Chilling in Osaka

This is the Osaka subway and train system. It`s fun to navigate.
Because of the Madonna concert and the long weekend, I decided to spend some time exploring Osaka. It's the second largest city in Japan and is known for its food, down-to-earth citizens and its unique dialect called Kansai-ben. Leilani and I had originally booked into a cheap hotel near Tennoji but after hearing some not so savoury things about it, we quickly changed plans and decided to stay closer to America Mura and Shinsaibashi. Before the concert, we were able to explore some of the sights like ths shopping arcade in Shinsaibashi and Dotonburi, the entertainment district along the river. It was nice to just do some window shopping and get a Starbucks or two. We went into one of my favourite stores called Tokyu Hands. It's a great department store that stocks everything you need that you don't think you need.The crowds of Osaka near Dotonburi.Note the Glico ManA symbol of Osaka, Glico ManWith Hello Kitty at the Sanrio StoreThe shopping arcade in the dayShinsaibashi Shopping Arcade at night
After the concert, we set out to find El Pancho's which is a well-known Mexican restaurant in Osaka. My predecessor even left their business card for me. It was a little hard to find but we found it and had some margaritas and mexican food. It was really nice to get some international cuisine again.At El Pancho`s
How am I going to carry this all home?
The next day, we did more shopping and end up going past Rinku Town Premium outlets on the way back. It's very close to the airport and was a great place to pick up some items in hard to find sizes. I need to go back to Osaka and do some more exploring, there are not a lot of sights there but it's a big city and I've hardly reached the tip of the iceberg.

Deers+Buddha=Big Fun in Nara!

The night of the Wakayama Orientation, more than half of the new ALTs were staying at Leilani's place in Wakayama City. The next day, Rose, Megan, Tristan, Leilani and I ventured off to explore the historic city of Nara. Nara is another one of the great Kansai cities. It is a former capital of Japan (710-784) and its claim to fame is that it houses the largest Buddha in the world in the largest wooden building in the world, the Daibutsu-den at Todaiji. Aside from the Buddha, it is famous for its deer which are supposed to be sacred. Supposedly, they just run free all over Nara Park. So, armed with some train directions, we headed into Osaka to change trains and then a little further east to Nara. The trains were easy enough to navigate except at one point when I thought we should board a train only to be saved by Tristan's hunger attack.

Tristan's a hungry man. Thanks for saving us from taking the wrong train!!

Upon arrival, we got directions to Todaiji from the tourist information centre in the train station. Since we were still hungry that morning, we hit up Bikkuri Ramen (Surprise Ramen!) next to Nara Station. It was good,cheap and fast and now we had fuel for our day of sightseeing.

We wandered down the main shopping street in Naramachi leading towards the sights and I spotted many quaint cafes that I would love to linger in one day. The first sight we came to was Kofukuji with its three and five story pagodas. Near the entrance of this temple, we met our first deer. We called it our training deer as it was very docile. Silly us though, we still acted very timid towards it. Here is a picture of me with it.
Me with the "training deer"
The entrance to Kofukuji and its majestic pagoda

Since we had already warmed up with the training deer, now it was time to mingle with the rest of the deer. The best way to make friends with them is to purchase crackers called sembei for 150 yen ($1.40 Cdn) and then try your best to not to get attacked by hordes of deer. For the most part, this went well. But watch out for the deer with horns. They can be vicious and being poked by their horns definitely hurts! As Tristan found out later that day, you gotta watch your back, because a deer surprised him at a vending machine. It was pretty funny to watch that sneak attack since Tristan was a little jumpy to say the least.Look! I am calmly feeding a deer

After laughing at our (mis)adventures with some of the deer, we made our way to Todaiji. Of course, there were more deer lining the route to the main attraction in Nara but there were also lots of omiyage and food stalls. I also spotted a begging monk. He looked very serene. The Daibutsu-den is absolutely amazing. It's hard to imagine how such a large building was made pre-modern construction techniques. The Big Buddha is awe-insipiring as well. The Daibutsu-den at Todaiji
The Big Buddha

It seems that the path to enlightenment is tangible after all. It is in the Daibutsu-den in Nara. I saw a lot of adults and children trying to wedge their way through a small hole in a wooden beam. I stopped to look at this madness. After consulting another tourist and my guidebook, there is method to the madness. People crawl through a hole which is the same size as one of the Big Buddha's nostrils to gain enlightenment for the year. The path to enlighment ends here

On the way back to the train station, we found a beautiful park with a lake and rowboats. It was so picturesque. Then, we spotted a maiko out of the blue. It looked like she was on her way to a party but stopped to oblige us tourists. This was the first maiko I spotted! It was really exciting.
Scenes of Nara Park
On her way to a party?

