Osaka: another big, bustling, grey city

I got to Osaka about 4 hours after leaving Sendai (man I love the shinkansens), so thankfully it was still light out (I've grown to dislike arriving in new big cities at night after my experiences in Shanghai and Tokyo), and I easily found my way over to the hostel, Guesthouse KOMA. Like I mentioned before, I tried my best to wing as much of the trip as possible, but it's hard to do it in a country like Japan, and I fully realized it staying in Osaka. I actually had no intentions of staying in Osaka. I wanted to stay in Kyoto for a week, and visit Osaka as a day trip (since it's only 15 minutes away by shinkansen), but because I planned the rest of my trip on my last day in Sapporo, I found there was no room in any of the hostels in Kyoto for the first 2 nights of the week, and only the decent hostels in Osaka had open spaces left. So I guess the trade-off of trying to do a freestyle trip is having to stay at some not-so-clean hostels every now and then. Guesthouse KOMA was this, surprisingly dirty (which was strange since it was Japan)...it was almost as dirty as my rooms in Shanghai! But at least this time I knew what to expect going in (based on the reviews I read) so it wasn't a shock to me like in Shanghai. It was the best rated hostel left in Osaka with available beds...I can't even imagine what the other remaining hostels must have been like. Dirty kitchen and bathrooms, one dingy shower (for the entire hostel!), makeshift lockers, reported bed bug problems (luckily my bed had none), and not the friendliest staff around (also surprising for Japan)...I definitely would not recommend this place to other travellers. But thankfully it was only for 2 nights.

Arriving in Osaka (Shin-Osaka is the name of the train station where the shinkansen stops for Osaka).


Guesthouse KOMA. The one cool thing about the hostel was that I got to stay in the tatami mat dorm room (versus the dirtier regular-styled dorm rooms).

Anyway, by the time I got settled, the sun was already starting to set, so I decided to walk over to the famous night district of Osaka known as Dotonbori since it was within walking distance. It took a bit of wandering around to get there since the road on the map that appeared to lead directly from the hostel to the area actually had a break midway. So I ended up wandering a bit north first and ended up in the Shinsaibashi shopping arcade just north of Dotonbori. This place was packed, and it only got worse as I made my way closer to Dotonbori. By the time I got to the popular walking bridge called Ebisubashi bridge (which connects the Shinsaibashi shopping area with the Ebisubashi shopping area), there was not a single floor space that wasn't occupied by a body. But I could see why this area was such a popular tourist attraction - the arcade, which runs parallel to the Dotonbori canal, was lined with a variety of restaurants and food stalls that filled the air with fragrant odours, bustling game and pachinko centres, the usual busy souvenir shops, and more shops selling everything from unique Japanese snacks and candies to clothes and DVDs. And no matter what the buildings were used for, every building along the arcade was lit up like an over-decorated Christmas tree...I've never been to Manhattan, but I'm pretty sure the Dotonbori arcade could easily rival Manhattan at night in terms of the number of flashy neon lights and billboards in use. It made for a great night/metropolis atmosphere.

On the way to Dotonbori. This shot is from a bridge near the hostel overlooking the Dotonbori canal.


Shinsaibashi shopping arcade.


Approaching Dotonbori arcade from the Ebisubashi bridge...look at all the people!


The bright lights around Ebisubashi bridge.


Along Dotonbori arcade and some of its interesting buildings. The second photo is of the Shochikuza theatre.

One of the culinary specialties of Osaka was takoyaki - a popular Japanese snack/meal (depending on your appetite I guess) of diced baby octopus cooked in batter and topped with aonori (dried green seaweed powder), okonomiyaki sauce, and bonito flakes. I really wanted to try it, and the arcade was the perfect place - it was lined with several food stands selling the stuff, the majority of them with long line-ups...so I chose the one that had a moderate line-up because I didn't feel like waiting forever. I ordered a serving of 10 balls (they have a diametre of about an inch or so?)...I didn't expect them to be my only thing for dinner, but they were surprisingly filling (and I was used to eating less by now). After a 15 minute wait, I finally got to try them. Quite tasty - the outside was slightly crispy, but inside the batter was still quite soft, which was instantly contrasted by the chewiness of the baby octopus.

Making of the takoyaki - they're made in what looked like cast iron tray specifically designed for takoyaki (or something of a spherical nature).


My first time trying takoyaki.

