End of the Road

Day 3: We're Gonna Need a Bigger Boat

I let Natsuko, a good friend and former host sister of mine, know that I'd be in Japan over the summer so that we could meet up. Naka yasumi happened to coordinate perfectly with her break from university so we planned on a trip to Universal Studios Japan in Osaka (^*<>*)v I was a bit wary of going at first since I had been to Universal Studios Japan before and spent most of the time waiting in line (for rides that lasted about 10 minutes, if that). This time however ---even without buying a special pass--- we were able to ride a bunch of different things without having to wait too long~ E.T., JAWS, Teriminator 2, Spiderman, and Hollywood (a roller coaster). We also saw the Water World show, which was a bit confusing to understand in Japanese, but I was able to get the gist of it from understanding particular phrases like "It's from real land," "Don't tell him," and "Look out!" Side Bar: I was surprised (and sort of impressed) that there were several foreigners working at Universal Studios~ doing everything from acting in the Water World show to dancing on the Sesame Street trolley.

As an added surprise, Natsuko brought along her younger brother and older sister, Tatsuya and Sakiko!!! I hadn't seen them in almost 2 years so it was very なつかしい。Two of Natsuko's college friends also made the trip, so we had a nice, large and merry group. For dinner we met up with the PII students who had gone to Kobe for the day (apparently the beef is indeed all it's worked up to be) and had a huge Chinese dinner~ I think we took up a good third of the restaurant. After that we saw Natsuko and Co. on their way and then went out for a night on the town. Though it was our third night in Osaka, we still weren't all too familiar with the lay of the land so we asked two cool looking guys around Dottombori for a recommendation on where to go. They pointed us out to this pretty sweet Wine Bar (so named) across the street from the famous Glico sign. So- we all had some reasonably priced drinks then headed back for one last night at the sketchy hotel.

Day 4: Back Home

Sunday morning we took the bus back to Kanazawa. Most of us used the ride to catch up on zzzzz's. Though we all had great times in Osaka and Kyoto, and have the pictures to prove it, I think I can say without hesitation that nothing beat's okaasan's home-cooked miso.... peace out.