Ohio Gozymas!
It only struck me where we were going when we boarded our connection in Detroit. The proportion of Asian to non-Asian was worse than the faculty of math 😉
Arrived yesterday evening at like 6:00. After exchanging our vouchers for our rail passes (fingers crossed I don’t lose mine) we got on an “express” train to Osaka. I guess that express isn’t so express in a country that has “bullet” trains, cause it took pretty long to get here. There were more stops than on the entire young/university TTC line, I swear.
Anyways, met up with Flori’s friend, Martin. He escorted us to our hotel (Hotel Kinki) which we mistakenly entered through a back door where they were selling rooms by the hour (well, that’s what he told me. I don’t know what the sign said)
At the front desk we were checked in by a guy who said he was from Toronto. Cool!
Then headed to a bar in a different area of Osaka (We\re in Umeda, can’t remember where the bar was) and met up with some of Martin’s teaching friends. Pretty fun – lots of people our age with all sorts of accents. They were all going to stay out all night cause if you miss the last train back (it leaves at 12, and they live in Kyoto) it’s too expensive to get home until the first train in the morning.
Also, our hotel gave us Robe thingies with ties around the waist. Also, every bath/shower amenity including toothbrush/paste, razor, shampoo etc. It aint cheap, but this is the third most expensive city in the world.
One more thing – we still haven’t eaten a meal here. Ate fruit leathers and granola bars while we try and psyche ourselves up to go to a restaurant where we have no clue what we’re eating. So wish us luck 🙂