Osaka!!

So....I've kind of failed with this blog, but here is my last ditch effort to appease you. One more post after this of Kyoto, then maybe one more post of my last couple of weeks. I can't believe I only have three more weeks left! It has gone by so fast! I'm definitely looking forward to coming home to my kitties, clients and friends, but it's going to be hard to tear myself away from Japan. I'm so grateful for the experiences I've gained here and the friends I've made.

Without further ado.....

So my school paid for me to go to Kyoto and Osaka and gave me a week off to do it. How freaking lucky!? So of course I went, and with all of my avid readers (I'm talking to you Mom) in mind I took so many pictures your eyes are going to hurt!

First we went to Osaka for two days. Osaka is pretty cool. Here is my experience!


We went to Osaka Castle, which is a castle they turned into a museum. It was pretty neat! The top floor had an incredible view of Osaka and there were lovely gardens around it. Plus, it had a moat. (For some reason I think moats are the coolest thing out there!)

This is a well right outside of the castle.

 Here's some info on it!

This is the castle!

Here are some pictures of the view from the top!

This was out in the park surrounding the castle. It was huge and we went the wrong way and ended up walking around it for about an hour. But, lucky for you, I found some cool pics!
:)

MOAT!

Pretty trees!

I just thought this was so cool. It looks like it's about to fall into the moat and the contrast from the old building to all of the new ones! Such a neat area!

How close to the edge do you think we could build this?

After the castle (and the hour lost around the park) we were ravenous. So we found a steak and beer joint, because that seemed to be the most authentically Japanese thing we could do after looking at a Japanese castle. 

It was a cute little place and they had some pretty decent beers! It was set up to look like a mine or something and it gave off a very Indiana Jones-esque feel.

Donkey Bier! Yummmmy!

 Steak and fries. Japanese? no. Delicious? yes.

 Afterwards, how could we resist? (We really were starving!)

 Cherry beer. It was very cherry! And yummy.

 CHOCOLATE!

The next day we went to the Floating Garden on top of the Umeda Sky Building. It was probably the most disappointing part of the trip. There was not a single plant. Not one. No garden. It was just an observatory. Which is cool in and of itself, but why the misleading name? I expected a beautiful garden and I got concrete. Lots of concrete. With some incredible views. So not a complete loss, but of course, my camera died. More pics of the Sky Building will be coming via my traveling partner's camera. But I got a couple before my camera completely died.

At the bottom of the building there was a recreation of a 20's/30's Japanese village. It was pretty fun!

In the next day or two, I'm posting Kyoto pics! And hopefully, a few more Osaka pics! :)

Happy Easter!

I hope everyone had a good Easter. As my present to you, I come bearing many, many photos! I've been busy!! :) And now that it's getting warm out, I'm going to be taking many more photos! So stay tuned! :)

So, first up is a quite interesting festival here in Japan. When someone invites you to this festival.......the only thing you can do is laugh and say "Oh heck yes I will." Because anything less would just be disappointing. :) And here are my pictures from the (and I quote) "Festival of the Steel Phallus."

These are some lovely fake flowers that were hanging from street posts.

This was one of the many banners hanging up around the festival area. Doesn't leave much unsaid.

So, in the middle of all of these people come for the festival milling around and staring at booths of plastic penes, there were some very done up drag queens doing hanami. So of course I took some pictures for you.

These are the kids helping out for the festival. There were also kids singing Michael Jackson songs on stages, because that's what I want to heat at a festival of this type....

So, next time you're in Japan early April, don't miss that, whatever you do! 

These next pictures are just fun stuff that I've snapped pictures of around.

This one is an advertisement on a train. They sure know the way to my heart! The perfect addition to happy hour!

This is on a building. A giant building. I don't know why, and frankly, I'm scared to ask. But apparently pigs are what's selling CD' and DVD's. Get on that Best Buy.

This guy moves. MOVES. And he's gigantic. Up on a building of course. Because that's where he belongs! What other animals can they put on buildings???

These ones!!! Doesn't it just make you want to buy pets? This is a poster above a door in Shibuya area. It just made me laugh!

Ignore the terrified Japanese men. I just thought this was a fun ad and they thought I was taking pictures of them....Awkward!

What blog post from me would be complete without food?

So, we went out to eat, and one of my Swedish friends made his own twist on sushi. See, even if you don't like fish, there's a sushi out there for everyone!

This is takoyaki.I don't care so much for this, but it's a popular food to eat in Japan. It's balls of octopus, basically. Those flakes on it are called katsuobushi. They're made of fish and the plate is really hot when it comes out, so the flakes look like they're alive and dancing. It's pretty neat!

And of course. cherry blossoms! You didn't think I'd be in Japan, during the spring, with a camera and not post some cherry blossom pictures, did you?

These two next ones are right by my house. Gorgeous!

 This is really close to where I had a picnic in Takashimadaira. The whole street is just lined with them. One of the most beautiful things ever!

 This is one of the hanamis I got to go to! That's my friend Kay's dog Yuuri. Cutie! The Shiba Inu is a VERY popular breed in Japan. They're adorable!

This was some of the food that we had at the hanami, but it was so windy so everything got covered in dirt! We weren't as smart as some of the professional hanami-goers who had up covers to block the dirt, but at least we ate most of it before it got too dirty! :)

 This was in Chigasaki. It was so crowded, but it's so much fun to hang out under the cherry blossoms with so many people!

I had the opportunity to go on a trip with the incoming 7th graders at the school I'm interning at. It was so much fun, and the place we stayed was AMAZING. It was up in the mountains, so I got to do a little bit of hiking with my co-intern, Andi, and one of the teachers, Susan. It was a blast and I got so many great pictures. I'm not going to caption each and every one of them, because I'd be here for ages, but here they are in all their abundance (because, let's face it, I'm not great at editing down.)

 These were the facilities:

 No matter what I do, I can't get away from dairy farms, apparently. :)

 John Deere scarecrow, with a baby scarecrow holding ice cream.

Even in Japan:

This was the hiking trail we took:

 There were definitely some steep parts on this trail!

If you look really hard in this next one, you can see Fuji! It was more visible in real life, but the pictures didn't come out very clear. :(

So, I hope I've made up for the last couple blogs, slacking on my pictures! I'm going to try to keep up with taking lots of them! :)

-Aly