Silver Week Trip

Last week was considered 'Silver Week' here in Japan with five days of holiday.  I took two additional days off and traveled around with my old college friend who has been an ALT for two years already.  She was traveling with one of her friends to Kobe, Osaka and Awaji Island and let me join them.  I left Saturday morning, Sept 19th after skyping with my family back in Morton Grove for the first time!  Saturday was mostly traveling and taking trains all day.  I took local trains all the way to Tokyo, about three hours and bought my shinkansen ticket for Osaka.  Since it was the  first day of the holiday Tokyo station was packed and it was quite overwhelming, but exciting at the same time.  I ended up buying an unreserved seat and didn't have to wait long to get on the fastest shinkansen.  I really enjoyed riding the shinkansen, it was a very smooth ride and plenty of seat and luggage space.  There were bathrooms, vending machines, obentos and wireless internet available.  The shinkansen got me from Tokyo to Osaka in 2 1/2 hours.

I arrived at Osaka station around 6pm and met my friend, Sammi.  She also took local trains from Shizuoka and we were both pretty tired from traveling all day.  We grabbed a quick dinner and headed for our hotel.  We stayed at a dorm style hotel near Shin-Imamiya station.  Took the train to Kobe on Sunday and went to Harborland Park.  The park had a ferris wheel and rides for kids and lots of good shopping!  Sammi and I didn't even make it out of the station at first because there was an open market with lots of nice Japanese kitchenware, bento cloths and unique children's toys.  We both had our names inscribed in hiragana on chopsticks!  

Walked around the park and ate okonomiyaki for lunch.  Okonomiyaki is a cross between a pancake and pizza and filled with different ingredients.  Mine was onion, cabbage, pork with a japanese worchester/mayo sauce on top.  They put it on hot griddles on the table to keep it warm while we ate it.  It was delicious and this area, specifically Osaka is famous for its okonomiyaki.  Walked around the port and visited the Kobe Earthquake Memorial Park.  They had pictures, short video and area where you could see damage to the port.  We took a boat ride around Kobe port on the Ocean Prince.  It was perfect weather that day and the boat ride was so relaxing.  A nice ending to the day.

Monday we woke up early to meet up with Sammi's friend and two other ALTs.  Took the train and then walked to the ferry that would take us to Awaji Island.  Boarded tako (octopus) ferry, which got us to the island in about 30 minutes.  We soon discovered that transportation was not so easy on an island.  The bus only came once an hour, so we ended up walking and taking a taxi to get to our hotel.  Spent the day at Onokoro Park and had fun taking pictures in front of miniture famous landmarks from around the world.  Ate at the seafood restaurant next to our hotel.  They had a tank full of eels, fish, mussels and crabs.. now that's what I call fresh!  While we were waiting saw one of the cooks grab an eel out of the tank, someone was getting some fresh dinner!  I ordered sashimi and tried soy sauce with a raw egg in it for the first time.  The taste wasn't really different from reg. soy sauce, just a little thicker consistency.  

Tuesday we spent the day at England Hill Park.  Spent quite a bit on transportation since parks were towards other end of the island.  Saw a bunch of animals at the park- koala bears, kangaroos, chickens, sheep, large tortoise and jack rabbits.  We also made our own bread which was a lot of fun.  We were given a ball of dough and could shape it into our favorite character- I chose Totoro.  His face got distorted during the baking process, but he tasted delicious!  The park was split into two parts so we took a quick tram ride over to the other side.  Wasn't too much to look at besides a pond and petting farm.  Stopped at the gift shop on the way out to buy our omiyage.  In Japan when you go on a trip or vacation it is polite to bring back a gift (usually sweets) from your trip.  We bought sweets for co-workers since most of our schools knew we were traveling.  Awaji is known for onions believe it or not, so all of our gifts were onion flavored!  We wanted to see the whirlpool not too far from the park, but ran out of time to go before the boat tour ended for the day.  

Walked around the "downtown" of the island to find a place for dinner.  Decided on a small sushi place and attempted to order from Japanese menu without pictures!  Sammi tried her best to help Giselle and myself make sense of the katakana and kanji.  There were pictures of sushi platters in the window and Giselle and I tried to order something we had seen.  Sadly, both of us did not get our orders correct and she received mussels and I got squid and tuna.  I ate the tuna, but do not enjoy squid because of its chewy texture.  Oh well, trial and error!

Sorry this post is getting long, so I'm just going to include highlights from here on out.  Wednesday left the island and went back to Osaka.  Stayed at a hotel near Dotonbori, popular for nightlife and shopping.  Walked around and had my first taste of takoyaki (fried octopus).  Those of you that know me, know that I do not eat octopus, but since I was in Osaka I had to try their specialty.  We stood in line at the most popular vender for takoyaki.  I only tried one and that was enough for me!  It wasn't as bad as I thought, but will not be eating octopus in the future.  Spent the rest of the afternoon shopping in a very long 'shopping arcade' with 180 stores and restaurants.  This was truly a shop till you drop experience!  As soon as the sun went down the streets of Osaka lit up with neon signs and people everywhere.  It was exciting to take in all the sights and nightlife.  Quite the opposite atmosphere from Takahagi!

 

Thursday was spent at Universal Studios in Osaka.  I went to Universal in California a long time ago, but was looking forward to experiencing it in Japan.  Since it was a Thursday it wasn't too crowded, but lots of students invaded the park around mid afternoon.  Went on lots of rides, including a Hollywood rollercoaster that played music with speakers in your seat during the ride.  The favorite 3D ride was Spiderman and the least favorite was ET.  We all thought we were going to get to ride bicycles, but it turned out to be a really lame walking tour of the creation of ET!  So if you ever go to USJ do not stand in the long line for ET because it is not a ride!  Watched a few shows including a 35 min. version of Wicked.  The songs were sung in both English and Japanese, but it was really well done considering it was the shortened version.  Ate dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe- nice to have some American food!  An interesting experience at the restaurant happened when  I ordered a southwest salad and wanted to take half home.  I wasn't allowed a box unless I was going to eat the other half of the salad within the next hour.  I had never encountered this extreme health precaution before.  This caught me off guard because usually you are just given the box no questions asked.  So I said yes because I knew we would be back at the hotel where I could put it in the fridge soon.  Crashed back at the hotel and prepared to leave Friday.

Friday rode the trains all day back to Takahagi.  It was another long day of traveling, but had the weekend to recover.  All in all it was a great trip and I enjoyed venturing outside of Ibaraki to experience more of Japan.  I realized that I took every mode of transportation on this trip except the plane!  Used the train, subway, shinkansen, boat, ferry and tram.  I owe a lot to my friend Sammi because she was a wonderful guide that got us where we needed to be! Looking forward to being able to read signs, menus and having more adventures in Japan.