Maybe a future home.

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Had to pack to leave our hotel, Fukuoka, and Japan.

Checked out of the room, we checked our bags in the room and went to chase down those cosmetics. Laura ultimately decided to wait until Seoul, as they have more, and less expensive products. Also they have much cheaper post office international parcel services. Like half the price of mailing from Japan.

We also went shopping for a cooler weather jacket so laura doesn't die in the "freezing mainland" weather.

Not settling on anything we got lunch. Curry from one of the national franchises here in Japan Coco Ichi. It was k
Ok, definitely had the mass market taste, but was inexpensive and filling.

We then went to Uni Qlo and got laura a woobie jacket. And by that I mean it is a jacket, that is basically made out of what feels like a woobie.

We went back to the hotel to gather our things and roll to the airport.

The Fukuoka airport was super chill. But the smallest by far, but they had an international terminal that had 10ish gates.

While checking in there was a problem with Laura's passport babe matching the ticket, maybe we mistyped it, or maybe the system messed up her middle name/last name. The Eastar ticketing agents fixed it right up, took a little while. But I made sure we showed with plenty of time for all such inconveniences.

We then spent the rest of our yen change at the duty free, buying mostly odd flavored kit kats.

We boarded the plane and tried to Sleep. It was only an 80 minute flight, and they had to sling duty free cigarettes so there was alot of noise and lights.

When we landed the Korean lady next to us jumped up in her seat. Literally stood in the seat to get her bag out.

When I say landed I mean, the plane touched the ground, and reduced to teach speed, not reached the terminal, not slowed to a crawl while navigating tarmac traffic. Like just touched down.

The flight attendants yelled at her, she was all "no no, it's ok"

Flight attendant was having none of that shit "Maam, this is blocking the aisle" and just picked it up and put it back in the overhead. ***

Seoul is enormous. Much like Tokyo. It took us about an hour to get from the airport to our AirBnB just north downtown.

This place is great. It's a fully furnished brand new apartment. So new there is still plastic film on some of the door hardware.

Very hungry we found a 24 hour fried chicken place. The Koreans have their own take chicken, and it is great.

On the way to the place we went through the fashion shipping district. This shit is wild. It seems as though it is bushels and boxes of clothes that seem to have fallen off of a truck and found their way to the open air and claustrophobic warrens, alleys, and basements. Oh this place was full of people, even at 2300. We will investigate this further.

The restaurant was great, cheap, and had a variety of draft beers. It was everything we needed. I had a pilsner, laura head a nut brown ale, we had wings spicy, and wings garlicy. It was fantastic. The spice was just on the cusp of being too much, but still had an the flavor. The soy-garlic was a perfect compliment. The beer was good too, compared to the light lagers of Japan, getting even close to a craft draft beer was very exciting. We had 2 beers each, and easily 14-15 wings of each the spicy and garlic kinds. And it totaled 44,000 won, so 37usd.

We made our way home, for sleeps.



*** All of this is speculated dialogue, they were speaking Korean, I have no clue what was actually being said

Strangers (yelling) in a Strange Land

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woke up late, because we had limited plans for the day, and we had to do preliminary research on getting health insurance for next year, cause the army cut me loose the day my DD214 was good.

Its pretty shiesty that the army doesnt even finish out the calendar month, or offer any kind of affordable extension coverage while you look for a new job. If you electively seperate from the army at the end of your contract you get nothing, at 0000 or midnight on the day you seperate, you are flapping in the wind without coverage.

Anyways we did some of that and headed out walking. Going for Ramen about a mile away from the hotel, it was very good. The spicy Tan Tan styled ramen, not as good as that fist place in Ueno, but pretty good, laura and i got basically the same thing, i just had more lettuce, and some little dried shimps.

Then we went to another department store, originally because they had more hobby stuff, but turns out they have a bunch of natural and organic cosmetics, so laura was excited. Identifying stuff that she would actually want to purchase we took note and continued on our walk.

We went to a clothing shipping distrct, hunting for a colder weather jacket for laura, the main second hand store didnt have anything that worked, her arms are too long to fit properly in all the

cute

japanese jackets. Damn physiological differences due to Japans homogeneity...

We then went to a craft beer price with supposedly decent prices, only to learn that Tuesdays are their new day off (today is tuesday). Disappointed we settled on a british pub styled restaurant, drank some well priced FULL PINTS of beer, we decided on dinner.

I wanted Okonomiyaki or Sobeyaki, so I found a place close to home and we set off.

The place was small, and empty, we walked in, and almost immediately started getting berated by the proprietor, in Japanse. I am still not sure what he was yelling about. He didnt offer us a seat, he kinda just yelled at us. I think it was something along the lines of "This isnt like all the other Okonomiyaki places tourists go to, if you want the shit you can get there go there, i make it the way i make it. Im sick of tourists coming in here expecting it to be the way they read about online, and ordering like three or four things, and not liking it and not eating it. if you want that you can go!"

