It Is Strong In Time, And It Is Gently to Time Tough At Time

4 days in Kyoto and Osaka with nothing but a backpack full of clothes and some beef jerky shipped directly from America can mean only one thing...FUNNNNN!N!N!N!N!N!N!N!!!!!!

I just got back this morning after another 8 hour hellacious midnight bus ride full of 20 minute naps and it good to be back. I've never backpacked (im not sure if its considered backpacking) before and I could start to feel it taking a toll on my body. I wasn't tired or sore, I just kind of wanted to relax, take care of some work at home, but that doesn't mean I had a fantasmic sweetkend. This was out only 4 day weekend, so a couple days before it began, I decided to go to Kyoto with my good friends here, Nathan, Brian, and Sean. Through hostel arrangements we ended up 2 days in Kyoto and 2 days in Osaka, 8 hours west of Tokyo. And so it begins with the midnight bus:

eating chocolate chip melon between naps makes me sick

DAY 1

it rained forever when we got there

so we prayed

and the rain disappeared

Thankfully it stopped, because it was a real big downer. In celebration of the sunshine, we all took our clothes off and dove into the holy Buddhist fountain, and gave warrior like declarations of our supreme love for Buddha. The declarations sounded more like girlie screams, but we tried our best. After the blood in our throats had dried, we visted a bunch of temples and shrines in Kyoto, something we proceed to do through out our 4 days stay. We also went to the top of the Kyoto Tower, found some stray cats and fed them, went to Nijo Castle and took in some of the views. The nighted ended a stroll in the park, then some MickeyD's (something which we made a breakfast tradition while on the road) and stopped at the restaurant near our hostel. Oh yeah, then poker in our rooms. Oh yeah, we went to Ryukoku University (370 years old). Oh yeah, and then chillin on the roof with our new friend Ben from Germany. Oh yeah...actually thats it for that night. It was a longggg day.

$20 a night


DAY 2

We only could spend one night at Kyoto Cheapest Inn, so we had to get out that afternoon and start heading to Osaka. But before we did that, we went back to the park we were at last night, to walk around a bit more. We found old men feeding Koi fish and Sean feeding birds chocolate chip bread. Oh Sean, when will you ever learn. Only Mikey eats the chocolate chip bread.

When we had arrived to our next "hotel", we heard word of an aquarium in Osaka and deemed it mandatory that we go. So we went. Duh.

The aquarium was pretty beautiful I'm sure you can imagine. I've never seen or even knew that fish that big existed. Almost the size of a size of Lorenzo's pizza. Yep, that big.
After the aquarium we headed back to our rooms to take a bath (yea, get naked and in a tub with a bunch of dudes type thing) and got dressed for a night out on the town. Oh yeah heres a picture of our room for 2 nights:

$10 a night

We started to walk the streets of Osaka, and there was a smell that rang familiar. It was the smell of piss as we walked through this tunnel with a lot of old people selling their possessions. Osaka reminded me a lot of Philly, the dirty side of Japan, something not often seen in the constant makeovers of Tokyo. It made me comfortable to be surrounded by a bunch of real working men and not the pretentious fashion obsessed teens of Tokyo. It was similar to a 2nd culture shock. Even though I enjoyed this aspect of urban Japanese life, I do not wish to be surrounded by it all the time. Too many old heads. Too many porn stores.

We went in search of somewhere to eat, and we found a place with a Bob Marley flag out front. We knew this would be it. A Jamacian restaurant. But Japanese food. Whatever.

As I exited the restaurant, I found Nathan talking to some guy from the street about music. Aparently this guy composes music but said he's not very good at it. We in exchange told him we were in a band from America, playing shows in Japan. Our band was called Sharp Looks. Its not ALL a lie. Nathan was the singer in a band from America called Sharp Looks. But none of us were. Nathan sang, Brian played guitar, Sean bass, and me on the drums. He was really excited to be talking to his, we even gave him an impromptu street performance. He asked for our autographs so we gave it to him. Right on his backpack.


After that me and Brian shot the man.

DAY 3

Brian's last day in Osaka. So we went to Osaka Castle. Which was actually a museum, completely modern on the inside. Boring.

outer moat

inner moat

the japanese and their holograms

we rollercoastered through this mall

i lost all my money and my heart at the slots

That night we hung out on the balcony and talked for an hour. Until there was a violent banging on the door next to us, followed by some very loud and angry Japanese yelling. I think it translated into: "Excuse me you kind and handsome Americans, can you please retire to your rooms but first be so kind as to bring me one of your famous hot dogs and apple pies. GODDD BLESSS AMERICA!!!" I went to sleep scared, gun pointed at the door.

DAY 4

We had to be out by 9, and being my lucky ol' self, I locked myself out of my room once again. But I got the key later. We headed back to Kyoto to catch the midnight bus that night, and realized some of us didn't have much money left over. So we decided to walk around Kyoto looking for some more temples and relax in some parks, take some naps on the benches. We ended up finding 3 parks, and since it was a holiday, "Sports Day" some of them were packed with people. Playing all sorts of wild and crazy japanese games, one involving hitting a ball with a stick and another throwing a disc in the air and another person catching it.

Goodnight.