Wednesday, December 21, 2005
Right, I kept a journal during the trip, so please excuse me if it sounds too present-tense-ish.
Ahem.
Day 1-
WooHOO, it's Osaka!! Cold arh.... About 6 degrees when we landed, gonna go close to zero at night.
Ueda(my mum's colleague, based in Japan) and his wife are sooo hospitable. VERY. Treated us very well and their house is NICE NICE NICE. The room they put us up in is like those traditional Japanese rooms. The low low table, square cushions, bamboo mats and all.
THERE.
Nice right. Simple culture and nothing else. The only thing modern in there were the lamps and the heater.
Ueda's cat is very very playful, keep searching my bag like got food inside liddat. And speaking of food, I LOVE JAPANESE FOOD!!! But some cannot bite lah, teeth pain. Ueda and his wife can cook very well, and they gave us a very nice and sumptous dinner. It consisted of Sushi and this Japanese pancakes(I forgot the Japanese Name), which is actually some sort of teppenyaki-ed coleslaw. You bung all the coleslaw on the teppenyaki plate and compress it into some pancake looking thing, then you put meat on top, flip and wait, flip and wait. After it's done you pour 3 different types of sauces on top and then you cut it up and eat!!
Shiok right. Looks like small pizza. But it's very healthy lah. Haha, after everything we went to sit at the living room area and chatted for about an hour, then went to bathe and went to sleep.
Day 2-
This morning Ueda and his wife made this "Traditional Japanese Breakfast" for us. There was salmon and this egg roll thingy, rice and MISO SOUP!!
Woah!
After the meal we walked to the Osaka Castle. It was HUGE!! Inside all about the History of some dynasty.
Then we went back to Ueda's house and packed to leave for the Miyako hotel down the road.
Check-in went all well and we went to our room. Really 4-star man. I think the service sector here gets mroe well paid than other jobs. My mum said their necks must be very strong because they spend half their live's bowing.
Left for NARA, which is 50 minutes train ride away.
Oh by the way, those so-called "Japanese Foods" in Singapore? They're NOTHING compared to the fare there. Really nice nice nice food.
I know this looks a little mucky here, but it really is very very nice. A little hard to manage the rice with chopsticks though, keeps slipping.
After that went back to the hotel and bathed and prepare to sleep lor. There was this music channel on TV showing this American Orchestra playing with this Japanese Female Violinist. Reminded me of what Zat said about japanese musicians. Whole body move like waves out at sea. She could have dropped off the stage and she wouldn't have noticed. Haha, she looked like her face could be stretched into weird proportions. haha.
Then came this German Philharmonics I think. Played Beethoven all the way. Like pure Beethoven Concert liddat. haha. The Conductor looked like Mr Glosz. haha. As in the conducting style. Watched for about 3 hours then went off to sleep.
Day 3-
Went to Kyoto. FRIGGIN COLD PLACE. Snowing summore. Then my hair kena frozen until cannot put back down. Standing up like at passing out parade liddat. Shopped around there and finally went back. VERY COLD....
Day 3-
Today nothing much to talk about. We walked around Osaka and shopped. Went into this 100Yen Shop(like our $1 Shop). I finished shopping in about 30 minutes(the shop was as big as shop n save), but I had to wait another 1 hour and a half because my dear mother simply HAD to buy everything the shop had to offer.
In the end she found everything she "needed", totalling about 3 huge Carrefour bags. Guess who had to carry the stuff?...
Made it back to the Hotel and spent the rest of the afternoon there.
Day 4-
Waked up and rushed all the way through breakfast, packing, check out at Hotel, check in at airport, Boarding....
Ok wait. Did I brush My teeth?
...
Oh well.
Rushed through everthing and finally got to the gate.
1 hour and 10 minutes EARLY.
Yeah, so we waited at the benches there and played "You're on Candid Camera(Obliviously)". I took my mum picture secretly about 3 times before she realised the "lightning" was coming from my Cam's flash. Then she also started taking my photo and vice versa, until we both ran out of memory card space. Then faster take each other's camera and delete all the unglam photos.
Haha, finally got to board the plane. Watched 7 swords, Madagascar, Kung Fu Mahjong, and Ah Sou.
The last one sounds like some ah lian show actually is a very touching show about this girl who takes over her triad boss father's business. Very touching.
Finally touched down. Met my Family and all, went home, had dinner, came up, switched on the computer,
And here I am writing this "quite-long" Journal of my trip to Osaka. It was FUN FUN FUN.
For me, at least.
Good Night.