So far, Nara is my favourite city I have visited in Kansai. I feel at peace in this beautiful city. I hope to visit again in the fall and spring.

The Shi

After spending about two and half weeks in the greater Gobo area, I was starting to get cabin fever. Shirahama was great and I was enjoying meeting all of the ALTs but I wanted to go shopping, have a Starbucks and hang out. So, I grabbed fellow ALT Sarah and we went off to explore the big city, Wakayama one evening. I had checked the Starbucks website and found that there was a store out in a mall called Garden Park. After checking their website, it looked like I hit pay dirt because one of my favourite Japanese chains, Muji, has a location there, too! The local train costs about 1000 yen and takes an hour to get up to the shi. Then, we had to navigate the bus system and eventually we found ourselves at Garden Park. Unfortunately for Sarah, there were no stores for clothes and swimsuit shopping but we both enjoyed our Starbucks and browsing Muji's food section. On our way back to the train, we stopped for food at this great little Indian restaurant run by a family from Pakistan. It is in a really convenient location and I definitely glad to see that I could still enjoy some international cuisine in Wakayama. Even as we get more settled into our rural lifestyles, it's nice to know there is a city to escape to every once in a while.

One of my favourite Japanese chain stores
Always smart to get yourself 'stranded' on an island with a Starbucks! according to my friend, C.
Sarah and her Pakistani new friend; Delicious South Asian cuisine

Shirahama

I feel lucky to have been placed in Wakayama. Although at Tokyo Orientation, 9 out of 10 people I met said they had no idea where it was located, we do have a lot of great sights here. There are two UNESCO world heritage sights here, Koyasan and Kumano Kodo. Koyasan is where the Shingon esoteric sect of Buddhism was founded and Kumano Kodo is a famous pilgrimage. Beyond that the Kii Peninsula boasts a warm climate and some of Japan's best mikans(oranges) and umes (plums). But, one of our best claims to fame is the beautiful white sand beaches of Shirahama. So, this was the perfect setting to welcome the 25 or so new ALTs in the area.

Nanki Shirahama
In the Kansai area, this is definitely the resort for the summer. There was a tonne of traffic on the drive down here and many an Osaka and Nara plate were spotted. Shirahama used to have to import the white sand from Hawaii but now it is brought in from Australia. The area does have a lot of attractions such as a fish market, Adventure World that is home to twin pandas and a famous onsen (hot spring) overlooking the beach. All of which I will have to explore on a return visit. With 12 new JETs and lots of returning ones to meet, there was no time for sightseeing. The new JETs are brought over in two groups. Since I was in the Group B Orientation, I still had to meet all of Group A. It was great to finally meet all of the newbies.
WAJET on the beach!
One special treat for us JETs was a Subway that had recently opened in Shirahama. I had an excellent bulgogi wrap there. That is definitely NOT on the Canadian subway menu. I hung out there with the fellow Vancouverites in the ken, Wynne and Rei and Wynne's friend, Miki. These second year JETs taught me the most important thing about using cell phones in Japan which is how to send data between the phones using infrared technology. すごい！The ALTs have termed it 'phone sex'. Ahem. After socializing with them for a bit, it was back to the beach to chill out.

