Natsu yasumi Begineth

Well it’s about time I began to write up some of the wonderful experiences from the 14 days that my parents came to visit me in Japan. There were up’s downs (figuratively and literally), joys and jostles but I think overall a good time was had by all. As I said n the road I couldn’t really type to much so I went old school and kept a travel log. I’ll write these up a day at a time (with a few embellishments of course) Hope you enjoy them.

Day 1

The day started out pretty well. I’d packed the previous night, recognizing the fact I’m rubbish in the mornings, so I had less to worry about. Strolling to the bus stop I overheard someone playing ode to joy, badly, on a recorder. Doesn’t seem that significant but it actually completely paralleled an anime I’d watched that night so I decided it as a good omen.

Sadly not so. I phoned up the Hostel (J-Hoppers) I would be staying at during my time in Osaka and there had apparently been a double booking so I had nowhere to stay for two nights. Never mind I’d get over that hurdle when I came to it. On a plus though I’d sussed what was up with my phone and could now get in touch with the rents.

After a now all too familiar train Journey to Osaka I met up with my parents at Umeda and dropped off bags in their hotel at Tennoji. Our initial plan had been to meet up with my friend Yuko and all go to Osaka’s aquarium together. Sadly it was not to be. Yuko had hurt her hand playing volleyball and needed a trip to the hospital.

 

We headed for the aquarium anyway. Osaka’s aquarium is called　海遊館 (kaiyuukan) and is one of the largest in the world. The nature boy in me was very excited. On the way we also had a look at the giant  Ferris wheel next to it. Impressive though it was we decided not to ride, my parents had been on the Hep5 Ferris wheel the previous night and this one didn’t look quite so stable.

After a bit of faffing we settled don for some lunch at ‘famiresu’ (surprisingly meaning family restaurant). My dad got an entire set meal to himself, I don’t think he appreciated how big they where, whilst my mum and I split a plate of sushi. I forgot to ask about wasabi as they tend to a bit heavy handed over here, which was not to my mum’s tastes.  After my mum’s first, fishy Japanese sushi experience we headed to a building full of much more of he live stuff.

As I mentioned before I was very excited about visiting this place. Unfortunately this set me up for a big shock and a massive disappointment. I should have been better prepared after having visited Himeji zoo. Initially it seemed ok. The place was huge, 8 stories tall with lots to see on every floor. I also noticed that if you had a Nintendo DS you could sync it with the aquariums WiFi for extra info on the exhibits.

This is where the cool stuff ends sadly. When I looked at the contents of the exhibits my heart sank. Amongst the normal things you’d expect at an aquarium there was also Penguins, Sea otters, Seals, Dolphins and even a Whale Shark. Now this place was big but not that big and my heart began to sink. Sure enough we came across the aforementioned animals in what couldn’t have been more than 10 metres deep tanks. I just couldn’t take it, these things are used to roaming thousands of miles a day in the open ocean. As if to emphasize the totally different viewpoint to animal welfare I overheard one guy talking to his girlfriend saying “suita” meaning I’m hungry whilst looking at some of the fish.

 

I tried to distract myself by considering the amazing feat of architecture that this place represented. It really was very economically designed to get as much in as possible, representative of the lack f space in Japan I guess. I think someone once told me that the average Japanese person doesn’t travel too much so I guess they just try and bring as much of the world to them as possible.

There were some nicer parts of course. The deep sea crabs were particularly impressive and my mum and I marveled at the grace and ease of their movement. The easy grace with which they moved on their long slender legs was truly captivating. The jellyfish displays were equally impressive. I’ve got a lot of time for Cnidarians an could watch there translucent undulations for hours.

After about an hour and a half we decided to leave. I’d definitely had enough and I think the rents were echoing my feelings. We decided that we wouldn’t visit any more zoological establishments after that. I went to the souvenir shop to look for a pin badge but quickly changed my mind, I didn’t really want to be reminded.

After that we went back to their hotel so I could grab my gear and go check in. I got a a little lost on the way back but did manage to pick up a bottle of the new limited edition pepsi (Caribbean gold) that had not long been released. It was alright though it just tasted like kinda fruity pepsi.

I have to say right now that I really do love J-hoppers, the hostel I was staying at in Osaka. I’ve been there a few times and not only is it great value for money but the staff are great and I always seem to bump into interesting people. This time of note were two lovely Irish ladies, one called Karen and the other was called Eimear (I think though I’ve got no head for Gaelic names.)

They had been teaching English over in Korea and were visiting Japan before heading back to Ireland for a while. It was interesting discussing with them the differences in the ability of Korean and Japanese people to talk English. I think it’s to do with the limited sound pallete of Japanese, Koreans apparently just find it much easier and it is also drummed into them much earlier it would seem. What I find really interesting is that they thought Japanese was really difficult to grasp yet found Korean a doddle. I’m the complete opposite though I guess it depends on what you are surrounded by.

I met up with the rents again later in the craziness that is downtown Namba. We had a few issues at first due to agreeing to meet at exit 18, apparently there were about 3 different exit 18’s unhelpfully not very close together. Upon exiting my dad was taken a back by all the gaudy neon signs, he said it totally reminded him of blade runner.

We walked along Dotombori looking for some place to eat. I had to introduce them to an Osakan classic, “お好み焼き”(okonomiyaki). I’ve mentioned this one before and it’s one of my favorite Japanese dishes. After a little bit of struggling with the menu, my Japanese was nowhere near as good as I’d hoped, we managed to get our food ordered, my parents just got the classic belly pork whilst I went with a Kimchii one. The whole spectacle is one of the best parts as each okonomiyaki is mixed and then griddled in front of you.

I took a mental note of how they were prepared so I could give it a go back home. My parents were definitely happy with the order and we each cleared our plates, or rather respective section of the griddle. I then gave Mum and Dad their first Japanese lesson, “Mecha Oishii” (very delicious), which prompted a smile from the waitress. All in all a good end to our first day together.

Ja mata ne.