final osaka; first kyushu!
Mar. 9th, 2010 04:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
arishaDay 17 (Monday, January 26, 2009)
Sad to say, we have reached the end of my nine fantabulous days in Osaka. :( I really loved my stay in Osaka, although I felt I'd only just begun to really discover the city. I definitely hope to go back one day. <3
So I woke up early - no sleeping late when you have to check out! -, finished packing, then went down and checked out, which at this hotel basically just meant throwing my keycard into a box at the front desk (although one of the employees did say good-bye to me x) ). Then I messed around online for a bit until I got bored and decided to head to the station.
Parting shot of my hotel, Fifty's Osaka. My room was on the second floor, number 222 I think? - one of the middleish rooms on the right side there. I really would recommend this hotel (and its counterpart in Tokyo). It's fairly basic but suited my needs perfectly.
Soho's Cafe is a cafe located within the hotel, attached to the lobby, but its hours are such that I actually was never there when it was open. Fitting the name of "Fifty's," though, it's decorated with photos of classic movie stars (by which I mean classic American movie stars) and plays an oldies station (by which I mean an American oldies station) all day and all night. Kinda cool, haha. The computers that I made use of every day were to the left of the main entrance, right up along the windows.
Extreme close-up!!
Having crossed the street once and then again, this was the view as I began my walk to the Awaza subway station. The school is on the left, and at the corner I would turn left.
This is pretty much my favourite parking lot ever, and I think this is the only time I saw it with an empty stall. I enjoyed imagining someone being all, "I know the perfect parking spot!!," but every time they try to park here, it's full. xD Also note the poster that I showed you a better picture of a few entries ago. Seriously, that poster was everywhere!!
This is a really poor photo of a building that I liked to think of as "the Lego house," because it was all this flat cream colour except for the front, which had one red-framed window and one red-framed door, just like the houses my brother and I used to make out of Lego. xD
From Awaza I made my way to Shin-Osaka Station, where I stashed my luggage in a big locker and then hopped on a train to Osaka Station. I didn't really have any plans for this day, but I had been looking up Disney store locations the night before, and so inevitably I decided to visit another one. From Osaka Station I had to walk about a block to find a mall called HEP FIVE, and oh my god it took me so ridiculously long. I think I got lost about twenty times and I'm not even really sure why. (I also did this one really awesome maneuver where I got on a moving sidewalk only to realize I was going the wrong way, so when the sidewalk ended I stepped off only to step right back onto the one going in the opposite direction. CRAZY FOREIGNER!!!) But yay perseverance, because eventually I managed to find it.
This is perhaps the most terrifying mall art I have ever seen. GIANT RED SPERM WHALE OF DOOM!!!! ... and baby!
Also you can totally see the Disney store just under the whale's tale, which I didn't even realize until just now.
Disney store!!! :D Aladdin characters in the Disney store!!!
Those of you who have never been to a Disney store with me should probably feel lucky, lol. I'm pretty sure I was in this store for at least half an hour (the video they were playing had done a whole loop and started another by the time I left), looking at every single thing. And I really enjoyed it, too! xD This is amusing to me because I basically abhor shopping in any sort of store that is not a bookstore or a Disney store. Anyway, I bought two boxes of ~villain chocolate~ that I was totally going to give as gifts until I got home and decided I wanted to eat them myself, as well as Mickey Mouse-shaped headphones for my Mom to use with her iPod and a Disney princess case for my Nintendo DS. (As if it wasn't pink enough before, lol!) The staff at this store were super nice and attentive, and one of them brought me a basket when she saw that I was carrying around all that stuff, haha aww. They also offered me a store membership sort of thing, which I would totally have taken them up on if only I didn't live in a totally different country! x) Remembering these conversations really makes me think that my theory is true: the most Japanese I spoke while in Japan was with Disney employees. But it's easy to talk to them! They're so happy and nice! :D
After that exciting adventure I returned to Shin-Osaka and ... wandered. :/ This was almost as much of a nothing day as the day when I didn't go to the museum. Looking back I'm all, "I had so much time to spare, I could've done anything in Osaka or Kyoto, why didn't I!!," but at the time I was worried that I would get lost and miss the train that I had told![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
athena_crikey I would be on. Although oh man, if Osaka's Human Rights Museum hadn't been closed on Mondays, I totally would've visited that. Of course the day when I most wanted to visit it would be the day when it was closed. :P Oh well, next time!!
