hello from osaka japan

Kim and I got here last night. First impressions are that it - Osaka anyway - is more industrial and served by tons of rail ways which reminds me of England. For some reason I expected that everything would be super modern and there would be no rust. There is lots of rust. Also, in getting from the Airport to Osaka the train passed through lots of small (backyard sized) rice paddies which was different.

But the weather is much warmer and humid and England - reminds me of central america - We are getting used to being sweaty all the time outside (all indoor locations are air conditioned)

So - so far it is a tropical England.

We managed to make our way using the trains from the airport to get to our hostel and went for dinner last night. We ended up at a japanese restaurant, which I chose because it looked clean and open - but after ordering we realized that it was sort of like a Japanese Denny's. I had a combo meal of pumpkin soup, and meatloaf on rice. Kim had a tastier combo of rice, teriaki fish, fried chicken and miso soup.

Today we got up early (before 7) because we are still a little out of sync with the time difference. We took a train and then a subway downtown (Osaka) and found some of the entertainment districts. Before this, we went to Mr. Donut for a donut and coffee, but after we ended up at a Starbucks because Ms. CoffySnoot wanted another one ;). Since then we walked around and took a picture of a temple, the access was closed so we took a picture from the outside, but the caretaker came by and let us walk around the statues/tombstones. Lots of buddhas and alot of buddhas wearing worn, red, bibs.

We went down the entertainment district and took some pictures in one of those girly picture booths where you can put hearts and other decorations.

So right now, we are both in Popeye's media cafe sitting on massage chairs playing with the internet (Kim is uploading pictures). The media cafe has different kinds of booths for different kinds of uses. Ours has massage chairs, others have just normal chairs, some have a sofa, and some have flat/bed type accomodations. The outer walls are lined with comic books, the air is stale smoke. Because it is still early in the day, there are probably only 5 other people in here.