Rei, Miki and Wynne in front of Shirahama's subwayRei and Wynne fooling around with the keitais
In the evening, we headed to a nearby town for a BBQ and more socializing. Of course, more crazy party photos were taken. And as a special treat, the town of Kamitonda's summer hanabi taikai (fireworks display) coincided with our welcome party. Another interesting thing for me was that I finally got to meet my predecessor Lauren. She had provided me with lots of information about my placement and kindly answered all of my questions so it was great to finally see her in person. She had decided to stay in Asia for a bit longer and was back visiting Wakayama. With my predecessor, Lauren
Me with the Kushimoto crew (Justin, Wynne and Tony (l to r)Most towns in Japan have fireworks displays during the summer

Susami

On the first full weekend we had free in Japan, my orientation group, Group B, decided to get together at Sara`s place in Susami. Susami was a very central meeting point between our placements that ranged from Arida to Nachi-Katsura. I met up with Parry and Quinn on the train and we headed south. We were greeted by a summer downpour but it was really exciting to be reunited with all of our new friends. We headed to a nice little restaurant just outside of the station and got a chance to catch up on the first two weeks at our placements.

Tony, me, Lily, Ryan, Justin, Kate, Sara, Quinn, Parry in Susami(l to r)

After catching up, we went to Sara`s apartment which is really a house! She is very lucky to have a nice big place to spread out and make herself comfortable. Plus, she had enough room to house us for the night. After checking out her place, we wandered over to the grocery store to collect snacks and finally it was time to hit the beach! For some of us (ahem, Parry!), it was our first time to ever go to the beach. Too bad none of us were scuba diving since Susami`s claim to fame seems to be an underwater mailbox.
I decided to wander around a bit snapping photos of this ocean side town. Here are a few of my favourite shots from this fishing village.

Summer Sonic

I an avid fan of Pollstar and often check it to get my concert listings around the world. A few months before coming to Japan, I found out about this great festival called Summer Sonic with lots of international and Japanese bands. I was especially excited to see that Keane and Nelly Furtado would be playing. Summer Sonic is held in both Tokyo and Osaka and all the bands play both cities in the same weekend. I didn't until the day before to go but I figured that it was a good way to get up to Osaka, hear some good music and enjoy my first full Sunday in Japan.

I managed to navigate the train system with little difficulty and soon it was bye, bye Gobo and hello Osaka.

Ironically, with a sign that says "Welcome to Gobo"; Osaka Loop Line where I had to transfer trains
For JETs in my area, Osaka is our closest big city and it is the mecca for us Wakayama JETs of all things entertainment, fun and food. In under 2 hours via the express train, I was up in Osaka and now navigating the subway station at JR Namba. JR Namba has its own little underground city and their are hip-hop dancers who break and pop and lock all day long.
Breakdancer at Namba Station
I had to take one subway line out to a new tram line which would take me past the port area and out to the INTEX conference centre and Zepp Osaka which were the two venues I needed for the Festival. After a short walk from the tram stop, I went to buy my ticket and was anxious to see Keane as I am a big fan of their music. I listened almost non-stop to their new album, "Under the Iron Sea" during my stay this summer in Buenos Aires so for me that album reminds me of my time there. So, you can imagine my slight disappointment when I saw that Keane had cancelled their appearance. Well, I was there already so I made the best of it and see some other bands. Ms Promiscuous, Nelly Furtado, had played on Saturday so I saw the Cardigans and Daniel Powter instead. The Cardigans rocked their hits and Daniel Powter surprised me with his songs. He actually has some better ones than "Bad Day" which has been played to death at home due to CanCon and American Idol send-offs.Nina Pearson of the Cardigans; Daniel Powter on the keys
I wandered around the merchandise, vendors and food stalls that were also part of Summer Sonic. I saw many strange and wonderful things.

Strange things included:Wahaha, a comical musical group; the "moving rubber" promotion. still not sure what it is; exhausted fans napping at INTEX
Wonderful things included: Organized graffiti chaos on the message boardI-pod listening station at the HMV booth
After wandering around the festival, I went over to Zepp Osaka to catch a Japanese hip-hop group called Soul'd Out. It was such an interesting experience that they deserve a post all on their own. After their performance, I hopped back on the tram and had a great chat in Japanese with an older couple who were curious about the big screens showing Metallica's performance in the Open Air Stadium which were visible from the tram's windows. All in all, it was a pretty awesome, international event. All three groups I saw spoke or tried to speak in Japanese and English and I saw/heard sound checks in three languages: Swedish,English and Japanese.