After my quick dinner, I headed down to another area known as Nipponbashi...I prefer it's other name "Den Den Town"...an area full of shops selling electronics (new and used), similar to Akihabara in Tokyo. By the time I got there, it was near closing time so most of the shops were starting to close up. There was a 7-floor store there called Shanghai XTD that was dedicated purely to the Chinese customer (with sales people who spoke fluent Mandarin!), which was surprising to see. After briefly browsing through a few open-box netbooks, I made my way over to the nearby shopping alley known as Doguya-suji arcade, a shopping arcade with shops that only sell kitchenware and related things. It's where restaurants come to buy their supplies, as well as the fake food models that many Japanese restaurants use in their front window display cases to showcase what they serve...unfortunately all the shops were closed when I got there, so I didn't get to see anything interesting. So I started to work my way back to the hostel, passing through Ebisubashi shopping arcade along the way (which has a ridiculous number of pachinko parlours - basically Japanese psuedo-gambling centres that use pinballs instead of money, and where only prizes can be exchanged for the winnings, since gambling is illegal in Japan...since photos aren't allowed in the centres, it's better if you just Wikipedia it to get a better idea of what I mean), and then through some random streets.

Den Den Town.


One of the many pachinko parlours in Ebisubashi shopping arcade.


Some of the interesting buildings on the walk back. The first photo is of an entertainment complex building called Namba Hips, and the cool thing about the building is that the peanut shape space houses a 74m freefall ride...but I didn't ride it, it was quite pricey for just a freefall ride. The second photo is what I can only asume to be a shopping plaza, because there was a different clothing display in each of those many windows.


A rare look (at least for me) inside a Japanese ambulance...I happened to pass it was I wandered through random roads back to the hostel.


Along the same street where I saw the ambulance, I passed by the interestingly designed Dotonbori Hotel.


A view of the Dotonbori canal as I got closer to the hostel (west of the Dotonbori arcade). This small area had a couple of upscale restaurants. The large crowd in the background was wedding party leaving one of the restaurants. It was strange - when I passed by the group, a couple police officers were questioning some members of the party, and I saw some wet footprints near rail beside the canal, and a few pieces of clothes nearby...I guess someone got a little too drunk and decided a swim would be nice?


A bag of 4 different baked goodies I picked up along the walk back. They were a "deal" (in Japan) - I passed by a bakery as it was closing that was selling the leftovers of the day at a reduced price...just under $4 CDN for the bag.

Oktoberfest...in Sendai?!?

I caught the early train out of Sapporo on the 20th so that I could have as much time as possible to see Sendai, my next stop (northeast of Tokyo, the capital of the Tohoku prefecture). It was still a long train ride - 8 hours in total. It was kind of bittersweet leaving Hokkaido. I loved my time up there, and really liked Sapporo, but I knew there was so much more of Japan to see and I was probably getting too comfortable staying in Sapporo anyway.

On the way to Sendai.

When I got into Sendai, it was already almost 4PM, meaning I missed the majority of tourist attractions, and I was planning to stay in Sendai only for a night as a stopover point before continuing to the Kansai prefecture (since the train ride would have been brutally long if I went straight there from Sapporo). I wasn't able to find a hostel to stay at in Sendai, but luckily I managed to find a guy (who lived in Sendai) I met on the site www.couchsurfing.org who was kind enough to let me crash at his place for the night. For those that don't know of the site, Couch Surfing is an awesome networking site for travellers, like me, who like to meet people (especially locals), with an added bonus of saving some money on living expenses. I actually didn't know about the site before I began my trip, but one of the guys I met in Sapporo let me know about it and I'm glad he did.

Anyway, I met up with Rafael, originally from Mexico, who had been living in Sendai for the last few years while pursuing a PhD in robotics. He was a really cool guy, very friendly, and definitely tried to make me feel at home.

Rafael's place.

After meeting up with him and dropping off my bags at his place, he told me about an Oktoberfest-like beer festival that happened to be going on in Sendai that week. With most tourist places closed by this time, and not too many things to look at anyway (according to Rafael and a couple other people I met later that night...Sendai is really more of a large university town with all the schools in the area), I was more than happy to tag along. It was totally unexpected...an "Oktoberfest"...in Japan! And if Rafael had never told me about it, I would have had no clue it even existed!

At the gate entrance.

Shortly after arriving, we met some of Rafael's friends (mostly other English teachers and a couple of Japanese locals). We grabbed some beers from the nearby convenies, because it was pricey to drink at the festival, and then headed in. Again, I was totally surprised - not only by the dedication to the German theme (only German brews were served along with German foods like sausages and the like, and German music later on...), but also by the sheer number of Japanese people there (well how often is a beer festival not crowded haha)!

Some initial photos.

