A Blog-Worthy Trip

We just returned from our second trip to Japan this summer and I must say, it's been very interesting and more fun then ever. Not just 'coz we had made lots more crazy fun Japanese friends, had horse meat or almost killed ourselves eating yakiniku lol... it's just crazy times in Japan all over again :D

We flew into Kansei International Airport for the first time and took the Shinkansen (bullet-train) to Tokyo immediately. Needless to say, upon arriving in Tokyo and being in some form of transportation for many more than 24 hours, the first night was pretty uneventful. The next few days we hung out with our friend Julie, had the best ramen in between shopping and hanging out, saw the Kohnos' and went to a beer garden atop Keio Shopping Mall and just had a really nice relaxing time.

Day four, we took the shinkansen to Nagoya where we met up with Jun (our ex-sushi chef at Rainbow Roll in Tokyo) who'd gotten married about a year ago and moved away. We saw him one night in Tokyo but it's just been different not being able to see him every trip. Our meal in Nagoya was interesting, to say the least. Not so much the food though is was very good - we had unagi on rice with green onions known as hitsumabushi. The real even for Julie and I was more about meeting Jun's wife. I mean, he's been putting up with a lot of crap from this psycho woman (yes, it's only his side of the story, true... but he's our friend... :D). So we're expecting a hot young babe and a little spoilt brat... in walked oba-san ie, old lady HAHAHA! (sorry no picture lol). Okay, so she isn't old; but we're sure she isn't in her 30s. The part that got us sick is that she's 10 weeks pregnant and is still anorexicly thin. Anywayz, she was nice enough... well other than that part about spilling my cup of tea on me hahaha but that's just an accident - or so we believe lol. We hung out a good half of the afternoon and then got on our merry way back onto the train to Osaka.

Osaka's been an interesting place for both Bruce and I. His first trip there, he fell deathly ill. His second trip there and my first with him, supposedly with my brother and his wife, the four of us got deathly ill in Tokyo the day before we were supposed to train it to Osaka. At the end of the day, they shortened their trip and went home while Bruce and I actually stomached the 3 hour train ride into the city, walked a good 20 mins around the blinding neon lights, turned right around and headed back to Tokyo. Fun... NOT! That was a good two years ago since we even mentioned Osaka again. We've sort of been avoiding the Osaka curse for a bit. This time, since we'd already been to Tokyo for Bruce's birthday in June, we figured we'd check out Osaka. Our friend Julie whom we missed in Tokyo on our last trip thought it would be fun to hang out with us in Osaka and vice versa... and so, the trip to Osaka was concrete.

To say the least, the start of our Osaka trip was less then ideal. We arrived, got to the hotel only to realize both Julie and us had made reservations at different hotels with the same name lol. Neither hotels had our reservations and Julie had actually made a mistake on her reservations lol. She was a little hard on herself since she is by profession, a quart-time travel agent... we headed to our hotel and found the room not abled with internet connection. We moved to hotel number three into our little cubicle and headed straight out to the restaurant that Julie's friend Junko had been waiting for us since 7pm. It was now past 9pm, crazy storming / typhooning and just insanely hot. This was the night we met Junko and restaurant owner Joe (yes, he's Japanese).

Day five, day two in Osaka, Joe took us to a fancy tempura place... and then we met Julie's friend Takashi. This was the night we had horse meat. Not just plain horse meat but RAW horse meat. Yup, horse sashimi hahaha! Honestly it was quite tasty... but I don't think I'd volunteerily order that. I mean, it's horse. YUK! We also had raw cow liver (this was not so tasty 'coz it just tastes way too livery for my liking) and just weird food. Most of them were tasty though... we went on to another bar where we met Hideki. Cool crazy quiet (well quiet to us 'coz he doesn't speak that much English lol) drank with us and then took us to a transexual bar hahaha! Yes, we went and yup, we had fun :D

Day (six) three, Bruce and I did the Osaka style eat-till-you-drop lunch at a what-seemed-like theme food court. It was very nice. We had some okonomiyaki, some tako yaki and honestly, we were so full we couldn't go on :) Night three, we hung out with Hideki for a couple of hours at a bar and sushi restaurant before meeting Junko for a crazy too-hot Korean/Japanese yakiniku. Ok, this was the moment Bruce thought about killing me. I'd been dreaming of grilled beef since our last trip in Tokyo when John took us to this awesome place and had the best beef... so when I mentioned it to Junko and all the transexuals that I love niku, they all said I have to go to this place. BIG MISTAKE lol! It's not fancy, nor was the meat lol... not air-conditioned so you know how HOT it was in this tight little space called a restaurant... no chairs so we had to kneel or pressed our asses on non-existent flat cushions... it was just hilariously not so funny hahaha. The husband was giving me I'm-gonna-kill-you looks and I was in so much pain I couldn't help but laugh and drink myself to a stupor lol. All in all, we had fun. Of course, after dinner, we had to close up the evening with more drinks at another bar :D

There is just too much to talk about to put them in black and white. Like the relationship pyramid that all these Japanese we met on this trip... who is sleeping with who, who's bf is actually married with a kid, who's paying a 7k alimony a month or who is impotent and who is about to get married but not dumping the lover lol. It's a trip! The watermelon so square it doesn't look real... People from Osaka are awesome and fun and crazy! Can't wait to get back there... but only if I get to check into a bigger hotel!!! :D