I bought a snack from this convenience store in Shin-Osaka Station. I took a picture because We have a "heart" in our shop just strikes me as a really creepy slogan.
I stepped outside for a moment to photograph this little clump of snow. It was so unbearably cold most of the time that I was in Japan (you may or may not have noticed that I'm wearing three layers in most of the photos I've posted, which is something I never ever do at home) that I would never have been suprised had it started to snow. While at Tokyo Disney I was secretly kind of hoping that it would snow, just because how often do you get to see a Disney park covered in white? So yeah, I admit I was a little disappointed that the only snow I saw during my trip was the brief sprinkling of snow that I saw in Kyoto the day I took the bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka, and ... this pathetic little snowball outside Shin-Osaka Station. :|
So I wandered for a while, and then I sat on the floor for a while, and all of this was a bad idea not just because I wasn't doing anything, but also because I find big train stations so reminiscent of airports that, in hanging around in one all afternoon, I started feeling like I was about to board my plane home. So instead of being all, "Yay, I have three more days in Japan!," after a while I started to feel more like, "Wait, I have three more days in Japan?," and it just wasn't good. Sooooo ... yeah. I think I shall try very hard to avoid this sort of thing next time.
Anyway, enough of that.
When it was time, I got my bullet train ticket and headed to the platform. These signs flash between Japanese and English but I took a picture of the Japanese version because doesn't it look more impressive? x) I got to the platform early, hence all the pictures, haha. You can see from this sign that I'm about to board a train to Hakata, although I'm not sure why it's labelled that because the final stop, which was actually my stop, is Kokura.
The bullet train!!
On the bullet train, I took more boredom-induced photos. I feel like if I rode in the silence car, I would totally miss my stop. What is it about bullet trains that makes me so sleepy?!
I don't know why, but I just love that line - "for the passengers who do not feel good, etc." I also enjoy that there are vending machines on the bullet train, and I kind of regret not checking them out. Novelty!
Looking down the aisle of the empty car. That door at the end is an automatic door. Snazzy!
My ticket on my armrest.
This is an advertisement encouraging you to take the bullet train when you're travelling from Hiroshima to Tokyo. I took this picture so I would have photographic evidence of the five minutes that I spent in Hiroshima.
Three hours after leaving Osaka, and somewhere in there passing through the tunnel that leads from the island of Honshu to the island of Kyushu, I arrived at Kokura Station, in the city of Kitakyushu. I soon got lost again (for like the billionth time this day, seriously what was wrong with me) and had to be rescued byathena_crikey, but rescue me she did, and then we took the ~monorail~ (I'M SORRY I ASSOCIATE MONORAILS WITH DISNEY PARKS I CAN'T HELP IT) to her apartment where she made me microwave pizza, and I think we also went to 7-11, and if anything else significant happened I am a horrible person and fail to remember it. By this point in the trip, I had stopped writing travelogue-type e-mails to my parents and friends (I didn't write a real e-mail the night of my day in Kyoto*, due to being super tired, and I never picked it up again), so I warn you, from this point on I'm just writing from memory! ^^;
*Seriously, here is the e-mail I sent that night:
TODAY I WENT TO KYOTO
FINALLY
:|
NEXT ENTRY: Exploring Kitakyushu! Another castle!!
(Also, omg, I just discovered I failed to upload the thirty-second video I took when I discovered the Magic Bullet infomercial - dubbed in Japanese! - on TV one night. Now the conundrum: do I upload it to YouTube for all to see, or would that be a complete and total waste of time and space? Hmmm ...)
