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

Sat Night Fever: The unfortunate disco event

On Sat at last my Macudo (McDonalds) ban ended! I spent the afternoon dying my hair -I had no idea whether two colours could be mixed (I took that chance), how much bleach was in the dye or how to read the all Japanese instructions. It turned out pretty okay, I picked this dye because Sarah wanted me to- I imagine she thought it would go ridiculously wrong and could laugh. (The packets aren’t exactly confidence inspiring…).




Yeah, they look a bit like Bratz dolls...

We got ready to go out and hit the subway, heading to N3. We met Miho and Yu there, (Mai was sick) and Miho’s friend Paul. Heading downstairs, the music was pumping but we got the shock of our lives to realise it was 11:30pm and we were the only ones there! It was a little unnerving, but we got some drinks and waited it out. It started with mushy R&B romance songs (unimpressive), then had some reggae sounding songs and then got progressively older until it literally hit disco. It was truly traumatic!



Coolies on the subway. Tanimachi yo!

Escaping N3, we went for what I assumed would be a short walk. After a rather long but pleasant time walking and checking out different clubs, we saw a chicken on a car. Then we found two things that pleased us greatly- 1, a 24 hour Macudo, and 2, Club Azure. After Saros haggled with the club employees through Miho, we got a discounted entrance and a free drink card. The drinks were pretty good but like most clubs here, it was absolutely packed and boiling hot. Seriously, you know people are going to be packed in and dancing, get better air con!

It looks like a submarine!

Yes, a chicken, on a car, at 2:00am, in the clubbing district. Totally normal.



Another example of cool building design, unlike that weirdo glass thing in Adelaide.

We found a spot on the dance floor right under a smoke machine, to the point that at random times during songs, we’d be completely blinded by smoke then occasionally hit by strobe lights too. It was an interesting experience, especially the hilarious guy who kept walking up to a table near us, gesturing to ask if a drink was ours, then walking way with an innocent look and a new drink each time. I have no idea whose drinks he was stealing… Some badass Gs were trying to teach Paul to dance like a homie, also amusing. Some guys tried to talk to Saros and I, generally, not knowing Japanese, it was a short lived attempt that amused Miho and Yu.



Yu and Miho in N3

Finally, the highlight of the night in my opinion, finding our way back to Macudo, the place of intense food love. Excited, I bounded up to the counter (keep in mind I was hot, tired and it was 3:30am) and rather erratically declared “Hitotsu BIG MAC, ummmm pickelsu to, mac saussseee to, ooonion nukide-“ but was interrupted with “You want a big mac?”. My rather surprised response was “Oh, you speak English”. (This was on par with the time the guy at USJ was holding out candy and asked for the magic word before giving me some. Somewhat confused, I offered “Onegaishimasu?” (please?) before being laughed at and told it was “Trick or treat” to fit in with the Halloween theme.)

The time we realised photos were all we could salvage of N3

Thus a successful night, not too expensive and not too hungover to talk to my grandmas on skype the next day. Win!



The sun rises over Kire-Uriwari

Tremendously overdue and just tremendous in general update

Hi kids, how've you been? We miss you all! We miss that we missed Ange's Bday, Beno's farewell, Baccae's Toga Party, Nick and Georgia's burrito love and pizza. We also miss West Lakes food court's fish and chips.

So you're wondering what we've been up to?

J&F Farewells
Our friend Linda left on tuesday, which naturally required a lot of drinking and some eating. We missed her farewell BBQ but we made it into the kitchen in time for the fun to really start. And by fun, I mean lots of alcohol (not so much on mine and Sarah's part) and seemingly endless repetition of a Japanese song that goes "Linda Linda! Linda Linda Linda! Linda Linda! Linda Linda Linda!" and so on. (With such lyrical diversity, I'm sure you can't imagine how I found it annoying...) The day after that, Oche left, but no one knew he was leaving and to be honest, we didn't see him before he left. Weird. Then our good friend Sebastien, one of the nicest guys I know, left back to France. We're going to see if we can catch up with a few J&F people when we hit Europe!

