OSAKA PICTURES!!

I'm going to break my pictures up into two posts because there are so many pictures to look at and I want you to be able to enjoy them fully.

First i'll start with the Osaka pictures! 

Look at his little thing just sticking out there!
XD 

If you remember from the first post I went to Himeji with some lovely ladies I met the first day I was there. There were naked statues all over the place (and I guess there are a lot of naked statues all over Japan according to one of the girls but I haven't notice any in Tokyo...) 

At the end of this road is Himeji Castle. 

It read "Shiro Maru Hime" Which means white ball princess  

 This guy is like the mascot of  Himeji. I think it's a mochi ball (rice cake ball) with Himeji castle on it's head.

The part that's all in scaffolding is the main part of the Castle. Doesn't it look like their just building a hotel or something right on top of it though?

           

In spring the cherry blossoms make this place look even
more amazing. There were winter cherry blossoms
though so we didn't miss out completely.

This building is the part we got to walk through. It's a long corridor that surrounds part of the castle grounds and was originally were the princess' maids lived. During the Meji era (1860's-1900's) the castle was turned into a fortress and this part was turned into a sort of barracks for soldiers.

It's supposed to be a butterfly but it looks like a mosquito
to me. 

All the lords and rulers and whatnot choose flowers o,r in this case, butterflies for their emblems because beauty was what displayed power unlike in Europe where the castles look like fortresses and everyone had something fierce like a lion for the coat of arms.  

mmmm, so good!!

Then the next day we went to a local shrine and made mochi!! 

From L-R: Me, Santa, Lauren, Melanie, Teresa, Rudolph.

These are the three lovely ladies that let me join them on their escapades. Plus Santa and his reindeer. 

That little boy was so cute!!! XD

Let the mochi making commence! 

I wasn't able to make mine into a nice round ball
like everyone else...I think it's cuz i'm too white XD 

Nick the Aussie (in the bright jacket), and Ed
English 

Xmas dinner

I didn't get a good group photo but the guy in the yellow is
the other Aussie (the one who ended up in the wrong bed)
And the guy in the background is the American Navy
guy

She had a cold but I was just trying to keep warm. 

Me and Yukie on our way to Universal Studios Japan!

Even though it was the day after Xmas they still had Xmas everywhere. 

I had to fight little kids to get this picture!

We tried jumping but we couldn't time it right...

I fail at being a Vegetarian... 

Okonomiyaki time!!

This one was called the "Early American"
...it didn't taste as good as it looks though. I preferred the
Kimchee one. XD 

Okay, later i'll post the Kyoto pictures. Now, I'm going to go finish Biohazard! XD 

Osaka part 3

Written for December 26th, 2010 


Checked outta my hostel my 10am and met Yukie on the train to UNIVERSAL STUDIOS JAPAN!! It has been also...five or so years since I've seen Yukie and damn did that girl turn into one sexy mama ;P. We had a lovely train ride to universal city but once we got there it started to rain. I must reiterate how freaking cold it has been this whole trip. I guess the day after I left Tokyo dropped down below the 10's as well. Ah winter...

Anyway, because it was such a crappy day USJ was not crowded at all (unlike my trip to Disney Sea a couple weeks ago...that sucked). We got to ride most of the awesome rides (except for sider man and one other I think), and the most we had to wait was 40 minutes. The Jurassic Park ride was probably my favorite (and also the coldest...it's kinda like a splash mountain ride hence why it had the shortest line of 10 minutes because only crazy people like us were riding it in the rain). I think I like Universal Studios better than Disney. Less annoying music and more memorable characters from my childhood (I took a picture with Popeye!). The place was still done up in Xmas decor and all the workers were yelling Merry Christmas, despite it being the 26th. It was nice though. We spent most the day there despite being freezing cold the whole time and left at around 5-ish.

Outside of USJ they had a Tako Yaki (octopus balls) Museum! They had all these different things flavored as tako yaki and different tako yaki from around Japan. Even had Tako Yaki flavored ramune (Japanese soda pop), but I didn't buy any for some reason. Regretting it now. They also had a Museum dedicated to all the different characters of Universal Studios and Japan. A lot of Smurf dolls for some reason. And Family guy dolls as well which made me very happy because Family Guy is practically nonexistent over here although you can find The Simpson's almost everywhere you go. The creepiest thing they exhibited though has got to be the many faces of the Kewpi baby. Terrifying creature.

Got to Yukie's parents house at around 6pm where we proceeded to a yaki toori (various parts of cooked chicken) restaurant. Delicious. We were joined by her little cousin and her little brother (both of which are just too cute for their own good). For some reason though I could not understand a word that her dad said to me. I don't know if it was his accent (people in this part of Japan have pretty strange accents. Think of it as like how we regard southern accents in America) or if it was just him but damn. Not a word. When I go home back to Tokyo I'm going to try and use Osaka ben (osaka accent) as mush as possible so I can hear my host mom yell at me like, "that's not the proper way to talk! Speak clearly!". Then we called it a night.

Tomorrow we are going to try and sneak me into Spa World. They don't allow tattoos but we're going to try our best and cover them so they don't find out. Fingers crossed!!