Sunday to Wednesday

Sunday BBQ
For Fumio’s birthday we were invited to a BBQ, which we thought we should attend since we missed Linda’s. We told Fumio we probably wouldn’t eat much (i.e. ANYTHING) but he still made us pay- between the two of us it was $25 and it was the biggest rip off ever. We will never again be going to any kind of BBQ. First of all, we walked about 45 mins (a slow group walk) to the river, Sarah and I talking to Ida and Ayumi. The river itself was nothing spectacular, I was pretty underwhelmed. It was about 30cm deep and you couldn’t even see it from the banks. It did seem to be a popular spot though, as there were other families and groups of friends having their own BBQs. We actually had to pay $10 just to be there. RIP OFF!

^^Fumio, Sarah and I^^


^^ Sarah, Ida and Ayumi^^

Since we had to pay, Ayumi insisted they put food on for us first as we had to leave about 20 mins after we got there! They had “Aussie beef” (cows tongues), Taiwanese meat (intestines) and some other beef in a sauce, which was the stringiest, fattiest, most unappealing “aussie beef” I’ve seen in a while! Sarah and I glanced at each other in horror as everyone waited on our verdict. Our verdict? “Ooishi” meaning delicious (in reality: absolutely horrific). Ida too glanced around in dismay, whispering to us “The last BBQ just had normal stuff, like hot dogs and hamburgers, I thought this one would be the same!”


^^ Ida and I cry tears of horror ^^


^^ Sarah and Ida didn't do anything wrong! Why are they punished?!^^



^^ The sentence: Death penalty ^^

Umeda Sky
Luckily though, after some BBQ corn (the only nice thing), we bailed, heading to Umeda Sky to see the Mexican Festival. The Mexican festival too was underwhelming, there was a big stage with performances and booths with Mexican food (looked kinda greasy and dodgy to me…) and we left the BBQ so late we got up to Umeda Sky just after dusk rather than just before dusk, but we got up there!
Umeda Sky is two 40 storey buildings with a giant donut shaped “floating observatorium” smacked on the top. It’s very high, and the elevator ride on the way up had me thinking “I really don’t want to die! If the cable snaps….”. I realise heights are not so bad as heights + see through elevators for me!

^^ Umeda Sky from below. The things going across the gap are escalators^^


^^ Comforting to know we were suspended over 39 storeys of NOTHING! ^^



^^ But the view was magnificent! ^^

Anyway, we got up to level 39 and took the “across a giant 39 storey chasm of death” elevators to the other side of the top. Well, the view was awesome, as you’d assume, and there were speckles of glowing paint and black lights on the footpath. At one stage, they turned on a giant white light, and we waited in vain for Batman to appear.






^^ BATMAN! ^^

They also had a platform where couples could take photos in front of a giant, glowing loveheart. It was pretty tacky, but we went with it anyway 'cause that's how we roll.
Then we headed down and grabbed some soft cream (we tried Strawberry- it was quite awful) from a multi-flavour shop. Soft serve is different here, each flavour of ice cream comes in a small tub, and is inserted into the machine that then turns it into soft serve. It’s way cooler than our one-flavour soft serve!






Sumiyoshi Taisha Grand Shrine
On Monday we headed to Sumiyoshi Taisha grand shrine with Yoshida and Noriko. We caught the subway to Tennoji and then a tram. Sumiyoshi Taisha is apparently the number one shrine in Osaka/Kansai. It had great greenery and all the buildings had wicked bright red-orange railings and accents. We washed our hands first (as is common at shrines) then stopped at a table. We paid $2 to shake a box of sticks with a hole in it- then we tipped the box and only one stick can come out of the hole. It has a number on it, and you then take the piece of paper with the number you chose. Sarah pulled 13, which Yoshida and Noriko said was one of the worst and very unlucky! I pulled number one (to anyone who watches Bleach, I sang Ichigo’s “number one” theme song the whole time! OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHH!) which is the luckiest! Yeah! Because of that, Sarah had to tie her bad luck to a tree, but I got to keep my good luck!




^^ "If you want to be the best... something something center OF ATTRACTION..."^^




Then we went to the temples, where you toss a coin, shake a big rope attached to a bell, step back and clap twice, then pray. (Though I have seen people pray and then clap). The shrine was very beautiful and had a river with a very high bridge over it. There were turtles and carp. There was also a sign that I felt strongly was telling me that the water wanted to eat me.