From top, left to right: 1) Linda is the one pointing, 2) Nicolas, Ayumi and Sarah bewildered by the drunken goings-on, 3) Sarah and I get exited, 4) Fumio decides to breakdance, hilarity ensues, 5) Kira... I don't know what Kira is doing, 6) Sarah does the ALIEN DANCE! (aka "We no speak Americano")


Spaghetti Party!
The reason we missed Linda's BBQ was because of Chizuko's Spaghetti Party! Miho was finally better and Chizuko invited us to lunch. We took our Malibu, pineapple juice and garlic bread with us, and Chizuko made us two different types of spaghetti to try, one with eggplant, ham and ... I have no idea what else, the other a kind of herby tomato with feta cheese. They were both quite nice, though I admit, I ate just the pasta and tomato sauce, none of the extras!

DenDen Town
On tuesday we went with Miho and Mai to DenDen town. DenDen Town is like Tokyo's Akihabara district, only it's in Osaka, obviously. Sarah bought a tripod stand for her camera, while we looked at the newest iPod gear, over expensive "jewel" headphones (seriously, they look nothing like jewels, how dare you try to charge that much??!?!?) and Sarah's favourite gaming shiz! It was REALLY hot. We toiled on, looking through game shops, wasting our money on machines that gave us awful keyrings, buying figurines we really didn't need (Okay, that was me, but they had Meyrin and Lacus cheap! Now of course I have to get Kira and Yzak.)and had a look at cosplay shops. Wigs here are pretty expensive, but way cool. I want Aqua hair! We stopped for a snack break at Maccas (what, it was so hot! Maccas is air conditioned, has ice cold coke and is delicious! And cheap. so many reasons just to stay there forever!) Then we (reluctantly) walked into the heat and continued down the road... to get icecream! It was delicious, by the way. Soft serve is called "Soft cream" and comes in many different flavours, including "Corn Pottage"... wtf is that?

1) Carly under a nice looking arch, 2) Sarah finds a sword, 3)Akatsuki BLING Gundam with Cagalli and Mwu La Flaga sparkling on the box, 4) A giant Gundam punches a hole in the no-photo rule, 5) Den-Den Town, 6) Statue from Fall Out 3 game.


Hard Rock Cafe
After DenDen town, we went to Hard Rock Cafe. Sarah was excited about the food, me about the cocktails and I didn't think Miho or Mai knew quite what to expect. The cocktails were arse. You paid $10 and they didn't even put them in a cocktail glass, just like, a normal coke glass! Not impressed! Also, despite ordering three different cocktails, they all looked identical. Boring! Unfortunately, with the exception of Sarah's blackened chicken pasta, the food was pretty lame too. Sarah loved her pasta, Mai's caesar salad was okay, but Miho's fish and chips were absolutely awful. The chips were gross- tomato sauce couldn't save them, and the fish was... It was about 5 small fish, not one piece, which wasn't so bad. The fish was 70% tasteless batter and grease, and 30% warm sandy tasteless fishmush. Lemon did not assist in any way, and I felt sorry for Miho. My garlic bread was quite average, and I was not impressed. The only area in which I rate it is music, cause it had awesome music, and at the perfect volume; you wanted to dance but you could still talk easily.

1)Mai, Sarah, Miho & I at Hard Rock Cafe Osaka, 2) Mai and Sarah, 3) Miho and I

Shoppping
After sternly deciding on a budget, we then proceeded to go shopping. Hyakuen stores are quite dangerous- deceptively cheap they are, yet buy $15 worth I do. Understand this mystery, Yoda does not. We found a Daiso right near us- just a 10m walk away. We literally spent an hour scouring its depths, and i spent $13 on $1 products. I bought "shiny powder". We also hit UniQlo. We'd found a great bargain there before, many great bargains actually, but this time, we wanted to buy another and it was GONE. Oh we didn't know how well we had it- if only... but it was not to be, as I even tried ringing the Umeda UniQlo and they too were sold out. Of course, I didn't know this until Miho rang for me, after asking my carefully translated question and then announcing I did not speak Japanese, the guy launched into quickfire Japanese which seemed much more elaborate than the simple "hai" or "ie" I was looking for.
Nonetheless, we still triumphed, returning with more clothes than were previously had. We love UniQlo.

