Japan, Day 2

So after sleeping at a dusty, smelly, low-budget capsule called a room, I headed for namba station for lunch.

This crab place is supposedly very famous, a landmark sort of.  I didn't eat there because it seemed too expensive, but I took a mandatory picture.



After that, I found Chibo. Okonomiyaki has been around for decades and decades, but Osaka-style okonomiyaki is the most popular, and Chibo is where it began. They must be doing something right for them to be in business since 1967.



Okonomiyaki is about 1,500 Yen, which is somewhat pricy (15bucks). But I had to try it.



It's basically a Japanese pancake, somewhat similar to Korean 부침개.



This stuff was delicious. It was a little bit of an overkill towards the end, but it was still pretty darn good.



If I had to describe Japanese cuisine in a phrase, it would be 'attention to detail.' They seem to care about the smallest little things, while Koreans just eat whatever, however they want.

After my wonderful meal, I hopped on a train to Kyoto, the former capital of Japan.




The place below is Kiyomizu temple






And because Kyoto is a big tourist city, there are lots of cultural attractions everywhere (i.e. Japanese women wearing their traditional clothing). When one of them took out their digital camera, I had to take a picture of it.













After that, I went to the Kyoto Tower and its vicinity. There's nothing to see there.



I saw couple other temples and stuff afterwards, but honestly, all the temples pretty much look the same after a few. So I decided to skip on temples and Kyoto in quest for good restaurants.  I originally went to Japan to take pictures, but this is when the purpose of my trip changed to eating good food instead.  I hopped on the train back to Osaka Station, and back to Namba.




Osaka Station

What I've always wanted to try was Japanese Ramen, and this place is supposedly the most famous (that's what the book said at least), so I went there.





It was pretty good, but it wasn't phenomenal. The bigger problem was that I was still hungry afterwards. So I decided to try a little sushi.





But to my dismay, this place was mediocre. I later learned that it's a pretty big sushi franchise in Japan. Boo. I walked around a little bit more before going back to the hotel.

Japan, Day 1

Normally, I try to post pictures on the blog first, but I couldn't this time because the site was down.  But unlike facebook, I will write a short narrative as I go through the pictures. 

Arrival at the Kansai Airport:

From Japan

It's always a little depressing to walk out of an airport by yourself.  It wasn't my first time completely alone in a country where they didn't speak English or Korean, but I was confident that everything would be alright.  I took the Nankai line to Shin-Imamiya Station as planned.


First picture in the train. While Koreans use the words 'subway' and 'railway,' interchangeably, Japanese strictly distinguish the two. 

After getting off at the Shin-Imamiya Station, I quickly ran into trouble.  I was supposed to get off at the east exit, but I didn't know which direction was east.  So I decided to go out and walk around the vicinity a little bit.

From Japan

hmmmm, may be I should ask for directions instead of walking around too much...



I was surprised at first, because the area was much dirtier and more ghetto than I had anticipated.  I expected Japan to be super clean and nice everywhere, but that obviously wasn't the case.

I stayed at a 'hotel/hostel' called Hotel Chou.  I've stayed in better places in Mongolia and Mexico before, BUT to their credit, it was 2,200 Yen a day (that's 22 bucks if the exchange rate is $1 = 100 Yen, though it isn't). 

After unpacking, I decided to venture out and go to the Osaka Castle.  I was a little worried because Japan's railways are somewhat complicated - public lines, JR, private lines, need to distinguish railways/subways, two different maps... in Korea, you have one map, one card that pays for everything, without distinction between railways/subways and public/private rails.  It's not that I mind getting lost, but it's just that public transportation in Japan is quite expensive and I didn't want to make extra expenditures.  But I was able to figure out everything in about a day.



Area around the Osaka Castle:





 



The Osaka Castle itself: 








After touring the Osaka Castle, I had a sudden impulse to check out J-House.  The only problem was that I didn't know its location.  But I vaguely remembered where Kevin had marked on the map, so I just decided to pick out a station that seemed familiar and go from there.





And guess what? After choosing a random exit and walking around, I miraculously ran into J-House. It was one of the crazier moments of my life.






And this is where I decided to have my first meal in Japan:





It was excellent.  The curry was good, but I was especially impressed with the freshness of the oil they used.

After dinner, I went to Dotunbori, near Namba station, where all the good restaurants are at (supposedly).





And I saw this place, which reminded me of Bryan:



...so I had to eat here.

my second meal in Japan:



It was good, but it wasn't great. It was actually quite similar to Yoshinoya back in Cali. For the rest of the day, I walked around Namba station and went back to the armpits of Osaka I mean er, the hotel.

Once in a blue moon, I like to take a look at "suggested friends" link on facebook.  To find new friends?  no.  Then why, you might ask.  And the reason is, I like to search for people that unfriended me on facebook.  I can't name everyone that has, but I can name you five people that have.  Granted, I wasn't really close with some of those people, but that doesn't change this:  I'll remember you fuckers.  har har. just kidding.  well, 98% of it was a joke.  I'd love to say that I don't give a damn and play it off cool, but in reality, I do care slightly. If I could express my nonchalance on a pie graph, it would be 98% whatevers and 2% what the fuck. 

Sure they'll probably never see me again, but I can say the same thing to about a hundred other people, and I'm sure most people can.  But I don't unfriend people, just because it takes too much damn effort to go through the list, choose my targets, evaluate my past relationship with them, predict our future relationship, execute, and take the risk of that person finding out and secretly hating me.  All I can say is that at least 5 people were willing to go through all that trouble or hate my guts.  whee. 

Okay, I lost interest in this topic already.  I bought a mini globe last week.  It's fantastic.

Reviewing New Year's Resolutions

I think this is a good time to review my new year's resolutions:

1.  Be Healthy:  (Both watching what I eat and exercising)

This was a miserable failure so far. 

2.  Read 2 books a week:  

This was a 'half' failure.  I realized that it's just too difficult to read two books a week without sacrificing a lot of what I enjoy doing.  I shall read just one book a week now. 

3.  Learn another language.  

Again, a complete failure.  I studied Japanese for about 2 weeks.

4.  Expand my vocab.  

Can you guess the result?

What this complete failure of 'internal' policies indicates is that habits are incredibly difficult to change, especially if you're an old man like I am.  The first step of keeping my new year's resolution should begin with identifying an undesirable & time wasting habit, not by listing desirable habits.  My undesirable and time-wasting habit is droning on the internet (I think that expression is wrong but oh well).

I had criticized people who mindlessly switch channels while watching tv, but in all honesty, that is exactly what I do on the internet.  I don't really read on the internet, I just drone. 

(At this point, I feel a compulsive need to look up the word drone.  the second definition of the verb drone, in Merriam & Webster's dictionary, is:

:to pass, proceed, or act in a dull, drowsy, or indifferent manner.  So I guess 'to drone on the internet,' is not a grammatically incorrect sentence, although it does sound awkward.  Drone on the internet.  Drone on the internet.  Drone on the internet.  It does sound weird.

As a transitive verb, the second definition is:

: to pass or spend in dull or monotonous activity or in idleness.  Okay, this one I was sure of.  I just drone.

But anyways, I have an internet addiction problem that I need to address.  I think I wrote about this already, but when my mom came over and I let her watch Korean dramas on my laptop.  Two things I realized was: 1. I had so much time on my hands that I didn't know what to do.  2. I felt like quitting cigarettes, just not as intense. 


...I would also say, 'blog more often,' but that's completely against my less internet policy.

Snow.




And one more for kicks:



I'm the dude in white (right).