I did my best to assure him that ANYTHING he serves us we will eat. At that point i had been on the recieving end of his excitedness for too long to bail. He was almost entirely focused on me, laura was there, but not getting yelled at, she tried to smile and make eye contact with the wife/sous chef, and communicate that we are sorry, and we just want to eat the food.

So he calmed down, i google translated "whatever you recommend, we will eat" and he finally invited us to sit down, and he started making food.

he made an okonomiyaki and soba yaki. he made it how he wanted, and it was delicious, THe okonomiyaki was the egg battered vegetables that we were expecting, if a bit more vegetabl-y than egg-y that he tossed more of those little dried shimps into. And the noodles were fried up, liberally doused in the traditional sauce, and made extra special with what im guessing was cow intestines, that he fried up on the grill with the noodles.

Ultimately the meal was ENTIRELY worth getting yelled at for 5 minutes, and struggling through the language barrier. I would NOT recommend this to someone that isnt willing to work for their food, to embrace the cultural divide and attempt to overcome it.

International Relations

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First full day in Fukuoka, and we decided to go to Hiroshima. Its a 280km trip, but the high speed trains for 300 km/h so it took about an hour. So we got more use out of our JR pass, napped in the train, and popped out in Hiroshima.

We went to Hiroshima specifically to visit the Peace Museum, unfortunately a good portion of the musuem is closed for renovations, but it was still totally worth the train ride, and the 200 yen entry fee.

We came into the daylight from the enormous trainstation/mall and the bus to the museum was about to pull away from the station. We jogged our way to the bus, and one of the bus/station employees spotted us and waved the bus down, telling us which stop to get off on.

The busdriver was also pretty cool. Anyways, the museum is on an island that has since been turned into a park.

If you didnt know Hiroshima was the site of the first bellicose use of a Nuclear Weapon. WWII was winding down, Hitler had killed himself and Nazi Germany had surrendured, the US redoubled their efforts in the Pacific, considering way to end the War in the Pacific quickly and with minimal loss of US/Allied life.

Taking the Islands in the South Pacific had been horrendous, the Japenese were tenacious defenders, and were all the more vehement in the fighting as the US approached the mainland. Okinawa was one of the hardest fought battles of the war. All of this did not bode well for the invasion of the Japenese mainlan. US planners figured it was going to cost tens of thousands of American lives, and presumed the Japenese peoplew would fight literally to the death.

Concurrently the Manhattan Project was churing out usable results, fear of the Nazi Atomic Bomb had led to a herculean effort by the US to develop the bomb first.

The growing gulf between US and Soviet interests, the difficulty of invading Japan, and justifying the expense of developing the weapons culminated in the Enola Gay and sister B-29s took off on August 5th 1945 to usher in the Atomic Age.

Hiroshima had been mostly spared of the firebombing wrought on much of Japan (see earlier entry about Osaka), given it relative intactness, industrial capacity, and use as an army depot Hiroshima was selected as the target.

The actual visual target was a bridge in the center of the city, the bomber missed the bridge by a few hundred meters, the bomb detonated at an altitude of 600m, creating a fireball over 2000 degrees C.

Conflagration enveloped the city, many thousands lost their lives instantly, many thousands more over the course of the following weeks as a result of burns and crush injuries, thousands more died of long term conditions as a result of radiation poisoning.

Ultimately this still didnt break the resolve of Japanese leadership, and another Atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki.

The museum is about 500m from the target point, the island that its situated on was the industrial heart of the city, and was annihilated by the second most powerful single weapon ever used in combat. THe musuem was very sobering. It was a little different from the Osaka museum, as this tossed the museumgoer right into the thick of it, turning the corner into the exhibits and being struck with a scene of a woman and 2 child mannequins, chothes and flesh in tatters, traverssing a collapsed building. From there you continue around the room observing artifacts from people living in the city, surrounding a scale of the city immediately after the dropping of the bomb.

The musuem was made up of mostly text, and artifacts from Hiroshima, another section had history and development of the atomic bombs, the science behind it the nuclear weapons and radiation, the long term effects of radiation, and finally video testimonials from people that survived the blast.

Then you went down a long hall, which skirts the building that is now closed for renovation. This was the most interesting part for me, I plan to come back sometime after 2018 when they open it up. This section had the history of further development of the bomb, proliferation, conflict between US and USSR, the various treaties and attempts to abolish nuclear weapons.

The museum was great, it really impressed the gravity of the use of nuclear weapons, providing macro examples of their capabilities, and individual stories of living and dying as a result of their use.

