Osaka

After what proved to be a quite irritating (nine hour I might add) bus trip some days ago I arrived in Osaka at the - usually unknown to me hour - of seven. I met up with Ed, whom I met in the airport on my arrival two-ish months ago. It was at his apartment that I would be staying; we made our way there and, after a restorative nap of seven or so hours, I was recharged and ready to take on the day. Having made a key for me, we went to Kyoto for lunch, er, rather dinner at this point. We went to the Gyoen, where I took some fairly unsatisfactory pictures in the failing light. After enjoying a light dinner at a Mom 'n Pop tendon joint (excuse the pun), we adjourned to the Very Berry Cafe, for a much needed hot cup of coffee and cold pint of beer. We returned to Osaka and engaged in a night out, Japanese style. By which I mean, staying out past when the trains quit running, which necessitates staying out until they start running, usually around five. But, as there's no real closing time in Japan, it's quite easy to do this. In fact it's even easier for those of us on vacation, viz. me and Ed; what I don't understand is the ability of the salaryman to accomplish this, and go to work the next day. The Japanese have a fortitude of spirit that is beyond my comprehension.
One of the goals of this trip was to meet up with an old friend of a friend by the name of Masanori. He had done a homestay with the Clarks, some friends of ours in Olympia, some twenty-six years ago. So, the next day we met up with him for dinner. A dinner of the most amazing variety at, according to Masanori, the best seafood restaurant in Osaka - Totoya. I have never before seen, let alone eaten, that many kinds of fish at one restaurant. We had fish fried, raw, boiled, deep fried, mixed with rice, and even staring at us while eating. It was the best meal I've eaten since coming to Japan, perhaps even all year (2005 that is). It was good to see Masanori, and we had a nice chat, half Japanese/half English; I even brought him some ubekama (sorry dudes, but local fishcake specialty company websites are gonna be 日本語 only).
The next day, being New Year's, we went out again, intending on staying out all night. Were we successful? I should say so. But first, I spent the afternoon checking out Osaka castle and wandering around Umeda (one of Osaka's two downtowns), I then met up with Ed, his girlfriend and a friend of hers and we struck out. After hitting a couple of places in preparation, we joined Ed's coworkers at Le (something French, can't remember) Jardin, a fancy-esque place on the top floor of a building in Namba (the other of Osaka's downtowns). It was a nice New Year's set up, chandeliers on the floor, outdoor seating surrounded by a moat, cheap bar, buffet, and another room with karaoke, DJs and, at the stroke of midnight, indoor fireworks. Returning home at five the next morning, it was successful.
I embarked home the next day, traveling this time by shinkansen (taking only two hours to Shin-Yamaguchi, thank god). Travel was good, but it's good to be back home - howevermuch I want to move. I went out for a few with Jim (my roommate) and came back home, glad to sleep on my own futon.