^^ Noriko, Sarah, Rieko/Yoshida ^^


^^ "If you fall in the water... it will eat you." ^^


We then had dinner at a “Japanese Pub” with Yoshida and Noriko. I was lucky they had furido potato and gohan (chips and rice) but we also had Gyoza (dumplins), Tori Karage (fried chicken), yakitori (chicken skewers), some sort of weird eggplant stuff. We also had our drink of choice for summer 2010- Cassis Orange! Then Noriko had us try Umeboshi, a plum that’s sat in salt for a year. It is very, VERY salty. Kind of like eating a salty-plum-lemon. We finished with delicious waffles and ice cream!


^^ Gohan (rice), furido potato, beef, tori karage (chicken). More food came later!^^



^^ This is served with drinks before the meal. It's actually eggplant. Gross! ^^


^^ Noriko and her dessert ^^

Chizuko’s Birthday
Wednesday was Chizuko’s birthday (Happy Birthday!) and we went to Miho’s to give her the present… only we forgot the present! *smacks forehead* We spent the day watching the rest of season 3 of America’s next top model (riveting stuff, I assure you) before heading out to take some pictures and video of Miho’s area. Also, maybe, to get soft cream. Then Chizuko suggested we go out for dinner to celebrate her birthday, and we went to a place around the corner from their house. Despite not having furido potato, the gohan was there and they had prawn crackers! I dislike prawns, but those crackers are oiishi!


^^The three boxes are the accompanying dish for drinks, the other, a PRAWN wrap^^


^^Birthday Feast!^^

I also had what I personally think may have been the nicest cocktail I ever had, and can’t wait to try when I get home. It had Strawb and Banana liqueur with pineapple juice! Way cool! There was pizza, but I much preferred the prawn crackers and Miho had something like a chicken schnitzel only with spinach and fish eggs in the middle! Eugh! Sarah had Karage again, and we had the nicest butter corn ever! Plus I think my horrendous chopstick skills may be improving… a little…
Then, we had some of the cake Chizuko’s boss Kelly gave her and it was so nice! It was a chocolate cake with chocolate cream, and it was the first time I’ve ever eaten cake with chopsticks!



^^Saros and I show we can pick up corn with our chopsticks... even if it takes a few tries!^^


^^We eat cake with chopsticks, 'cause we're badass, yo!"


~*~

This morning we were woken up by a storm- we didn’t go to Kyoto today because it was forecast to be raining, but the lightening was incredibly bright and lit up the whole sky. The thunder was the loudest I have ever heard! Maybe it’s because of all the tall buildings amplifying the sound? We tried to get the thunder on video but the storm was quite short.



^^ Look at the escalator! ^^

In other news, Happy Birthday Mandy! We would like to wish Sarah’s mum a very happy birthday (23/9) and hope she has a great day (and gets lots of cool presents)!

We miss our friends and family, and are starting to count down the days until we leave Osaka- that sounds weird now, we’ve been here for so long! Coming up on our itinerary are Kyoto again on Sat, Sam n Dave’s on Friday, and Parque Espana on Sunday, whew! Miss you all, and missing pizza,

Xx Carly

World World Buffet

Yew! Shouts out to KIM SIMPSON as the ONLY person to comment, you slackers! Well after a late night partying down at the beach, (we got side tracked awfully by facebook gossip and ended up going to bed at like 2am) we got up horrendously early (9am) to go and meet Chizuko, Miho's mum, who is super nice and helpful. We have to get her a present, no idea what though. We met Chizuko who introduced us to Yoshida, who was also very nice. She bought the three of us lunch at World World Buffet, a great combination of Italian, Japanese and French. Yes, I know you're wondering... THERE WAS CHEESE PIZZA! It was kind of similar to soft pita pizza (not crunchy) and while Sarah was not especially fond, I have quite a soft spot in my heart for it. I would have had more but I was trying not to look rude. I tried some other stuff, didn't like Italy's cheesy risotto but the Japanese noodles with yam and Okra were quite nice.


* Chizuko, Sarah, Yoshida and Carly in front of Louis Vuitton.





Yoshida suggested I practice my abysmal chopstick skills by picking up corn kernals- it was a long and comical process and I dropped many kernals into my lap. Yoshida, Chizuko and Sarah laughed many times at my expense. Then we had crepes for dessert- I had ice cream and strawberry Jam! Oh, and the drinks... we didn't realise there was coke until our second round of drinks- unfortunately Sarah had some kind of juice which she described as tasting "like arse" and my delicious liquid was apple juice with black vinnegar. It tasted like apple juice... and vinnegar. And you know, it tastes as you'd think it would- starts off a nice apple juice, ends with "Oh ugh, why, WHY oh sweet babies carrots WHY?". It was a relief when we discovered the coke, I can tell you.