We wandered our way from the musuem back to the Shinkansen Station, stopping for some Indian food on the way. This was the first time i think we have been taken advantage of. The our meal should have been about 2100yen, and some how he charged us 2500. We didnt really realize until we were too far away to go back and cause a stink, so we just accepted it. Honestly we certainly ate 25USD worth of food.

Hopped another train, and was back in Fukuoka in 62 minutes. We walked to Canal city. which is an unnecessarily large mall with a waterfeature woven through it. On the way to the mall we saw the site of the Fukuoka sink hole ( https://www.google.co.jp/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=%23&ved=0ahUKEwiE1pfK2qrQAhULoJQKHW0RBKAQqUMIJzAD&usg=AFQjCNF1sHlk2z9QIx28jtvfnGP_UlkifA ). The mall was not particularly impressive, it was much like all the other malls, we went because we heard there was a water show in the canals throughout the mall, but we didnt end up seeing any water show.

After the mall we walked back home, stopping at a few more hobby shops and, and checked out what to do for dinner.

We decided on a Gyoza shop in a basement down the street from our hotel. THey had GREAT panfried gyoza (which is the traditional way of preparing gyoza here in Fukuoka), and really good kimchi. This place was a good appetizer for our later meal intentions.

We wanted to eat at the famed food stalls of Fukuoka. They are these semi-permanant kitchens on the street, with a half dozen stools for costumers. They have all the things necessary to prepare food, hot plates, referigerators, clean dishware, water, electricity, but they can be packed up at the end of the night, and actually disappear, only to reappear tomorrow night full of drunks and food.

They typically have ramen and Yakitory. We found one that had just that, intending to get grilled meats on a stick. around the time our grilled meats were ready a gaggle of about 10 chinese speaking businessmen rolled in, and ordered a whole bunch of food and beer. After a few minutes Keith (as we later learned) and his friend engaged us, asking us where we were from, talking about the election, and congratulating us on our honeymoon. this congratz came wth beer, they didnt let my glass go empty.

Turns our they are from Hong Kong, here representing some metal stamping/machining companies looking to get involved with Japanese businesses.

I got to ask them about how they see the relationship between China/Japan, and finally had a serious question answered; If the Japanese got their written language from China, can modern Chinese people read Modern Kanji?

Yes, they can, the HK guys were adamant, firstly they were impressed we knew of the relationship, but also assured us, that it is basically their written language, and they can figure 70% ore more of what is going on.

They had an early morning, so after clearing their beers, they left us with their leftover grilled beef tongue, and bid us goodnight.

We thanked our chef, went ot a corner store for ice creams, and went home to go to sleep.

Yet More Trains

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Not a very exciting day, we woke up early to train hop to Fukuoka, given where Tottori is in Japan its not particularly easy to get to or leave. It took us 2 transfers to get to Fukuoka, but this time it didnt cost us any extra monies.

We had a layover in a small town, whose name I dont remember, for about 45 minutes, before another 3.5 hours of train time, so we got snacks for the train.

pictured above is cornbread, and a picture out the window from our train.

We didnt take any of the super duper highspeed trains, no shinkansen, just fast trains, we got to see alot of the countryside.

We got to Fukuoka and were honestly surprised. I was expecting a somewhat sleepy small town in the south of Japan, I was wrong, its huge. Not Tokyo or Osaka big, but much bigger than I was thinking. I suppose Japanese people havent heard of Milwaukee, or Clevelend or Buffalo and those are significant 1 million plus cities that dont get movies made about them, that dont appear on world maps.

Anyways Fukuoka is cool, we got in too late to do much exploring, we checked into our hotel, and headed out to eat some ramen. Hakata style ramen is real big here. It is very thick and brothy, very porky, I personally wasnt a fan, it was ok, but too porky for me, ill stick with my lighter ramens and my spicy sesame noodles.

After that we did some research on the bar scene here. It seemed as though they have actual bars here, like where you can buy just drinks. We first hit up an urban/rock bar. It had a DJ spinning actual records, and inexpensive beer. Here i discovered I like Japanese whiskey. I ordered a whiskey-ginger, and the bartender was a little confused I was looking specifically for Japanese whiskey to try. It was so good I ordered a straight whiskey, and glass of ice, which apparently was also an interestng order to him.

After that bar we went to an African Bar, mostly because it pitched 500yn beer and foods. We got up the stairs, and there were 2 locals and a Senegalese guy. The two locals were the owners, and the kitchen was closed, but they did serve our beer, and a mixed drink for laura. we then chatted with Senegalese guy, talking about life in Japan, and of course the US election. The big takeaway from this conversation was in regards of the impact that the US voter has.

Talking with all of the people from all over the world about the US election has clarified just how big and important the US is in the world. The Senegalese guy quite literally told us that US voters ultimately decide the fate of the world. When the US is doing well, the world does well, the Senegals and Portugals and Frences do well, when the US is doing bad, the world feels it.

