Original post May 2008.
Arriving Osaka
It
was a very nice sunny day when we stepped out in Osaka at 9. We got off
at Universal Studio, the farthest destination of the bus in the city.
Actually an hour ago the bus had reached Osaka, delivered passengers at
downtown area (Umeda station) and another place which we didn't know
what its name was. We decided to go farthest wherever the bus went then go
back to find our hotel.
The Universal Studio looked really vibrant. When we arrived thousands of people kept flocking in the area but the gate was not open until 10 o'clock. I was awed how Japanese managed to plant palm trees there, they are tropical or sub tropical or desert plants as far as I know. If only they liked durians maybe they could grow them there anyway.
After some pictures here and there, it seemed that Suhut was tempted to enjoy the advance-technological park. We discussed but I found it would cost time as we should stay there at least half a day to enjoy games inside, which reduced time to see other places as planned. So I suggested he stayed there while I went exploring Osaka. Suhut being a good companion decided to abandon his sudden desire and agreed to go directly to downtown instead.
Now we were looking for our hotel. It was around Doubutsu-en Eki Mae, or literally "Train Station in front of Zoo". Guided by our map, we headed to the most direct station near our hotel through several train transfers. And we finally ended in a nearly slum area.
The place was quite filthy, with many rugged-clothing old people, metal trash and ammoniac smell in the air. We went inside from the main road, still many old people and even trash collectors. It was the first time in Japan I saw big dogs stray and they were running loose around on the streets as if they were playing hide and seek. I was afraid of them thumbling on me, got furious then gangbanged me.
After some asking to kind people there, we found our hotel a bit further going away from the area. The air was cleaner, though people there were as old as in the previous place. No wonder the hotel price, the place was not quite business area, but it was perfect for us, it had everything we needed including internet connections. We found there were so many cheaper hotels around as low as 1,000 yen a day. Later my Osakan professor told me the area is a place where day laborers who do construction work or any other lowskill job stay and wait for orders (and maybe they use their payments for staying in those cheap hotels).
Japan that didn't fail me
I realized there that Suhut, being an engineer, is a savvy map reader. Wherever we went he preferred consulting map, while I on the other hand, asking people about direction. I was grown up with the saying, "malu bertanya sesat di jalan" or "too shy to ask leads to lost in the way". Luckily in Japan after asking I even sometimes got encouraging remarks such as "kyosukete ne!" meaning "be careful (on your way there) ok!" or even got escorted directly to the place. Once two schoolgirls in tracksuit even ran chasing us on our bicycle, and while we stopped at a junction, there they managed to catch us, out of breath from running, just to tell us that we had gone to the wrong direction they told earlier. Simply saying, in my two year stay Japanese people never failed me on my such a way. Makoto ni Arigato.
We were on the way in Osaka city from JR station on a showery day after that sunny morning. We had just got off at a wrong station, but anyway, this was a backpack travel, so lost was enjoyable. After wandering here and there and a lunch at a McDonalds, we were heading for the compulsory visit in the city, the Osaka Castle. We had been walking through some blocs, and consulted maps in some places (it stunned me how there are so many area maps in Japan to assist people). But after a long way walking around the suspected area, the castle hadn't appeared anywhere. I knew searching again would take us to the site, but it would also take some other time that can be spent in castle otherwise. So at the junction I asked a man who happened to be waiting for the green light too, "Sumimasen.. Osaka castle wa doko desuka?" (Excuse me, where is the Osaka castle?).
He then seemed not originated from there as he answered, "Wakaranai (I don't know)". I said Ok Thank You. But then he's busy pushing buttons of cellphone he was holding (he was busy communicating with someone I thought). After about half a minute busy with his cellphone, he then looked at me and pointed to a right-hand side direction, "There!". He was actually consulting his cellphone GPS to help me locate the castle.
Osaka castle itself is amazingly huge complex. It has two layers of parks, surrounded by walls and gates, and in the outskirt there is a big river circling the complex for the defense against enemy's attack in the past. It was very clean, and seeing around made us think that people in the past were maybe not less technologically skilled than engineers are now. They designed parks and constructed buildings so neatly and robustly by putting large stones one on top another. Simply stunning.
The complex was so huge that walking surrounding it, even in the showery day, exhausted us. And by the time we arrived there the castle (main building) was already closed for public from 4.30 PM.
Refugee Wannabes
I wrote a post about the increasing number of what so-called refugees in some cities in Japan. There are internet refugees who stay at internet cafes as their home because they can not afford the monthly rent for apartment or key money. There also even McRefugees, referred to people who stay overnights at McDonald by only drinking a cup of 100-yen coffee. Just Google with keyword "McRefugee" and you will come accross such article. We enthusiastically wanted to see this phenomenon and experience by ourselves.
So part of our travel would be becoming those kind of refugees. We only booked one night at the Mikado hotel, and checked out the next morning. Tonight after going around Osaka we would stay over either at a McDonald or an internet cafe.
During the day, we screened our place. We found a perfect McDonald around town taht opened 24 hours. We had lunch there, and made field examination of the place.
There were several of salarymen and salarywomen there, each of them occupied on set of table (with two chairs). Some of them were busy with paper work, one was having a siesta. Other guests were women who looked like university students and two groups of highschool students. We occupied narrow,long tables as it was the only vacant. We did our rehearsal by trying to be sleeping on the table. It was, of course, uncomfortable.
