Osaka.
The hostel I stayed in was really nice. I had my own private room with a toilet and shower for about 40bucks a night and no curfew to boot. It was located in what I was told was a bad part of town but I never notice these kinds of things, or maybe I just don't care.
Yeah, I just don't care.
Spent about a week in the Osaka area.
The first night I decided to take a walk down the avenue just to take in the city. On the way there were some young people passing out flyers for an original play production. I saw that it was playing in about a half hour so I decided to go.
I liked it. Of course I don't speak Japanese nearly well enough to understand an artistic piece like the one I saw. But Understood the relationships and what was happening on stage. I got impressions of what the story was and what lessons the actors were trying to convey. All on a basic level. But still, very entertaining. This ended up being one of the highlights of my trip. I like sight seeing but I love interacting with people. I regret not keeping up with my Japanese. It would have made for a more fulfilling experience (though it was still a grand old time).
When I got out of the play I got a call from Aika. She was waiting for me at the train station near my hotel!
Aika is a friend from my college days at UNC. We met my freshman year. I remember we were both at the student services building. I was enthralled with Japan so of course I wanted to meet a real Japanese person. It turned out that we lived in student halls right across from each other. We ended up speeding a fair amount of time together that year. She was an exchange student from Osaka so she left at the end of that school year. But we kept in touch thru e-mail.
Now, 10 years later, we finally got to hang out again. Aika made all the difference for my trip. We spent the whole week together. She took me around Osaka, Nara, and Kyoto, let me stay at her home and meet her family, and finally accompanied me to Tokyo.
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