Regardless of your political preferences, you (American readers) have to vote. Ignoring the fact that millions of people around the globe cannot vote for their leaders, ignoring the fact that for a long time segments of American society were unable to vote, your vote counts. It may not feel like it when it comes to the President, but your vote will have an impact electing your Senators and Congresspeople and Governors. And more importantly your local leaders, your state senators, your alderman, your mayor, your state supreme courtm county treasurer, these people, they have a HUGE impact on your life, and often times these people win their seat by a few hundred votes (in a town of 500,000 like Milwaukee), thats rediculous.

And remember, if you want America to continue to be the top dog, you, you personally have a say in how that happens. Your responsibility goes beyond your friends and family, you are a global citizen, wheat farmers in Kansas may not feel like it, dockworkers in San Fransisco may not feel it, but we are cogs in the machine that is our global society. Your vote for federal elected officials defines how US policy impacts the world.

That got a little rant-y, I apologize. Talking to all these people from all over the world really impressed on me the impact the US elections have on the rest of the world, and subsequently how important my participation in civil society is.

Not Just a Big Beach

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Woke up very early to hop the various trains out of Osaka. It took a subway transfer, and a high speed (but not ultra high speed) train to get us to Tottori in about 3 hours.

The train is convenient, but we had to pay extra. The Japan Rail pass doesn't cover you for a 75km stretch of rail, so the staff cone around and charge you 1700yen to travel on the special Chizu mileage.

We paid a bunch of money for these passes, and I guess it is my fault for not doing enough research, but it was pretty shitty forking out another $34 to take the train. So if you are planning to go, really do your digging and make sure that all the rail you want to ride is owned by JR.

Tottori is much like Nara, a small, vacation spot catering to Japanese tourists. The weather was also nicer, I think traveling south, and closer to the Sea of Japan means the weather is milder.

The areas claim to fame is the sand dunes and the pear orchards. After dumping our bags at the hotel we went over to the post office, mailed more stuff back via slow-boat to US, and headed to the sand dunes.

The town of Tottori knows that it exists for tourists to eat and sleep in while visiting the attractions, so they have a loop bus that is 300yen per ride, or 600yen for day pass. It takes you from the main Tottori station, to all of the attractions that to want to go to, and some you don't.

It takes about 25 minutes to get to the dunes from the main station, on the bus we made friends with a Portuguese guy that has been traveling Japan for about a month now. We discussed US politics and it's impact on the world. And ultimately parted ways as he wanted to see the sand museum, and we wanted to wander the dunes.

When we got down the hill from where the bus dropped us off we were a little unimpressed, it looked like a big Beach.

But that just perspective fucking us up. It is not just a big Beach

From The road to the water it is over a mile of sand in some places, and elevation changes of over 250 feet. In some of the depressions you can't see the ocean or the mountains, just the sand dunes surrounding you, if it weren't for the temperature you could be in the Sahara.

Thy sand for the most part is very fine, with the wind blowing little waves and ripples. There is minimal brushy grasses, and very clean. Until you get to the actual beach, and there the sea of Japan brings up the yeah peple dump in the oceans.

That last picture is a duneside that we walked down, prolly 100 feet at least a 60° angle.

We went back to the bus stop, ate some pear soft serve, because the pear farm was 800yen to walk around, and all really wanted was the flavor at that point.

We caught the bus home. Laura wanted to go to an onsen, the Japanese public bath houses, feed by natural springs. I had little interest in being boiled alive.

We walked to the place, she went in to scope it out and I went home.

She reported back to the hotel 45 minutes later. She said it was intense, the water is very hot. But she made some little old lady friend, that showed her how to do everything.

Afterwords we went to a little curry shop. This place was great. We figured out which one was chicken, ordered that and asked for the chef's recommendation she suggested pork. The pork was divine, pork belly comes in a vat of curry for long enough to stay together but fall apart if you look at it to hard. The chicken was also good, but nothing compared to the pork.

After curry we went to sleep, as the next day would another early travel day.

Meat Sweats

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Last day in Osaka, slept in a little later, skipped breakfast, for reasons that will be clear soon.

Our intention was to do our last significant shopping in Japan, and then eat a all-you-can-eat/drink yakiniku place.

We went to Den Den town area, just south of us in Osaka, this is the mini Akihabara, full of everything Japanese pop culture, I was looking for more Gundams. We hit a few shops, and i found a few deals, buying some more stuff, and snaggin a box from one of the retailers to ship it home. Without going into a bunch of details that none of you readers care about, I paid 210USD for what would have cost me 310USD in the States.

I will take this time to try to convey the large department stores they have here. This store was very much like the Yodobashi described earlier, another one around here is Bic Camera. These stores have nearly everything, short of clothing. And to get that sweet sweet foreign money they will eat the tax if you spend more than $50 and present your passport, to further sweeten the deal, they will typically cut another 5% for visa or JCB card holders.