So we managed to grab an empty table, then grabbed some beers (and yes they were expensive, $13 CDN for a glass) and chatted for a while. A few other people Rafael knew joined us, and then a German band went on stage and started performing...that's when the real party started. I've never been to the real Oktoberfest (though I will have to some day), but the band tried it's hardest to replicate the atmosphere (despite all the Japanese), and the Japanese crowd really got into it - singing and clapping along, raising glasses according to the drinking instructions song (I don't know how to really describe it, and since I've never been to a real Oktoberfest, I don't know the real name for it, but for those that have been to an Oktoberfest-like festival, you'll probably know what I'm talking about), and even dancing! But I'm not going to try to describe it in words when pictures do a much better job.

Me and Rafael.


My beer.


The German band (with full costumes!).


The crazy atmosphere!


Some of the people I met that night (sorry I forgot all their names!). The guy on the right in the 2nd photo was actually from Toronto too (teaching English in Japan)!

The festival ended at 10PM every night, so the group of us headed out to continue the party, and after some wandering they decided on karaoke. Unfortunately, because I had to wake up so early in the morning to catch the train (and I was working with only 2 hours of sleep because it just so happened I had met the loudest snorer ever at the hostel on my final night in Sapporo - man those Japanese snore loud - he woke up everyone in the room in the middle of the night!), I was dead tired by the time they settled on a place to go, so I went back to Rafael's place to catch some much needed sleep. It was a great night even though it ended early for me, and I was quite tipsy by the end of the night (from barely eating anything for dinner and from all the the beers - we snuck beers from the convenies into the festival after buying the one beer to save money). Bonus: a couple of us, including myself, even got some free much-needed burgers from McD's (some random Japanese guy we met on the street - not a McD's employee - gave us a bunch of free burger coupons when he heard some of us talking about getting some food)! Plus, I was planning to wake up early again the next morning so that I could go to nearby Matsushima - the site of one of the 3 most scenic places in Japan - before heading on to my next stop, Osaka.

The arcade alley where we got our free burgers and where the rest of the group eventually went for karaoke.

The next morning, I awoke to an empty room. Rafael is a hardcore partyer - he told me he'd probably stay out all night, and he really did. Luckily, I managed to run into him around 7:30AM outside the subway station near his place as he was returning home so I could say goodbye in person. After stashing my bags in the Sendai train station, I was off to Matsushima, about 45 minutes away by train.


The next morning, on the way to the subway station. The spiders are huge in Honshu (the main island of Japan).


Outside Sendai station.


At the Matsushima train station.

Matsushima is a really small town known as one of the 3 most scenic spots in Japan because of the arrangement of the group of many tiny islands that form Matsushima. Everything is accessible by foot, and I pretty much got to see what I wanted to see in the few hours I was there (except for a sightseeing cruise of the islands, which I couldn't afford).

Making my way from the train station, overlooking Matsushima Bay.


Some of the nearby islands. You'll be noticing some pale blotches in the same spots in the next few pictures - I didn't realize my lens had gotten smudged.

I first wandered over to Godaido, a small temple that is situated on a tiny island on the shores of Matushima.

Some shots from Godaido. I haven't included a photo of the temple because it wasn't anything special.


Godaido from afar.

Then I headed over to Fukuurajima (Fukuura Island), one of the larger islets near the shore, accessible by a 252m long walking toll bridge. It's popular for both the bridge and the islet itself, as it provides a good chance to explore how the islets of the area look - completely covered in pine trees. It took me about 30 minutes to walk around the entire island - mainly because I stopped to take pictures, tried to enjoy the view (despite having to rush), and even explored a closed off path.

Along the bridge.


Some fisherman working nearby the bridge.


Fukuurajima and the surrounding islets. I didn't get to fully appreciate the beauty of the area because I was sort of rushing (so I could catch my train to Osaka), but looking back now, it was quite scenic.


The bridge from Fukuurajima.

I got back to Sendai train station around noon to catch the train to my next stop: the bustling city of Osaka.

Leaving Sendai.

Back in T.O.! (temporarily)

Yup, it wasn't my original plan, but I have an interview in Indianapolis at the beginning of November, and I didn't have enough money to stay longer in Japan, so I came home for around 2 weeks to take care of the interview. I left Japan on Oct. 11 for HK, and then left HK from Toronto on Oct. 20. Despite having a lot of free time HK, I just couldn't get around to blogging for some reason.

But now that I'm back home, I'm going to be slowly releasing updates on the rest of my trip in Japan and HK, hopefully before I leave for New Zealand (after I finish my interview) on Nov. 8. I'm still jetlagged, and I think I caught something on the flights home because I'm a little under the whether with a throat infection now.

Stay posted!