Me in Japan

Osaka is unreal -- this is the Dotomburi neighborhood (of sci fi Blade Runner fame)

Welcome to Osaka

 

This is my FIRST TRIP TO JAPAN!

I seriously don't even know which direction to look!  Everything is so cool

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Okay here is the update from day one of our Japan trip

Mike had to come to Osaka for two days of board meetings so I came along with him.  We arrived into Osaka KIX airport last night at 11pm...

The cabbies here are awesome--they all are old men and wear white gloves and have white lace covering the backseat--a little bit of a step up from the good ol KL taxi cabs that are falling apart, but we love them nonetheless

Exhausted, at 11 at night we walked in to check in (Mike is on the left).  Side note: Mike comes to Japan probably once a month.  You can picture the look on my face when I walked into this place.  First thought: "Wow is this for real...?  This place is gooorgeous"  Second thought:  "While I'm at home changing poopy diapers, you get to stay here at this gorgeous setup?  How does this seem fair?" -- hehe -- I give him a hard time 

We woke up in the morning to see the Osaka skyline.  Osaka is like a more down to earth Tokyo -- it is the #2 city in Japan

Okay so Mike has been talking up the toilets in Japan  -- I finally get to experience them for myself -- they are super high tech with heated seats and like a billion buttons and sprays and stuff

I guess Mike says the Japanese love their toilets (or "washlets" as the sign says) and so they have trouble staying any country outside of Japan where the toilets aren't as accommodating

Okay seriously can I just live here?

Okay so my first day out.  Mike was in meetings and hanging out at the hotel alone I was feeling a little too "Lost in Translation" (a much less cute version of Scarlet Johansson) so I raided my Lonely Planet for a must do list of Osaka -- I headed out to walk all the way down to the Dotomburi neighborhood -- here are pics of the walk

There are vending machines with drinks everywhere (see the yellow boxes on the right)

Okay so I need a bit of hairspray.  Can you seriously imagine me trying to find a little can of hairspray in this crazy shop?  I tried so hard but EVERYTHING is in Japanese and I couldn't figure out which cans were hairspray (you'd think it would be obvious but it wasn't) so I ended up giving up and walking out empty handed.

This little old lady was so cute making her little snacks on a stick -- I had no idea what they were but I bought two sticks anyway

It turns out they were like soft sticky rice balls dipped in some sort of sesame sauce -- pretty good but I don't think I'll be getting any more

Okay I am still walking down to find the Dotomburi neighborhood and I found another little snack stand.  This cute lady was selling these balls full of meat and soup -- I ordered a few and walked around eating them on chopsticks

Okay these actually were really good and I will have to get more next time

I finally made it to the famous Dotomburi neighborhood.   This is the Dotomburi neighborhood.

The theatre where they perform traditional Japanese arts

This area is famous for inspiring sci fi Blade Runner scenes

I don't even know where to look -- it was cool.  I kept taking pictures then realizing who is going to want to look at all these pictures!  I obviously edited a ton out for the blog -- you can only look at so many giant neon signs

This area is known for its fried octopus -- a ton of people were lined up at this shop waiting to get their fried octopus balls

Okay next up...Udon noodles!

I found this little noodle joint where everyone sits at a long bar and you order your meal from a vending machine outside before you even go in to sit down

The vending machine is on the left -- seriously I cannot stress how much everything is in Japanese.  I had NO idea what I was ordering.  The worker guy from inside had to come out to help me and he was laughing because I was so clueless -- it was hilarious

Okay here I am (in black) sitting up at the bar waiting patiently for my udon noodles

Next up...Amerika-Mura neighborhood and...

...the love hotels!

I read about these "love hotels" in my guidebook -- they are hotels you can rent out for the night or just for a few hours even during the day -- I was so stoked when I finally saw that one I HAD to take a pic for the blog

Crazy Japanese add for Vitamin Water -- so unlike the simple Vitamin Water adds in the US

Another thing I read about in the book -- the gambling arcades -- I really wanted to go up the escalator and take a peak but since I was alone I guess I didn't have enough guts

Bikes are all the rage here --

Picture Time

A new favorite toy is Helen's reading glasses.  We think Buddy is looking very emo in this photo

Trip to the Lake Gardens with Joseph's Chinese tutor.  He's sick of lessons at home, so outside he got to learn things such as water, tree, cloud...

We walked by a man cutting down a banana plant.  He let Joseph hold the "heart" which is the flower in the center.  You can see the little baby bananas below the pink flower.  Joseph is holding a baby banana with his left hand.

When we weren't looking Joseph took a bite of the pink heart--I was yelling "noooooo that's yuuucky" and he was dying laughing

Next we found some ducks.  We didn't have anything to feed them so I rummaged through the bag and came up with some of Joseph's snacks.  Louise and I were dying laughing that we were throwing $18 MYR Organic GFCF Cheerios to ducks who did NOT appreciate them as they would just look at them floating, taste them a bit, then swim away

Next we found a little hut to sit in to do the lesson and the painting activity

I was worried about Joseph getting paint on his clothes, so the clothes came off!

It was the annual orchid show so there were thousands of orchids planted everywhere.  I just kept seeing dollar signs in my head as I know each one stem of orchid sells for so much $ in the US

 Below pics - Riding the little train around the Lake Gardens.  Joseph loved it

 When we got home, he was so tired he was being pretty slap-happy silly.  Here he is saying "baby crawl" on our elevator lobby floor

 A typical scene at home, two boys making water messes in Helen's bathroom as Andrew goes Pee Pee in the potty.  Notice Joseph standing in HElen's laundry bin--a feat he is very proud of, especially since I have not pulled him out yet

 Andrew has been on some medications lately.  Here is the little story I wrote to help Buddy take his meds (which don't taste great)

He doesn't want to take the medicine (we have to hide in muffins or burgers), so to distract me from giving it to him, he reads the sign to me out loud.  I am so darn excited and shocked that he is actually reading so many words I almost let him get away without taking the medicine...almost.

32 words in a row...that's definitely a record even for Andrew.  Congrats to our little three year old

Until next time...