Japan - Osaka

So there I was, not having the greatest time ever in the country I had always wanted to visit. But then came Osaka. And it was good. The picture on the right is of an amusement park I passed on the way. Looked pretty cool.

I decided to spring for a hotel just because this was kinda like a holiday and I felt like my own space. Which actually turned out to be a very good thing because I ended up getting some kind of weird day flu where I was in bed all day. But anyway, that part later. I arrived at my hotel, "The Greatest Western Hotel" which surprisingly enough did not have an American ranch kind of theme to it.. just a normal hotel.. the view from my room was pretty cool too, the room itself was really nice as well. In any case, I booked that one on agoda.com, so got a discount, and not only that, when I tried to extend my stay the hotel staff gave me a huge price, so I went through agoda again and it was all good ^^

So why did I want to extend my stay in Osaka? Was I really having that good a time? Yes, yes I was. Osaka is pretty damn cool. When I was in Tokyo I had met this Canadian local who gave me a couple of hints as to where abouts to stay and where to drink in Osaka, and it turns out I was really glad to have that advice on me.

So I headed down to the one bar this woman recommended - Cinquecento - owned by this quite nice Australian guy, I mentioned her name, bought some dinner, and chatted to him about where to go next and what to do in Osaka, even one of his Japanese bar staff told me about some festival thing going on (though I ended up missing it due to the illness). And then there she was. This pretty ozzy girl comes into the bar and orders a drink and starts talking to the owner. She seems quite nice so I chip in and we get talking. Eventually she takes me to the greatest little bar I have been to in a LONG time = Cherry Bomb. The coolest little rock bar with the coolest American owner - Jessie (a dude and pictured above). This place was so cool and I met lots of new people while drinking. What an awesome night!

What happened to the girl you may be thinking? well it turns out she has this "real nice boyfriend/fiance" and they had a fight, or he was throwing a wobbly, which is why she was out. Anyways, so that was night number one!

So the next day after some recovery time I went to Osaka Castle, which was freaking AMAZING and it turns out they have these little volunteer type tour guides. So one of these little old dears in a lime green shirt comes over and starts chatting away in broken English - she was so cool! - and offered to take me around the castle. She explained the whole history of this place as we walked around. I got a good luck wish from walking through some kind of round arch in the middle of some temple grounds, and the castle walls, the moat, the history of it all was absolutely epic. I got to stand in a courtyard where thousands of Samurai fought to the death and walk through a castle which had been made by a man who rose from peasantry to become a Samurai Lord. There were stories of betrayal and murder, suicide and treason. It was all quite amazing, I think I said that already ^^

There was also an amazingly huge museum in Osaka, but I was kinda museumed-out from Tokyo so skipped that and went back to the hotel.

That night I got a wee taste of Ireland and NZ at the next recommended place and it was great. Murphy's is a great Irish Pub - the first in Japan I believe - to get something to eat and a good bit of beer at the same time. I ended up meeting this kiwi girl - actually one of the only Kiwi's I've met in my travels through Korea and Japan - so she was the bar-tender and since it was a quiet night after she finished we went to Cherry Bomb with some of her co-workers I think... can't recall really... it might have been Fubar... Anyway that was another awesome night!

But then it happened, I got sick for a bit. Hot and cold shivers, vomiting in the loo (though I think that was from the drinking), and generally not happy, I managed to get some medicine, food and water and waited it out.

The next day I decided to extend my stay and hang out till the weekend. It was a good call because the Kiwi girl was leaving Japan and I got invited to the party, and later on I met another Ozzy at Cherry Bomb and he invited me to his birthday party too (though I ended up only staying a short while). I also met a bunch of Kiwi's one night which was a surreal experience, and I also shot one of my new friends in the nuts with a tiny nerf gun from about 10m away. Surprising thing was it must have hit him in exactly the right/wrong place because he certainly didn't stop complaining about it for a while. Nothing a couple of drinks didn't fix though.

As you can tell I spent a lot of time in Osaka partying, but I am glad I got to see a lot of the city as well. So that's what made my trip to Japan really. The people I met, the fun that I had, and the history I got to absorb.

After Osaka I went to Kyoto, which was pretty cool really. I stayed in a hostel and got to meet some interesting people. I also got to see some really historic buildings including the biggest wooden building in THE WORLD. It was very Japanese there and I saw a lot of people walking around in traditional dress. The streets were a bit different from what I'd seen anywhere else as well - they were super clean and there were signs everywhere saying not to smoke on them.

Check out the pictures of this trip on facebook if you like, there should be a fair few up now!!