*My strawberry and ice cream crepe.

Sarah loved her Carbonara and some spicey Japanese pork. We then ended up going to an electrical store and after much debate, buying a Japanese phone to cheaply message within Japan. All the phones here are super slim and flip, not like my little fat bastard whom I love with all my heart. The phones come in a crazy array of colours here- everything does. Laptops are sweet and very cheap- want to get one (Sony Vaio in "get in my pants" green- bout $1000) but trying to conserve money. They had solar recharging phones that were water proof AND ridiculously colourful! As in, you stick your phone out in your yard to recharge, if the picture was anything to go by.

Then we went back to Yoshida's house- she is offering for us to rent it. Awkwardly, we don't really want to because it isn't set up with everything that JF (where we are now) has, it's further away from everything and only one room is air conditioned... and the kitchen looks confusing. We haven't told her yet, especially after she bought us lunch! The house itself was very traditional, tatami mats (bamboo) on the floor, sliding Japanese screen doors. The toilet was one of the special feature ones where you can heat your seat, have a flushing sound, a jet of water to wash your ...err... posterior... and more! It's bad because Yoshida was so nice and helpful.... hmm, I guess I can still help with her English class.

* Yoshida's street

On our way back, we made our usual stop at Life convenience store and on our way home, saw our first kitten. There was a foreboding feeling in my heart as I warned Sarah it was probably carrying rabies and not to touch it. Sarah, showing astounding common sense, went straight for the cat. However, when it looked into the light Sarah yelped and ran away. In her words, its eye was "pwowgh". What that means, I don't know. The small, possibly stray cat, looking for some love, attempted to follow Sarah who yelped and ran away faster. I bet the cat felt really good about itself after that. I felt bad, however, not wanting rabies, continued to walk away. It was actually more of a kitten, which Sarah seems to think was kicked in the face. (By RABIES!).
Hopefully it finds a loving home. We did find out something way cool- we kept seeing what looked like spiral slippery dips outside of tall buildings- turns out THEY ARE! They're there in case of a fire, for quick escapes. Seriously though, that's awesome.

We then returned for a great dinner of peeled carrot (we got some weird looks), banana, yoghurt and vegemite sandwiches. We, being good citizens, deigned to share our Vegemite with our resident Asians who, like Nicolas the Frenchman, were quite repulsed with a wide array of horrified gasps. Apparently Toyo is going to bring us some Natto tomorrow in retaliation. We then watched some kick ass TV show where from what we can tell, 5 guys compete against 5 girls. They have to answer questions before the time runs out and they explode (not literally, there's a computer screen behind them), like each having to name a fruit. They get pretty funny when they can't think of an answer, and the contestant panel shakes like.... A BOMB HAS HIT THE SHELTER!

Then they have a bonus round which is like those theme park rides where you watch a screen showing a roller coaster and the thing you're in moves accordingly- we left just as the girls failed to make the right choice and their mine cart plunged into a firey chasm of doom.
Now we have Skype, but you can only talk to one person at once so all of you, go to someone's house for a Skype party! Or take a number. We charge $3.40 for the first hour of our time and $1 for every minute after that. Also, the lighting in our room makes us look like we have patches of grease on our foreheads, not so attractive. Also somewhat alarming, as it is a very bright white to see.

Make sure you leave us a comment, we ain' Skyping you unless you do! (And we may mail you out some natto and tell you it's a delicious cake of some sort.) Going to attempt Spaghetti tomorrow- this could end poorly and if it does, I'm having Vegemite sandwiches AGAIN. I love the Vegemite- I will do it on the train, I will do it in the rain! IN THE RAIN PEOPLE, NOW THAT'S LOW! (-Yeah, we finished off S2 of Better Off Ted and Veronica is to die for!)

Think that's all, my Spanish friends. Adios amigos, or as the Japanese say,
...I don't know what the Japanese say, but I'm working on it. No, I'm not, but I'm getting pretty good at pronouncing "Kire Uriwari", our station (T33) on the Tanimachi line. Saros mingers it up every single time she tries it, causing me to have my revenge for the chopsticks-corn lunch fun.
Right, getting back to the goodbyes... On behalf of S-Minger (Sarah) and I,

Carlos- OUT!
(You should now picture me pumping a fist into the air, and launching off like a rocket into space.)