The crazy thing is, it seems these stores, despite being the same franchise, and some cases the same building, are competing against eachother. You go upstairs to the apliance section, and have to buy your stuff there, you cannot bring the hair dryer downstairs and pay for it when you pay for your cosmetics. I went to one store, and saw an item at 27% off (before the extra 5%), and then went to that same store, 25 feet down the street, these storefronts were seperated by a bank of ATMs, and saw that same thing for 35% off (again before the extra). Its very interesting how the free market works in Japan... but maintains consumer protections.

Laura also looked for cosmetics, but through research learned that many of the products here have parabens, which is bad for you, or are bad for you. I dont know, maybe they cause you to glow in the darkm or your skin slough off or something else unpleasant.

We went back to the hotel, grabbed some beers to prep for the meat marathon we were shortly going to undertake. The place we intended to go to had a misleading sign. They said its all you can eat/drink for 3500yen. Laura and I were sure we could prove that offering that to americans was a bad idea. Unfortunately it was 3500 for the food, and another 1700 for drinks. So we left there, went back to the hotel lobby to get on the wifi. We found a place that had all you can EAT AND DRINK in 100 minutes for 3700yen.

Over the course of the meal, we each had 4 beers, which would otherwise have been at least 600yen per. They place brings out the full platter of all the meats they offer, Beef Short Rib, Skirt Steak, Spare Rib, Ribeye, Pork neck, Ribs and Loin, Chicken neck, some cut o lamb, squid, sausage, ground beef/pork patties, beef heart, stomach and intestines.

We then ordered another 3 rounds of various kinds of meat, including extra heart, the beef heart was really tasty and fantastic texture, we neglecting ordering extra stomach/intestine too chewy, eating just beyond the point of being full.



We wandered around drunkenly digesting before going home, and hitting the rack before an early train to Tottori.

Unfriendly Castle Cats

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Ate our quickmart breakfast on the way to the train to Himeji. We once again took a commuter train there, it took about an hour, and we went through Kobe. If you didnt know Kobe is where all the fancy beef everyone goes apeshit over. The train however did not go past herds of cows, or even enough grass that could feed cows. The train hugged the coast of the bay, Im guessing the cows hangout more inland.

Finally getting to the town of Himeji, you can see the castle immediately upon getting out of the train station, assuming you use the right exit



its about a 1.5km walk. once you get to the outter keep, it has a moat, with pretty plants ringing the outside. getting inside you see some pretty open grassy spaces with great vistas of the Himeji Castle itself.



The outter parts of the castle are free, which other than photo ops of the castle itself, is pretty unimpressive, there was some kind of bonsai festival, maybe affiliated with the one in Ueno Park?



There were also castle cats, though they were very unfriendly.



Once you pay, you enter the inner keep, and make your way up the castles interior to the top, which has some fantastic views of the city and surrounding countryside. at various points in the climb, and descent you can spot some interesting angles of the castle,



that third one is a model of the castle and its surrounding town at its height. If you look real hard you can see the surrounding town is fortified as well. This is very similar to its European contemporaries.

The castle, beyond its foundation is made of wood, with some of the beamsnearly 1m in thickness, I was impressed they could find and move trees that big.



It was a very impressive castle, defensively very similar to the castles of Europe, which i am more familiar with. There was very little direct contact between Europe and Asia in the 1600s, so wither the static defensive strategies are universal, or one slowly crept into the other regions playbooks. there were arrow/gun slits everywhere, murderholes above gates for dropping rocks or burning things, gates, and stairs that uniquele benefitted the defenders (read that as REALLY steep steps). The upper floors had very hgh windows to help clear all the gunsmoke from the blackpowder weapons.

But one thing has yet to be explained to me, Why not build the WHOLE thing out of stone? They do a good job of fireproofing the wood, with a thick facade of lime/morter/hemp/seaweed slathered on the outside, and thick clay tiles for the roof. I also appreciate that wood would be more prone to surviving an earthquake, and repairs could be effected more quickly. But I think stone would mean less danger from fire, and more protection from projectiles. The only explanation I can come up with is the various states of Japan never developed heavy siegecraft, not cataapults or trebuchets or cannons, that were the response to castles in Europe.

The first fort was constructed here in the 1330s, it was really just a hilly area with wooden pallisades. and over the next 250 years it grew into essentially the castle seen in my pictures. Hideyoshi was the one that turned it into a real castle, the same guy involved with the Osaka Castle from the other day. And when the Tokugawas took over Japan, it was handed over to Tokugawa leyaso son-in-law who turned it into the large wooden castle you see today. Some deaths and political alliance shifts later and Honda Tadamase took over. He added some more buildings, including a special tower for his daughter, Princess Sen who has her own interesting stories.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Sen

Also for more info on the castle itself

For an extra 40 yen we got access to the Gardens next door. The koko-en gardens are not original to the Castle town, they were built in 1992, but they are modeled after an Edo period garden. The gardens are built grown on what historians are pretty sure was the estate of a Samurai.