Sad to say, we have reached the end of my nine fantabulous days in Osaka. :( I really loved my stay in Osaka, although I felt I'd only just begun to really discover the city. I definitely hope to go back one day. <3
So I woke up early - no sleeping late when you have to check out! -, finished packing, then went down and checked out, which at this hotel basically just meant throwing my keycard into a box at the front desk (although one of the employees did say good-bye to me x) ). Then I messed around online for a bit until I got bored and decided to head to the station.
Parting shot of my hotel, Fifty's Osaka. My room was on the second floor, number 222 I think? - one of the middleish rooms on the right side there. I really would recommend this hotel (and its counterpart in Tokyo). It's fairly basic but suited my needs perfectly.
Soho's Cafe is a cafe located within the hotel, attached to the lobby, but its hours are such that I actually was never there when it was open. Fitting the name of "Fifty's," though, it's decorated with photos of classic movie stars (by which I mean classic American movie stars) and plays an oldies station (by which I mean an American oldies station) all day and all night. Kinda cool, haha. The computers that I made use of every day were to the left of the main entrance, right up along the windows.
Extreme close-up!!
Having crossed the street once and then again, this was the view as I began my walk to the Awaza subway station. The school is on the left, and at the corner I would turn left.
This is pretty much my favourite parking lot ever, and I think this is the only time I saw it with an empty stall. I enjoyed imagining someone being all, "I know the perfect parking spot!!," but every time they try to park here, it's full. xD Also note the poster that I showed you a better picture of a few entries ago. Seriously, that poster was everywhere!!
This is a really poor photo of a building that I liked to think of as "the Lego house," because it was all this flat cream colour except for the front, which had one red-framed window and one red-framed door, just like the houses my brother and I used to make out of Lego. xD
From Awaza I made my way to Shin-Osaka Station, where I stashed my luggage in a big locker and then hopped on a train to Osaka Station. I didn't really have any plans for this day, but I had been looking up Disney store locations the night before, and so inevitably I decided to visit another one. From Osaka Station I had to walk about a block to find a mall called HEP FIVE, and oh my god it took me so ridiculously long. I think I got lost about twenty times and I'm not even really sure why. (I also did this one really awesome maneuver where I got on a moving sidewalk only to realize I was going the wrong way, so when the sidewalk ended I stepped off only to step right back onto the one going in the opposite direction. CRAZY FOREIGNER!!!) But yay perseverance, because eventually I managed to find it.
This is perhaps the most terrifying mall art I have ever seen. GIANT RED SPERM WHALE OF DOOM!!!! ... and baby!
Also you can totally see the Disney store just under the whale's tale, which I didn't even realize until just now.
Disney store!!! :D Aladdin characters in the Disney store!!!
Those of you who have never been to a Disney store with me should probably feel lucky, lol. I'm pretty sure I was in this store for at least half an hour (the video they were playing had done a whole loop and started another by the time I left), looking at every single thing. And I really enjoyed it, too! xD This is amusing to me because I basically abhor shopping in any sort of store that is not a bookstore or a Disney store. Anyway, I bought two boxes of ~villain chocolate~ that I was totally going to give as gifts until I got home and decided I wanted to eat them myself, as well as Mickey Mouse-shaped headphones for my Mom to use with her iPod and a Disney princess case for my Nintendo DS. (As if it wasn't pink enough before, lol!) The staff at this store were super nice and attentive, and one of them brought me a basket when she saw that I was carrying around all that stuff, haha aww. They also offered me a store membership sort of thing, which I would totally have taken them up on if only I didn't live in a totally different country! x) Remembering these conversations really makes me think that my theory is true: the most Japanese I spoke while in Japan was with Disney employees. But it's easy to talk to them! They're so happy and nice! :D
After that exciting adventure I returned to Shin-Osaka and ... wandered. :/ This was almost as much of a nothing day as the day when I didn't go to the museum. Looking back I'm all, "I had so much time to spare, I could've done anything in Osaka or Kyoto, why didn't I!!," but at the time I was worried that I would get lost and miss the train that I had told
athena_crikey I would be on. Although oh man, if Osaka's Human Rights Museum hadn't been closed on Mondays, I totally would've visited that. Of course the day when I most wanted to visit it would be the day when it was closed. :P Oh well, next time!!I bought a snack from this convenience store in Shin-Osaka Station. I took a picture because We have a "heart" in our shop just strikes me as a really creepy slogan.
