Osaka and Kyoto was awesome!!!!

You know something's awesome when you blow all your spending money. I now have 700 yen in spending money left to my name. However, I can get more spending money if I only eat a bowl of ramen for lunch and 1 chocolate bar a day. I wonder if I'll be able to live without my CC Lemon, I might go into withdrawal. Anyways, this last weekend I finally went to Kyoto and Osaka, we took an overnight highway bus from 9PM thursday night to 7:30AM Friday morning. Their highway buses are soooo cool!



We arrived in Osaka early Friday morning, and began our day by finding our hotel and dropping some stuff off so we wouldn't have to haul it around all day. We had a quick breakfast and after that, I split from the group to go meet a friend from Wisconsin who was also studying abroad in Kobe, which is a train ride away from Osaka. While I was waiting for her to arrive around 10:20ish. I killed time by wandering around this department store I found, it was 2 times cooler than the one in Fukuoka.



Sam and I met up in Osaka station, I took a video on the way to where we were supposed to meet, it gives you an idea what Japan's morning rush is in the morning.


After we met up, we wandered around looking for a place to have lunch. We took a subway over to a different area of the city and had Okonomiyaki . It was pretty good, after that we took the subway again to visit her former host brother at his Tea Accessory shop. He wasn't there, so we waited around outside the shop when I noticed what looked like a boss of the Japanese Yakuza(Mafia). Seriously, slicked back hair, dark sunglasses, sharp suit, and shady car fits the description perfectly. Yes, I did manage to sneak a picture without him seeing me.



There was also a guy waiting in front of the Lawson Store the mafia boss went into just pedaling on his bike, very random.



After waiting a little while, her former host brother still hadn't showed up, so we visited her host mother behind the store, they had a cool garden!



After visiting her a little while, we took our leave and we made our way over to the nerd district. On the way there we found a martial arts supplier along with some katana and even samurai armor.



Soon after we arrived in the nerd district and it was awesome!!! There were so many cool stores, all sorts of anime stores and electronics stores.



I was forcing myself to not spend any money there until Sunday. It was sooo hard, but so worth it. I went to Kyoto the next day, we took a train from Osaka station and it only cost 540 yen. Once we got there, Sharon and I wandered around Kyoto from kimono shop to kimono shop. I didn't find any kimonos my size except for Yukatas of which I already have. I'm going to be seeing a supplier that a teacher her at the university goes through for Kendo about a kimono my size. We went to the Golden pavilion which is one of the famous landmarks that's associated with Japan.



After seeing the golden pavilion(kinkakoju), we decided to head over to ginkakoju(silver pavilion). We took a bus to the closest stop by the temple, and then as we were walking up to the temple, we found a rickshaw service. Sharon and I both chipped in 1500 yen to have a rickshaw take us up to the temple, about a 10 minute ride. I even took a video of it, whee!



There were some cool gravel sculptures there that get destroyed every time it rains, it's a zen bhuddist concept that nothing lasts forever and that you should appreciate something while it's lasting. The temple itself was under reconstruction or something, there was scaffolding surrounding the temple, it was a little disappointing. After that we walked down the street and took a look at the shops, I found a store where everything in there was 1050 yen, I bought a full-length door hanging of an owl at night, lit by the moon, cause I'm a night owl :P .



After that we went to the Gion district, the former Geisha district. There were so many Americans there! There were also many women wearing kimonos, though none were Geisha.



After our delicious supper at the Gion district. We started to head back and we got to see Kyoto tower lit up at night, we were all pretty tired and we didn't feel like trying to figure out how to get to the top.



The next day in Osaka was a real fun one. I spent the entire day by myself, wandering around the nerd district deciding what I was going to spend my money on. Since many of the shops weren't open at 9-10 AM, I spent my time in some random shops that were open, including a vintage weapon shop that had some amazing things there. Every one of the weapons in that shop were real and vintage, I got to take pictures and the shop owner even gave me a book in Japanese and English detailing things about some items there and the stuff he had to sell/auction. Matt and Alex, you would've loved this place.



One of the shops I was wasting my time in while the other shops were opening up had like all the Indiana Jones Toys out in front of the store, it was pretty cool. They also had godzilla ties and stuff which was amusing.



It makes me wonder, why does Japan happen to have all the cool figures and stuff from American Movies. I can't find anything like this in America and they just happen to be in every other shop I visit in Japan. Stuff from Indiana Jones, and more importantly Star Wars. Dad, these things were so cool. I could imagine you just placing it in your office or by your computer desk.



There were countless anime shops, Brian you would have had a blast here.



After blowing all my spending money in the Nerd district, I headed back to Osaka station and got lost looking for the bus station. I eventually found it, had supper at an Udon shop, and then sat down and waited for the rest of my friends to show up. Here's where I took a few pictures of some of the things I bought. I found an R2-D2 Pepper Mill, they also had a soy sauce pourer, but I figured I'd be using the pepper more often so I bought that one instead.



We took the highway bus back, and I actually got better sleep this time around than I did the first time.



I got back home around 9:15 AM, had breakfast, took a shower, and went to school. Thats about the bulk of my Osaka and Kyoto journey, but I had a lot of fun and I'm glad I went.