It was a walled area, with a Tea room, a very expenive restaurant specializing in eel, and 9 gardens all interlinked. There were water features abound, filled with koi, some of these koi were huge, like nearly a meter in length. The koi pictured below looked to be made of china, a white fish with blue accents.



and then a representative picture from the gardens.



Fall is here, so the colors are changing, most days are in the 50F, nights in the upper 40F. In Osaka there arent many trees to see, so the gardens were very nice.

We went back to the train station to go home and hopped a Shinkansen, which are the highspeed rail trains, as opposed to the commuter trains, it turned the 67 minute ride into 32 minutes, and dropped us off at a more convinient train station, so we got home quickly.

We hit up a few shops so laura could do her shopping for cosmetics, apparently Japan is famous for their great cosmetics products. Unfortunately, like my interests Lauras are so incredibly specific and discriminating it is hard to satisfy. We spent a good 90 minutes digging up reviews, and google translating packages trying to figure out the ingredients and such.

Then we got dinner, a rice bowl place, very Japanese-take-on-Korean food-y. It was very good, the vending machineyou got your order ticket from was confusing, and we got the meals instead of plates. The advertised price was 690yen for pork loin bowl, and 780yen for skirt steak. But when we got to the machine it was asking 1000yen and 1280 respectively. the extra 300/500 yen apparently went into this chicken broth soup. The soup was chicken broth a sprinkling of green onions, and a single egg dropped in. I dunno, i felt kinda cheated, but then remembered, we just ate dinner for <25USD, so its ok.

We wandered around and got more Takoyaki, oh man, we learned what the hype was about. The stuff we had our first afternoon here was a ball of molten batter, i think i like the more traditional method: crisping the balls. With the outside crispy and solid, the inside cooks to a great consistency and it brings out the flavors in the spices beyond the wet batter flaver of the first one. So we plan on chasing more down in the coming days.

We grabbed some more tarts, an egg, an apple cinnamon, and maple, they were pretty tasty too. Laura did some laundry, and i passed out.

So much dancing

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Another little bit later start, the bed is so great. We went back to the Osaka Caste Park to visit other of the attractions there.

The Osaka Peace Museum, Officially the International Peace Center. The musuem was built ib 1991, and focuses on the destruction of the city during WWII. The tragedies of war in general, and how Osaka has recovered.

The first exhibit was the most informative, and across the spectrun of historical exhibits I would rate it in the top 10 as for amoubt of information presented in a digestable manner. That sounds awkward, I dont know the first room was great. It was mostly a video describing the turn of the last century through WWII.

Many Westerners forget that Japan was a big deal back then, the Meiji Restoration catapulted Japan into western modernity in 50 years, doing the took the Russian Empire 125 years. Japan not only fought alongside Britain and France in WWI, but played a prtty important role tying up Triple Alliance colonial assets in the Far East.

From 1895 to 1945 the Japanese were fighting major conficts, first the Sino-Japenese war kicked up as Japan invaded the Korean Peninsule (a Chinese vassal state at the time) and then Chine proper, to "protect" it from the Russians. Shortly there after got into fisticuffs with Russia, which by most accounts was the first battle of modern times, less than 10 years after that the Japenese got caught up in WWI, stuck around for the White War, then started aggressing into SouthEast Asia, promarily to get resources to continue the war in China. And then unfortunately allied themselves with Hitler and Mussolini, and then attacked the US, and managed to fight off the US, until we switched all of our factories from butter to guns.

All of this was presented in a manner such that Laura, lacking the history-boner that i have for the time period, had an appreciation of what set the stage for the events of the rest of the musuem.

The rest of the museum had various displays of life in wartime, household goods, class room textbooks, soldier diaries, civilian accounts of the firebombing during WWII.

Then went on to talk about reconstruction, and what happened after the allied proscribed reconstruction.

The final section of the museum seemed to be atleast endorsed by the UN. Describing what can be done to help prevent these things in the future, how the world has changed since then and how shitty the world often is.

(There were no pictures allowed in the museum)

Concluding the musuem we wandered north, heading towards the Osaka City Hall, and surrounding river island.

On the way we stumbled into a Curry shop, ate some delicious, inexpensive curry.

The island in the river, is made of parks, museums, the city hall, a public hall and various otherminor municipal buildings.

Nekanoshima park is pretty cool, wide open green spaces for children to run, or hipsters to play ultimate frisbee, while we saw niether of these taking place, we did see a bunch of teenage boys practicing a choreographed dance, which was neat. Also, they had a beer garden, though given the previous uses of the term "bar" and "cafe" around here i have my doubts about just how "beer gardeny" the place is.