Arriving Osaka
It
was a very nice sunny day when we stepped out in Osaka at 9. We got off
at Universal Studio, the farthest destination of the bus in the city.
Actually an hour ago the bus had reached Osaka, delivered passengers at
downtown area (Umeda station) and another place which we didn't know
what its name was. We decided to go farthest wherever the bus went then go
back to find our hotel.The Universal Studio looked really vibrant. When we arrived thousands of people kept flocking in the area but the gate was not open until 10 o'clock. I was awed how Japanese managed to plant palm trees there, they are tropical or sub tropical or desert plants as far as I know. If only they liked durians maybe they could grow them there anyway.
After some pictures here and there, it seemed that Suhut was tempted to enjoy the advance-technological park. We discussed but I found it would cost time as we should stay there at least half a day to enjoy games inside, which reduced time to see other places as planned. So I suggested he stayed there while I went exploring Osaka. Suhut being a good companion decided to abandon his sudden desire and agreed to go directly to downtown instead.
Now we were looking for our hotel. It was around Doubutsu-en Eki Mae, or literally "Train Station in front of Zoo". Guided by our map, we headed to the most direct station near our hotel through several train transfers. And we finally ended in a nearly slum area.
The place was quite filthy, with many rugged-clothing old people, metal trash and ammoniac smell in the air. We went inside from the main road, still many old people and even trash collectors. It was the first time in Japan I saw big dogs stray and they were running loose around on the streets as if they were playing hide and seek. I was afraid of them thumbling on me, got furious then gangbanged me.
After some asking to kind people there, we found our hotel a bit further going away from the area. The air was cleaner, though people there were as old as in the previous place. No wonder the hotel price, the place was not quite business area, but it was perfect for us, it had everything we needed including internet connections. We found there were so many cheaper hotels around as low as 1,000 yen a day. Later my Osakan professor told me the area is a place where day laborers who do construction work or any other lowskill job stay and wait for orders (and maybe they use their payments for staying in those cheap hotels).
Japan that didn't fail me
I realized there that Suhut, being an engineer, is a savvy map reader. Wherever we went he preferred consulting map, while I on the other hand, asking people about direction. I was grown up with the saying, "malu bertanya sesat di jalan" or "too shy to ask leads to lost in the way". Luckily in Japan after asking I even sometimes got encouraging remarks such as "kyosukete ne!" meaning "be careful (on your way there) ok!" or even got escorted directly to the place. Once two schoolgirls in tracksuit even ran chasing us on our bicycle, and while we stopped at a junction, there they managed to catch us, out of breath from running, just to tell us that we had gone to the wrong direction they told earlier. Simply saying, in my two year stay Japanese people never failed me on my such a way. Makoto ni Arigato.
We were on the way in Osaka city from JR station on a showery day after that sunny morning. We had just got off at a wrong station, but anyway, this was a backpack travel, so lost was enjoyable. After wandering here and there and a lunch at a McDonalds, we were heading for the compulsory visit in the city, the Osaka Castle. We had been walking through some blocs, and consulted maps in some places (it stunned me how there are so many area maps in Japan to assist people). But after a long way walking around the suspected area, the castle hadn't appeared anywhere. I knew searching again would take us to the site, but it would also take some other time that can be spent in castle otherwise. So at the junction I asked a man who happened to be waiting for the green light too, "Sumimasen.. Osaka castle wa doko desuka?" (Excuse me, where is the Osaka castle?).
He then seemed not originated from there as he answered, "Wakaranai (I don't know)". I said Ok Thank You. But then he's busy pushing buttons of cellphone he was holding (he was busy communicating with someone I thought). After about half a minute busy with his cellphone, he then looked at me and pointed to a right-hand side direction, "There!". He was actually consulting his cellphone GPS to help me locate the castle.
Osaka castle itself is amazingly huge complex. It has two layers of parks, surrounded by walls and gates, and in the outskirt there is a big river circling the complex for the defense against enemy's attack in the past. It was very clean, and seeing around made us think that people in the past were maybe not less technologically skilled than engineers are now. They designed parks and constructed buildings so neatly and robustly by putting large stones one on top another. Simply stunning.
The complex was so huge that walking surrounding it, even in the showery day, exhausted us. And by the time we arrived there the castle (main building) was already closed for public from 4.30 PM.
Refugee Wannabes
I wrote a post about the increasing number of what so-called refugees in some cities in Japan. There are internet refugees who stay at internet cafes as their home because they can not afford the monthly rent for apartment or key money. There also even McRefugees, referred to people who stay overnights at McDonald by only drinking a cup of 100-yen coffee. Just Google with keyword "McRefugee" and you will come accross such article. We enthusiastically wanted to see this phenomenon and experience by ourselves.
So part of our travel would be becoming those kind of refugees. We only booked one night at the Mikado hotel, and checked out the next morning. Tonight after going around Osaka we would stay over either at a McDonald or an internet cafe.
During the day, we screened our place. We found a perfect McDonald around town taht opened 24 hours. We had lunch there, and made field examination of the place.
There were several of salarymen and salarywomen there, each of them occupied on set of table (with two chairs). Some of them were busy with paper work, one was having a siesta. Other guests were women who looked like university students and two groups of highschool students. We occupied narrow,long tables as it was the only vacant. We did our rehearsal by trying to be sleeping on the table. It was, of course, uncomfortable.
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