I stepped outside for a moment to photograph this little clump of snow. It was so unbearably cold most of the time that I was in Japan (you may or may not have noticed that I'm wearing three layers in most of the photos I've posted, which is something I never ever do at home) that I would never have been suprised had it started to snow. While at Tokyo Disney I was secretly kind of hoping that it would snow, just because how often do you get to see a Disney park covered in white? So yeah, I admit I was a little disappointed that the only snow I saw during my trip was the brief sprinkling of snow that I saw in Kyoto the day I took the bullet train from Tokyo to Osaka, and ... this pathetic little snowball outside Shin-Osaka Station. :|
So I wandered for a while, and then I sat on the floor for a while, and all of this was a bad idea not just because I wasn't doing anything, but also because I find big train stations so reminiscent of airports that, in hanging around in one all afternoon, I started feeling like I was about to board my plane home. So instead of being all, "Yay, I have three more days in Japan!," after a while I started to feel more like, "Wait, I have three more days in Japan?," and it just wasn't good. Sooooo ... yeah. I think I shall try very hard to avoid this sort of thing next time.
Anyway, enough of that.
When it was time, I got my bullet train ticket and headed to the platform. These signs flash between Japanese and English but I took a picture of the Japanese version because doesn't it look more impressive? x) I got to the platform early, hence all the pictures, haha. You can see from this sign that I'm about to board a train to Hakata, although I'm not sure why it's labelled that because the final stop, which was actually my stop, is Kokura.
The bullet train!!
On the bullet train, I took more boredom-induced photos. I feel like if I rode in the silence car, I would totally miss my stop. What is it about bullet trains that makes me so sleepy?!
I don't know why, but I just love that line - "for the passengers who do not feel good, etc." I also enjoy that there are vending machines on the bullet train, and I kind of regret not checking them out. Novelty!
Looking down the aisle of the empty car. That door at the end is an automatic door. Snazzy!
My ticket on my armrest.
This is an advertisement encouraging you to take the bullet train when you're travelling from Hiroshima to Tokyo. I took this picture so I would have photographic evidence of the five minutes that I spent in Hiroshima.
Three hours after leaving Osaka, and somewhere in there passing through the tunnel that leads from the island of Honshu to the island of Kyushu, I arrived at Kokura Station, in the city of Kitakyushu. I soon got lost again (for like the billionth time this day, seriously what was wrong with me) and had to be rescued by
athena_crikey, but rescue me she did, and then we took the ~monorail~ (I'M SORRY I ASSOCIATE MONORAILS WITH DISNEY PARKS I CAN'T HELP IT) to her apartment where she made me microwave pizza, and I think we also went to 7-11, and if anything else significant happened I am a horrible person and fail to remember it. By this point in the trip, I had stopped writing travelogue-type e-mails to my parents and friends (I didn't write a real e-mail the night of my day in Kyoto*, due to being super tired, and I never picked it up again), so I warn you, from this point on I'm just writing from memory! ^^;*Seriously, here is the e-mail I sent that night:
TODAY I WENT TO KYOTO
FINALLY
:|
NEXT ENTRY: Exploring Kitakyushu! Another castle!!
(Also, omg, I just discovered I failed to upload the thirty-second video I took when I discovered the Magic Bullet infomercial - dubbed in Japanese! - on TV one night. Now the conundrum: do I upload it to YouTube for all to see, or would that be a complete and total waste of time and space? Hmmm ...)