There was an extensive rose garden, with more colors than i have ever seen in roses.

We decided to poke around the very cool 19th century styled public hall building. They had a little display in the basement referencing the construction, and reconstruction (you know, after the use sent a 329 bomber sortie to flatten the town) of the building.

While free, this was a little underwhelming, so we meandered about. Getting upstairs we heard music heading towards it, an older gentlemen in a nice shirt and slacks comes out of what appears to be a ballroom, we peek in the crack, he comes back from the toilet, and seemingly invites us in.

Initially we thought it was a wedding, then we noted not only was everyone dressed up, and dancing but they were dancing well. Moments later an older lady in a purple dress pointed us to the seating. We sat down and observed, an open dance broke out, and nearly everyone got on the floor, ballroom dancing to whatever the DJ was playing.

As best we can figure this was a ballroom dance club, that was having their regular meeting, we got out of there before they invited us to dance...

We headed home to figure out our evening activities. At the train station laura sniped some wifi, and we got the news of who our next president was. Stunned, we went home. On the way home we came upon another set of choreograph dancing kids... When we got home we watched a movie in bed, put pants back on and ventured out for some chicken based ramen (its traditionally pork). It was very light, and honestly,i liked the slices of chicken better than all but the BEST slices of pork (see earlier entry). We then looked through Dotonbori for sweet snacks, laura got a banana-nutella crepe, and i got a frozen fermented french butter cone. At least that was what thes sign said, I am pretty sure it was cultured butter, tossed into a soft serve machine. IT was fantastic.

We got some yogurt and pastry for an earlier roll out tomorrow, as we intend to hit up ANOTHER CASTLE YAY!

See the Fish, Eat the Fish

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Slept in very late appreciating the large bed and private toilet/shower of our room. So didnt get out n about untill nearly noon. Got Ramen, I am still chasing the dragon of that one ramen back in Ueno, and I think Im gettng closer; it heavily used spicy sesame oil. This place was good, but not in our top ramen so far in this trip, it was a bit fishy for both of our tastes. But apparently this shop was the first to make "Osaka Style" Ramen.

We then headed to the Aquarium, one of the largest in the world. And it was impressive. The theme was the Ring of Fire, essentially tracing the ecosystem around the ring of fire, the whole Pacific Tectonic plate. It opened with a big water tunnel, where you walk through a big tank.

then you go up up up to the top, and see the Oriental River Otters and the Japenese Giant Salemander.

The Salemander was inded giant, they grow to be over 1m.

and then you wind your way down, with more tanks around the outside wall, dolphins, seals/sea lions, amazon rainforest, the Great Barrier Reef, The Tasman Sea, all of this surrounding the big Pacific Ocean Tank. This main tank has over 1.5 million gallons of water, 2 whale sharks, dozens of rays, 3-4 hammerheads, dozens of smaller sharks if various kinds, and hundreds of "lesser" fish.

at the bottom you got to the "bottom of the ocean" there were crustaceans and other scary arthropods. they didnt have anything that glowed, but had a bunch of jellyfishes that were neat.

The final part was the petting tank. They had a big shallow pool where one could pet stuff, there were a bunch of Nurse Sharks, Zebra Sharks and some kind Ray hangin out in this 18in deep pool, and you could reach in and pet them.

The sharks felt dry? They felt a little sand papery. The rays felt slimey, you could certainly tell they were an ocean creature...

We spent the entire afternoon at the aquarium, fortunately laura could get wifi in the waiting area of the aquarium so she identified the sushi place we should go to, cause we just spent the day watching fish swim around, figured we might as well eat them now.

We headed home, stopped at one of the unimaginably large ad diverse electronics/appliance/toy/cosmetcs/also liquor stores to buy a fold up keyboard so i can write blogs better, and a cable to connect the camera so i can post more pictures.

Then we got the Sushi, The place was very near our hotel, and one of those conveyer belt places. The chefs slice up an plate the sushi on little color coded plates, and then go on the belt. The customers pick and choose what they want, then the staff comes around counts up your total, and you go pay your bill.

We ate 10 plates of various kinds of sushi, Tuna Rolls, Fatty Tuna Rolls, Half-grilled Salmon, these were my favorites, also got shrimp tempura, fried sweet tofu, a yellowfin something or other, another one with eel, and some other i dont remember well. and it totaled to less than 34USD.

We wandered around Dotonbori looking for a sweet treat, ice cream, fried dough or somesuch, but i think the rain was driving the restaurants and patrons away.

That being said we say a number of girls standing in the intersections/at corners selling their massage parlours, and hostess bars...

We went home and went to sleep without any sweets.

More castles!

