It was a toss up: either we stay in a hostel (or Manga cafe) in Osaka or we spend our time with a good guy and someone who has been living here for a while and knows the cool spots to hang out. We opted for the latter option. We decided to catch up again and stay with Kevin in the town where he is currently residing, Wakayama, about an hour or so outside of Osaka for a good part of the rest of our time in Japan.
Basically the whole of the first night and the next day were spent sleeping in and relaxing in Kevin's apartment simply because we could. It was great not having to move around and "sight-see" for a bit. I think we all need these lazy days sometimes. The second night we went out with a whole bunch of Kevin's friends to an izakaya restaurant (the Japanese equivalent of a pub - a drinking establishment that also serves food) which served up some tasty dishes.
The next day Kevin took us to a sushi train restaurant for lunch - Lee's and my first time eating real sushi. It wasn't as gross as I had imagined, and the fact that special orders rocketed out from the kitchen area on what could only be described by Kevin as a mini-shinkansen made the experience all the more fun :)
In the afternoon, along with a few of Kevin's friends, Johnnie and the Aussies Mark and Tanya, whom we had met at the hanami party the week before, we hit a place called Round One, just out of town. Six floors of gaming pleasure all under one roof.. And even on the roof.. There is a skating rink (which doubles as a mini-motorbike circuit and we took full advantage of this fact), basketball courts, baseball batting practise, an archery range, a driving range, a massage parlour, floors of crazy Japanese game machines, a curling rink, and even a pool where you can practise your fishing... with real fish! As long as you throw them back again, of course.. Basically, any game you could want or think of! Awesome fun!
For our 5th to last day in Japan, we decided we'd visit another ancient capital. I mean, why not? This time the city was Nara, the first official capital of Japan (for a mere 75 years, mind you, before Kyoto took over the reins in 785AD). Nara, like most places in this country, has a rich history which is expressed through its temples and monuments. There are some lovely traditional gardens here, and then there's the main attraction, Todai-ji temple. The real reason to visit this temple is to see the world's largest wooden building, Daibutsu-den hall (daibutsu meaning, literally, Great Buddha). So you can imagine what you will find inside. In fact within this hall are three huge Buddhas, the centre statue being the Daibutsu, one of the largest bronze figures in the world at just over 16m in height and containing 437 tonnes of bronze and 130kg of gold!
We managed to spend the majority of the day wandering the large park-like areas of the western part of town before perusing a few shops for some tapestries. In a small, dusty old shop we found the perfect tapestry - we just had to have it - the problem was that it, too, was dusty. Now although that didn't bother us, it seemed to bother the lady store-owner.. She basically refused to sell it to us. After much discussion (as much as can be had without understanding a single word each other was saying), she ended up dropping the price to Y400 from Y2400 on her own accord before letting us purchase it! We were offering to pay the Y2400 (about $24) but she wouldn't have a bar of it.. It was too embarrassing for her to sell a dirty piece of merchandise for such a "high" price.
Now something like that definitely would not happen in Vietnam - they would probably tell you it adds authenticity or something just to get the sale.. In fact, I don't think I could think of any place even in Adelaide where that would happen. It just goes to show how different Japan is. In so many ways.
Basically the whole of the first night and the next day were spent sleeping in and relaxing in Kevin's apartment simply because we could. It was great not having to move around and "sight-see" for a bit. I think we all need these lazy days sometimes. The second night we went out with a whole bunch of Kevin's friends to an izakaya restaurant (the Japanese equivalent of a pub - a drinking establishment that also serves food) which served up some tasty dishes.
The next day Kevin took us to a sushi train restaurant for lunch - Lee's and my first time eating real sushi. It wasn't as gross as I had imagined, and the fact that special orders rocketed out from the kitchen area on what could only be described by Kevin as a mini-shinkansen made the experience all the more fun :)
In the afternoon, along with a few of Kevin's friends, Johnnie and the Aussies Mark and Tanya, whom we had met at the hanami party the week before, we hit a place called Round One, just out of town. Six floors of gaming pleasure all under one roof.. And even on the roof.. There is a skating rink (which doubles as a mini-motorbike circuit and we took full advantage of this fact), basketball courts, baseball batting practise, an archery range, a driving range, a massage parlour, floors of crazy Japanese game machines, a curling rink, and even a pool where you can practise your fishing... with real fish! As long as you throw them back again, of course.. Basically, any game you could want or think of! Awesome fun!
For our 5th to last day in Japan, we decided we'd visit another ancient capital. I mean, why not? This time the city was Nara, the first official capital of Japan (for a mere 75 years, mind you, before Kyoto took over the reins in 785AD). Nara, like most places in this country, has a rich history which is expressed through its temples and monuments. There are some lovely traditional gardens here, and then there's the main attraction, Todai-ji temple. The real reason to visit this temple is to see the world's largest wooden building, Daibutsu-den hall (daibutsu meaning, literally, Great Buddha). So you can imagine what you will find inside. In fact within this hall are three huge Buddhas, the centre statue being the Daibutsu, one of the largest bronze figures in the world at just over 16m in height and containing 437 tonnes of bronze and 130kg of gold!
We managed to spend the majority of the day wandering the large park-like areas of the western part of town before perusing a few shops for some tapestries. In a small, dusty old shop we found the perfect tapestry - we just had to have it - the problem was that it, too, was dusty. Now although that didn't bother us, it seemed to bother the lady store-owner.. She basically refused to sell it to us. After much discussion (as much as can be had without understanding a single word each other was saying), she ended up dropping the price to Y400 from Y2400 on her own accord before letting us purchase it! We were offering to pay the Y2400 (about $24) but she wouldn't have a bar of it.. It was too embarrassing for her to sell a dirty piece of merchandise for such a "high" price.
Now something like that definitely would not happen in Vietnam - they would probably tell you it adds authenticity or something just to get the sale.. In fact, I don't think I could think of any place even in Adelaide where that would happen. It just goes to show how different Japan is. In so many ways.
Photos:
so many photos of Lee asleep.. our quarters in Kevin's pad
a common sight on trains in Japan.. mobile TV?
self explanatory I'd say..
one of the floors in Round 1 - MASSIVE!!!
Daibutsu-den
the giant Buddhas
Japanese lantern
ancient Japanese cricket....
2 comments:
and how much I love the tapestry!!! Still have to find the perfect place for it...
That's unbelievable !! The fact that the Japanese people value honour & integrity so much that they wouldn't sell it to you without dropping the price just shows how much of an awesome culture they have. Something the western world could really learn from.
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