Our official arrival to Japan probably occurred sometime during the night, and when we awoke, we saw some of the islands of Japan outside our window. Our boat wasn't scheduled to dock until 9:30am, so we made our way down to the cafeteria to enjoy our complimentary Japanese breakfast. Today, our breakfast was comprised of an egg, some type of packaged pastry, and two rolls – one of which was filled with spinach. Not exactly the breakfast we were hoping for, but we were hungry – so, we did our best to eat what we could.
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| Another traditional ship Asian breakfast - tomato, egg, and even some rice soup. |
We arrived to Osaka around 9am, and we had to get our temperatures taken (to make sure we weren't sick) before leaving the ship. We headed towards customs and waited in the short line. On the customs form, we were supposed to fill in the hotel we would be staying at during our time in Japan. Unfortunately, we had no idea what the hotel's name was! Our tour information didn't provide the hotel's name, it only included the name of our tour guide and his phone number. When the custom's agent asked us where we were staying, we showed him the paper explaining our tour and he decided to call our tour guide himself to find out the information. Luckily, he found out and we were able to make our way through without a problem. Once we exited the customs and immigration areas, we met up with our tour guide, Brett, who was waiting for us. He greeted us and took us toward the train station.
We boarded an underground train that took us into Osaka. While on the train, we learned a bit more about our tour guide (we were definitely curious because he was not Japanese and he was leading a group tour in Japan). He is originally Australian, but has been living and working as a tour guide in China, Japan, and Thailand for the past 7 years. He explained to us that the tour group was quite small (only 5 people), because it was during the holiday season and fewer people travel this time of year. We were the first to arrive, which was a first for us.
We also had our first lesson in Japanese culture while on the train. Brett explained to us that the Japanese people are very respectful of one another and try to keep talking to a minimum on the train. He was correct – as we looked around the full train, we noticed that no one was talking, it was completely quiet. We were the only people making noise! We did our best to quiet our voices as not to disturb others on the train after we learned this.
We arrived at the Osaka station and Brett walked us to the hotel. The weather outside was about 50 degrees, with some light rain. This wasn't bad to us at all as we heard there was a major winter storm back home in the US. Unfortunately, it was too early for us to check into the hotel. So, we decided to leave our luggage behind at the hotel and wander through Osaka on our own. Brett directed us to the closest international ATM, and the major shopping district in Osaka.
Before leaving Brett, we asked him how much money we should plan on taking out of the ATM. We appreciated his recommendation, but had some concerns as the amount he suggested was very high. It was at this point that we realized how expensive Japan would be. We decided to take out about half of what our tour guide had suggested and see how far it could get us if we were frugal.
We walked through the extremely long covered mall, the Shin Sai Bashi Suji, and looked at all of the unique items and stores. There were a lot of arcade-type stores filled with floors and floors of video games and karaoke. We also saw a lot of stores with beauty products. Being the good Americans that we are, we stopped at the first McDonald's we saw to grab a snack and use the bathroom. Anyone who has been to Japan before is probably aware of the fact that the toilets are a bit fancier than they are in the USA. Here is a picture of the toilet at McDonald's for anyone who is curious:
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| The controls for the toilet are on the left side - you can choose whatever type of "bodily rinse" you like. |
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| You can also choose different "courtesy" sounds to play - during the act... |
From McDonald's we continued our shopping excursion. James was intrigued by a 200 Yen store (the equivalent of about 3 US dollars), so we went in. The store was similar to what one might expect in a US Dollar store, but with some unique Japanese products like slippers and chopsticks. After exploring every bit of the store, we left and started heading back to the Washington Hotel to finally check in.
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| Japanese streets are filled with vending machines, offering hot and cold drinks. |
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| These are "crane" games - found everywhere in Japan, and which hold every product imagineable. |
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| A view of the kilometers of covered shopping streets. |
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| Detroit holds a certain mystique all over the globe... even when innacurate. |
Once we arrived at the hotel, we both took a nice afternoon nap. We were exhausted and knew that once the tour officially started, we'd be extremely busy for the next week. We woke up around 5pm, with enough time to freshen up before meeting the rest of the people in our group and heading to dinner. After the introductions, Brett took us to a restaurant to try eating okonomiyaki – which is a Japanese grilled pancake. We both opted to try different things – James chose pork, while Erin opted for rice flour, cheese, and corn. The dinner was extremely tasty, and we were thankful to have our own individual portions, rather than sharing dishes with everyone as we did in China.
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| James decked out in his rain gear. |
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| Okonomyaki - which tastes a lot better than it looks to Western eyes. |
After dinner, we wandered through the mall one more time. We wanted to get some more exercise and we also wanted to see all that we could in Osaka before leaving for Koyason the next day. We stayed in the mall area until it closed before walking back towards our hotel and heading in for the night. We were able to use an ethernet cord in our room to get the internet, so we called our families. We were happy to speak to them as it had been some time (we weren't able to call while in China due to internet restrictions). By the time we finished chatting with our families, it was after midnight and we knew we needed to get some sleep.
