Arriving in Japan: the first few days

So Japan at last. After months of planning, weeks of excitement and a 10 and a half hour flight, we were finally in Japan. We were spending the first two days of our trip in Osaka, where my mother's family are originally from. It's in the Kansai area of Japan, known for it's cheery people and it's good food. It even has it's own dialect called Kansai-ben. As is in many countries, there is a great rivalry between this area (Southern Honshu) and the Kanto region of Japan, where Tokyo is (Northern Honshu). You will often hear people from Kansai comment on how things are better in Kansai. In fact I remember my Mum teaching me the phrase "Kansai is best" (to be accompanied with vigorous fist-waving)!

Our first few days were a bit of blur, mainly because we were crazily jet-lagged which is why we didn't take many pics then. Luckily our Japanese friend Kanako, who lives in Osaka, met up with us on our first day and gave us the run down of the city. We didn't manage to do too much with her as we were like the walking dead but she did get to show us a typical Japanese department store, or 'depato' as they call it. Mainly because of Eric's love of free food. Usually the basement of every Japanese department store is devoted to food. This is where they show off the best produce from around, everything from hot food like tempura (below) to all types of Japanese food to cakes and pastries. And there are a lot of free samples too. Let's just say our Eric was in his element.

The next day we just walked around taking everything in. Osaka is one of the biggest cities in Japan and coming from quiet Berlin, it was noisy, bustling and busy. Above is a photo of Eric on Dotonbori, one of the main streets in city centre Osaka. This is a crazy busy street, full of neon and loud music and hawkers yelling and people, people, people.


We didn't do any shopping, though there was amazing shopping to be done if you were into it. This is a photo of me in front of an Okamura furniture store. No relation I'm afraid, though Eric thought I might get a free chair if I showed my passport. Which I didn't, though the chairs did look very nice.

This is Eric in a guitar shop that had beautiful guitars, just the kind that Eric likes.

This is a photo of me in a noodle restaurant beside our hotel, one of the first of many fine noodle restaurants we went to. This was a typical Japanese restaurant where we sat on the floor on tatami mats. After the meal we just walked around and took in the area. Kanako explained that our hotel was in the traditional entertainment area of Osaka. Basically it was full of hostess bars where businessmen pay to be entertained by women. Apparently, it is strictly drink and conversation (no hanky panky), with the girls pouring you a drink and laughing at your jokes. Kanako explained that it is popular among older business men like her dad who goes quite often. We saw groups of business people, interestingly both men and women, leaving the bars as the hostesses, the older women in kimonos and the younger women in more "sexy" western clothes bowing and waving them off. It was a really interesting look at this side of Japanese nightlife. In my jetlagged state it was also quite surreal! After that we headed to bed as we were heading off to Kobe to see my family the next morning . We spent our last few days in Japan in Osaka as well, so more on it later.