soundclash- 12:59 lullaby
I spent a weekend in osaka about a month ago with lindzy, ashleigh, kat, leah, leah’s boyfriend and ashleigh’s friend gordon. It was a really good time for sure, I didnt get to experience much of what osaka had to offer though. Lindz and ashleigh had already been there, so i guess they werent too keen on going to the aquarium or any of those things, which is cool. I mean, we got a solid day of shopping done when i arrived, which is definitely what i wanted to do, and what you do in osaka, so i’m not complaining whatsoever. i also bought the hottest lime green and black purse that i have ever laid my eyes on, so the weekend was a complete success indeed, i’m just saying i’d like to go back. hit up something stupid like the takoyaki museum (takoyaki are delicious deep fried balls with pieces of octopus on them covered in delicious bbq sort of sauce and mayonaise and it’s absolutely incredible tasting, and what osaka is known for) i did eat takoyaki while there, but it was at a chain izakaya that we also have in okazaki, so i dont know how authentically osaka takoyaki it was. nor did i eat okanomiyaki which are like japan style pancakes made with cabbage and that sauce and deliciousness. anyways. i want to go back for sure, lukily beth does too so i will have a partner in crime. I only spent one night in osaka and we went to karaoke (nomiho dai, all you can drink) which is always a win win situation, and then we scoured the streets for somewhere to dance, which is apparently difficult to find anywhere in japan on a sunday as i’ve learned from most experiences. i mean, they exist, they are just very difficult to find and not always happening. you can find places to drink and hang out, dont get me wrong, bars and pubs are a plenty, but dance parties, not so much. so anyways, we found somewhere with about 10 people inside and terrible music but we made the most of it.
the next day, kat, who is an architecture major, really wanted to see this famous church, called the church of light designed by a famous japanese architect, so we missioned out to find it and of course it ended up being close so we couldnt go inside, but we were able to peer in the windows and experience the outside of the church. it was absolutely beautiful and strange. the walls are all made of concrete but the walls are positioned in this really interesting angles in order to allow the light to shine through the church in certain ways. its incredible. im glad we got to see it. After the church we went on, what was by far the scariest experience of my life, a freefall ride, like dropzone, down the side of a skyscraper. so the premise was like dropzone except about a bajillion feet higher and 9 bajillion times faster. it was terrifying. you are also pretty much outside, like i said, down the side of a skyscraper. the ride lasted about 2 seconds but i lost my voice from screaming, that’s how hard i was screaming. I think i was shaking for about 4 hours afterwards.
The weekend after the same group of us headed out to tokyo. I went right from work and met up with susannah on the shinkansen where we had our shinkansen bathroom makeovers into tokyo night-suitable outfits and obviously get our train chu-hi on. i met up with ashleigh and kat and then we met up with gordon and their other friend kyle and headed to one of kyle’s friends’ apartment in roppongi. roppongi is like the super stylish nightclub, shopping area of tokyo. we then headed to a bar called muse which played your usual top 40 and had 6 dollar stellas, but we made the most of it and had quite a successful evening if i do say so myself. we obviously had to stay out until 5, when the subways start running again and then headed back to our hostel for a good 4 hour sleep until we had to check out, and then ashleigh and kat had to take kat back to the airport to go home. I met up with adrik, susannah and our friend katsuya who lives in tokyo, they had stayed at a different hotel, so we went out for some all you can eat pizza, obviously japan style pizza with things like corn and tuna and mayo on it… i cant wait for real pizza, you have no idea.
after this that group was heading to the ramen museum, which i wasnt really interested in, and ashleigh was still at the airport, so i headed to harajuku to take a nice midafternoon nap in yoyogi park in the sunshine. Yoyogi park is awesome, its right by harajuku station, which is where all the harajuku girls hang out, and they were a plenty that day. its really interesting. i’d feel like a tool taking pictures of them, but i tooooootally wanted to. the worst was when i saw to foreign westerner girls standing around there dressed like harajuku girls. it looked ridiculous. you basically just cant do that unless you’re japanese. it just doesnt seem right. gwen stefani can do whatever the hell she wants because she’s gwen stefani, but if you’re a butchy girl from Milwaukee or something who probably reads way too many comics and learned japanese from watching anime, then you can’t pull it off. im sorry. ok, end rant.
anyways, yoyogi park, yes, its this huge park that has actual GRASS (this is a rareity in parks in japan, where park means concrete, maybe some rocks and some swings a bench and thats about it) and tons of really eccentric people. you have the group of rockabillies dancing around to blaring 50s jams in leather pants despite the heat. there’s the group of hippies further in the park playing their drums and dancing barefoot. there’s tons of food stands and street performers. its just wonderful. so i found a nice spot under a tree, took out my book but fell asleep about .5 seconds after laying down and had a good 2 hour nap. then i met up with ashleigh and we did a little shopping, ate some subway, (yes japan has subway, and its waaaaay better than at home, shrimp and avocado wrap=HEAVEN) then we met up with gordon and kyle again and found ourselves back in roppongi at a club entitled “BLACK” where we danced the night away until the wee hours. we met a big group of friends and we all went out for some breakfast, by now it was about 9am and ashleigh and i, who didnt have a hotel booked for the night, knowing we would be out until check out time anyways, so we had left our baggage in lockers at tokyo station. so we grabbed some breakfast and then went out separate ways home to sleep on the trains. it was a crazy and wonderful weekend. as all weekends in tokyo are. I love tokyo, i do, but I think i’ve done tokyo enough. its fun and insane, but it sucks the money out of you, and there’s still other places i’d really like to see. If i go back to tokyo, it will be either to a) go to tokyo disney or b) to go to womb, the most famous club in the world pretty much. it’s the club they always film movies at when they film in japan and its apparently just absolutely amazing, so i feel like it’d be terrible of me to leave japan without having been there once. But i guess we shall see.
OK that’s enough for tonight. more to come soon.
love.
xo
