Hey everyone! So today didn’t fit in quite as many iconic locations as yesterday, but still saw some beautiful places and some fun and exciting new experiences.
I started my day pretty slowly, still recovering from jet lag, so I left the Capsule Hotel at around 9:30am. I took a different path back to the train station, and boy was it pretty.
I think it’s pretty neat that the same city that I walked through with all the high rises, huge temples, and large tourist fish markets, would have a cute little street like this just a few blocks over. I loved it!
I also realized that I had forgotten to stop at one of the most important places on my trip while in Osaka.
Just kidding, but I definitely had to stop there to add to the pin collection. Couldn’t stop in Japan without picking these up! The walk to and from the Hard Rock was pretty long, I burned most of the morning getting there, so by the time I bought my memorabilia it was about lunch time. Now, up until this point I think I had been inadvertently avoiding any real restaurants for lack of not really knowing how to order food in Japanese. Unfortunately, the center of downtown Osaka wasn’t full of street vendors so I finally had to face my fear of lack of the language knowledge and give ordering at a restaurant a try. Of course, being in Japan I wanted to try all the different ramen dishes I could, so I found a place nearby.
And to no one’s surprise, I had no idea what to do. I think I got there right as some of the local businesses were taking their lunch breaks so I got a little lucky in that regard and just stood for like 5 minutes and watched how people were ordering. Strangely enough, everyone was ordering out of what looked like a vending machine that produced tickets at this specific ramen restaurant. The prices were clearly listed, but I had no idea what each meant, so I just ordered what looked like most of the other people were ordering, haha. I got my little ticket and waited in line. I knew I had no idea what I was doing so I quickly looked something up on google that could help me with restaurant phrases and stuff. I found a pretty decent one so I was frantically studying the page, finding and memorizing what the waitress might say and how I wanted to respond. I still wasn’t comfortable by the time my turn came around, but I thought I could squeeze my way through it. Haha boy was I wrong. I was also listening to what the waitress was asking to the people in front of me so I knew she was asking most of the groups how many were in their party. I knew how to answer that one, hitori desu (one person)! However, that was definitely not what she asked me first. She spurted out a bunch of Japanese faster than I could catch and I just looked at her with that “I have no idea what just happened” face. To my relief, I caught one word among everything else she was saying, originaru, or original, and quickly said hai, yes. I’m guessing at this point she was asking what flavor of ramen I wanted, which phrase was no where on the page I looked up, but oh well. I got inside, got my meal, and the original ramen looked pretty simple but was really good. The broth was very different from the ones I had tried in the states and was amazing!
From there I trekked my way back to the train station to catch my longer ride down the coast to catch a bus in Tanabe to make it to the onsen, or hot springs near where I had a hostel booked. I made all my trains fine, but I had unfortunately read the bus schedule wrong. It wasn’t the end of the world, because the train was scheduled to arrive 15 minutes before the bus left, in which time I had to find where to order the bus ticket and hobble my way through that conversation as well. I told myself that was doable and tried not to worry too much about it. Murphy’s law decided otherwise. I first realized something was wrong when we stopped at a station I was pretty sure we weren’t scheduled to stop at. About 45 minutes later, they put through the intercom a terrible English translation of “This train delayed because track inspection”, and another 25 minutes later we were finally moving again. Once I understood the problem I scrambled to contact the hostel to see if there was another way to get to the hot springs. The answer was no, unless you were willing to fork out $100 for a taxi, which I wasn’t. Luckily they also mentioned they don’t change for no-shows, so I quickly found an Airbnb in Tanabe, which miraculously still had a cheaper option available, and booked it as soon as I could. All in all, things could have gone better but I wasn’t stuck in a huge pickle.
[Scenery down the coast]
[Rice fields!]
[My room for the night, complete with tatami mats and decorative closet doors :)]
Once there, I asked the Airbnb host, in Japanese I might add, if he could recommend any restaurants near by. He mentioned one down there street where I eventually ordered a very tasty fried katsu, or pork, on rice. Veeery tasty, probably my favorite meal so far.
So, I unfortunately didn’t make it to the hot springs but I’m excited to explore this little city in the morning tomorrow before I catch a bus at 11:30 tomorrow to finally make it to the hostel! Catch you guys again tomorrow!
Fun fact I discovered: Tanabe is actualy the city where Aikido karate originated. Evidently, Aikido is a form of passive karate that doesn’t contain any hits or kicks, but strictly uses your opponent’s momentum and force to your advantage. Pretty cool stuff. Evidently you can take little one day lessons, wish I had known this before hand!
FROSTED TIPS 