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Woke up in Nara, checked out of our semi-Western Ryokan (it was a modern building, we had a carpeted floor, and Western bed and TV, but the toilets were not in individual rooms but in a communal space, and the shower/bath was downstairs and communal to the whole building) and headed for the train.

Laura picked up some more post cards and we hopped a commuter train into Osaka.

We got on the slightly wrong train, it got us to Osaka, but it turned into a loop train, not a terminus train, we had to backtrack a little switch trains, but with our rail pass it didn't matter.

The hotel is great, and next to Dotonbori and Shinsaibashi, which are two major neighborhoods to check out. The Red Roof Plus is a Western style hotel, wifi, full size bed, fill size shower, outlets out the wazoo, clean is great.

Anyways we wandered around Dotonbori looking for food, it is a pedestrian shopping area, restaurants and stores all over, there is a river that splits it. We decided try a Tako-Ichi please, which I guess is their specialty in this part of Japan.

They are balls of glutenous, wheat based batter, with chopped octopus worked into them. They get cooked in a special griddle that keeps them ball shaped, it kinda looks like a big metal egg carton.

They were very mild flavored. I was expecting them to be a little more dumpling-like, and these just fell apart as soon as you chopsticked them. They were OK, we are going try more from other stalls around Osaka.

We then decided to hit up the Osaka Castle.

On the way to the castle from the nearest station, Laura of course needed coffee, we stopped at a Lawsons (a chain of convinience stores, Japan is full of 7-11s, Lawsons, Sunkory and Family Mart, often right next to each other, its crazy, ill put a bigger write up on that in my Japan conclusion), and found coffee in a can, which isnt that unique, quickmarts and vending machines have been hawking them since we landed, but these were hot. In the refrigerated section is a special shelf that isnt cold, its hot, and you buy canned hot coffee/chocolate/tea, it was good according to her. While perusing the shop i decided to get a package of pancakes, 100 yen for what looked like 4 pancakes.

But they were so much more, it was infact 2 pancake sandwiches, prefilled with butter and syrup. A wave of nostalgia overtook me, remembering the few good minutes of my time in Army Basic; breakfast, where i had 180 seconds to eat my meal, and given breakfast was the only meal i could pretend to be healthy, i would pack on the calories with a pancake sandwich and then eat yogurt and granola until the drills decided i was done.

It was really neat, very well done museum crammed into a castle. There were dioramas, and plaques, including English. I learned a bunch, unfortunately I am frustrated by this not real key board and will only give you a brief write up. I promise later i will go through and add more pictures and text. But by then you probably won't care.

some of those picture are a little wonky, because i had to steal them...The armor in particular was in a NO PHOTO area, so i had to sneakily take the pictures. That armor was worn by one of the major Generals from the Winter Siege of Osaka Castle, and the Summer campaign.

The castle was started in the 16th century, and played a pretty important role n the rise of the Tokugawa Shogunate.

The castle was built by the Toyotomi family at the same time the Tokugawa were amassing their own power. These powers clashed and ultimately the Toyotomi clan was wiped out, it's allies we weakened, and the Tokugawa clan had nothing preventing them from unifying the island.

"Unifying" sounds so great, but basically they conquered the entirety of mainland Japan.

Over the next half millennia various parts burned down, and was restored, and burned own again. During the Meiji era it was fixed up and used a an armory, and during WWII it was expanded and employed like 50,000+ people in weapons and munitions production. And during the war the US bombed it, destroying over 90% of the castle, and within the castle walls.

The views were great, as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osaka_Castle if you care to learn more.

Also found a gnarled old castle kitty.

After the castle, we went to the Umeda Sky Building, which is a big building in Osaka that has an observatory on the top. It took us a little while to get there by train, and we missed the sunset by a few minutes. We knew there would be a charge to gt to the observatory, but didnt know how much. Turns out you go up to the 38th floor to pay to go to th 39th floor.

So instead of paying 1000 yen to get one floor higher, we just stolesome views from that floor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umeda_Sky_Building

We made our way home, researched some dinner, and rolled out again. Laura found us a fancy steak place. The Japanese kind where they give you a grill and slices of meat and make it to your liking.

It was a little pricey, but very good, its the thing to do here though l, with Kobe so close they get you with that Wagyu . We got loin, rib meat and fancy (like 18USD for <5oz) steak. It was good, my favorite was the rib meat. The Fancy steak want very impressive, I think I could do the same with a sharp knife and mini grill, with some round or Chuck.

Seeing as the two of us split what amounted to maybe 12oz of meat, and a small (very small) plate of kimchi, I was very hungry. We went around the block to a wing place, and got drunk, and ate 16 wings between us.

The wings were very good, different from any we have had before. We think they were dry rubbed and then baked. The spices were great, and multifaceted.

Then we went home to sleep on our big-not-floor-mat-bed