Kelly’s Party
Kelly’s party was on the 40th floor of a building in Miyakojima. It was pot luck so we bought Pesto Pasta (courtesy of Sarah) which went down well. When we came in we were the centre of attention which was unnerving; we felt like hobos attending an expensive dinner (maybe not too far from the truth). Most of the people were Chizuko’s colleagues, including Kelly and his brother Corey who are Canadian. The Japanese people were very nice and keen to talk to us; I think I scared them talking about sharks, snakes, poisonous spiders, octopus and jellyfish, drop bears and killer kangaroos.
There was more Takoyaki, which we declined, slightly alarmed. The view was killer, as you’d expect from 40 floors, and we took some nice photos including “you’ve run a marathon and now you’re puffed out”, “you're that suave Japanese guy who thinks he's Italian”, “ and more. Also, we had fun train watching and saw some fireworks from far off.
When we left, we looked down from the 40th floor (the building had a hollowed out square in the middle... a straight, 40 floor death drop) and if that wasn't facing my fear of heights, I'm not sure what was. I also kind of felt like I should have a light saber, and that Luke Skywalker was coming to toss my boss into the abyss.
At 11:30 we decided we’d better catch the train home, alas, the last train was at 11:34 from a stop 10 mins away. This was slightly awkward but Chizuko and Miho came to the rescue, refusing to leave us on the streets. We walked back to Chizuko’s, buying a delicious “soft cream” (soft serve) cone in choc-vanilla. It was cheap but ridiculously delicious.
Then we got to sleep on a real Japanese Futon! It was pretty comfortable actually, though I did have a weird dream about trying to convince a plastic bag to turn back into a boy. The boy was also pregnant. Weird stuff, I know.

1)The view from the balcony, 2) same view, diff pic, 3) "You're a walnut, hanging from a tree", 4) "You're a plane, coming into land, tilting a little to the side", 5) "You're a samurai", 6) 40th floor of the Death Star, 7) Fireworks in the distance, 8) Carly and Sarah, 9) Miho and Carly, 10) Sarah and Miho, 11) view from the balcony with a blue light, 12) futon party, 13) "dead" on the futon, 14) a mighty sly monobrow sneaks its way across Saros' forehead.



The day after
After a nice sleep in, we watched SYTYCD America (and got the COOLEST idea) then we departed for Maccas- futatsu cheeseburger, ooonion to muuuustard to pickulshu nookie de! I also created beauty with our leftover wrappers.We then headed back to J&F and had a lovely shower, wasted our time (Onion, NO! Mustard, NO! Pickles, NO!) and made Miho Tacos for tea! And watched Gundam Seed ;)
















^^ I created a TANK! ^^


"Planning" with Miho
Today we decided to visit Miho and plan more activities for September. What actually happened was we watched America's next top model, then headed to Daiso and UniQlo. Upon comparing my budget and my money, I was alarmed and vowed not to spend much money. I then bought two dresses, a skirt and a scarf and some presents. And a new handbag. Oops? So we're trying to plan again on thursday. Also, on the train on the way to Miyakojima (Miho's station), a kid got his hand stuck in the train doors... they didn't close on his hand, his hand got dragged into the space where the doors slide into when open. He screamed and screamed, and it was really freaky. In the end about 6-10 Japanese men were trying to pull his arm out while holding the half closed train door open. His hand, when pulled out, was fine... Sarah and I half expected it to come out bloody and like raw meat. It was both relieving and slightly disappointing, after the feeling of horror! Also, I'm not allowed to eat Maccudo (Maccas), chips, or ice cream until next sat. If I do, I have to eat lots of octopus. I am a sad panda.

















^^ Never thought I'd be grateful Adelaide train doors are so weak...^^

Shoutouts:
To my family- Sorry about Skype, I didn't blow you off, talk to you Thursday for sure!
To Kim Simpson, your malteser and Mars bar goodness is unbelieveable!
To Kim Bowden, I'll try to catch you on skype this weekend or friday?
To Ange, you should really check your email more often.
To Ben, we really should have bought those hats.
To Laura Turner, get on those pantsu cards!
To Laura Simpson, I didn't even know you had a cat. Looking forward to Skype date!
To Kirilly, yes, when we get back, we will make punch!
To Beno, your pizza makes me jealous.
To Georgia, you haven't commented us! WHY?!
To John, wow, grounded? Sucks to be you!


Hugs, Kisses and ... (you can fill this one in Ange),


Ichinose Maki
A.K.A.
Darth Vader
A.K.A.
Carlos Jorgen
A.K.A.
Carly



P.S.

Dear Diary,
Nose a little itchy today...
xx Ichinose

P.P.S

Secret Video coming soon here ;)