{"id":1331,"date":"2008-12-10T20:45:29","date_gmt":"2008-12-10T12:45:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/?p=1331"},"modified":"2008-12-11T00:05:38","modified_gmt":"2008-12-10T16:05:38","slug":"japan-2008","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/2008\/12\/10\/japan-2008\/","title":{"rendered":"Japan 2008"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Osaka\"
\nFukushima Station<\/a> near the hostel<\/p>\n

I’m typing this in J-Hoppers Osaka<\/a>. This is my second day in Japan, but most of yesterday was spent travelling. I arrived at Narita International Airport yesterday afternoon with a group of friends, wasted the evening away wandering around Tokyo JR Station and took an overnight bus to Kansai<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This is actually my fifth time in Japan, so the weather, the environment and the general atmosphere no longer present the same difficulties as before. That said, this is actually my first time in Kansai, so the feeling of exhilaration that comes from the exploration of the great unknowns is not totally lost in the comfortable familiar. For one thing, people in Osaka stand on the right side of the escalators.<\/p>\n

\"Osaka\"
\nThe end research product of scientific whaling<\/p>\n

I will be spending four nights at J-Hoppers Osaka, just a station’s distance away from Osaka JR Station. I spent today familiarizing myself with the neighbourhood, Umeda<\/a> (\u00e6\u00a2\u2026\u00e7\u201d\u00b0), the traffic and commercial hub of the region and took a short tour on top of Umeda Sky Building<\/a>. It is a very tall tourist trap with a great view of the entire Umeda district. I will be posting my photos onto my gallery at a later date when I have the time to process them.<\/p>\n

\"Osaka\"
\nUmeda Sky Building<\/p>\n

I had always thought of Osaka as an exotic wonderland where everyone speaks in Kansai-ben<\/a> while swinging paper fans around with highly exaggerated gesturing, but the real Osaka turned out to be a rather down-to-earth mix of Louis Vuitton and roadside okonomiyaki<\/em> (\u00e3\u0081\u0160\u00e5\u00a5\u00bd\u00e3\u0081\u00bf\u00e7\u201e\u00bc\u00e3\u0081\u008d) stalls, and I have yet to meet a Kansai-ben speaker. Perhaps Kyoto will be a more stimulating experience for my otherworldly thirst.<\/p>\n

\"Osaka\"
\nThis is where I sleep<\/p>\n

Speaking of okonomiyaki<\/a><\/em>, it’s good stuff when consumed in an authentic setting. Eating Japanese cuisine in Singapore is often a rather sterilized affair no different from consuming fast food (i.e. Pepper Lunch), whereas dining in a small okonomiyaki-ya<\/em> that fits no more than 16 people in a warm and cosy setting with a group of friends makes for a distinctively Japanese experience. That experience, more than the actual taste of okonomiyaki<\/em> (which can more or less be summed up by the word ‘salty’), comes highly recommended. The best thing you can do as a tourist in Japan is to get out of the giant departmental stores and find a small eatery in a nearby residential area.<\/p>\n

\"Osaka\"
\nBreakfast<\/p>\n

I shall keep this post short because I am tired from two days of travelling. The overnight bus ride was a rather unpleasant ride due to the large number of nuclear-powered highway street lights designed to keep the midnight truckers awake or burn their retinas out trying. Also, I shall never fly Northwest Airline again, for it gives new meaning to the concept of terrible in-flight meals, and American security theatre<\/a> is a rather unfruitful and dehumanizing experience.<\/p>\n

I will be dropping by Kyoto and Nipponbashi<\/a> (the Akihabara of Kansai) over my next few days in the area before returning to Kantou<\/a> via Shinkansen<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fukushima Station near the hostel I’m typing this in J-Hoppers Osaka. This is my second day in Japan, but most of yesterday was spent travelling. I arrived at Narita International Airport yesterday afternoon with a group of friends, wasted the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[51,771,770,708],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.darkmirage.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}