Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

So while all of you were stuffing your faces with turkey, gravy, stuffing, mashed potatoes, veggies, pumpkin pie…etc etc – I was off to Osaka for the long weekend visiting with some people from Ottawa! Although I definitely was missing and longing for the turkey coma, I had a blast! Instead of posting some pictures on here (which seems to take forever, and I have waaaay to many that I’d want to post, the link to my photos is here…http://www.flickr.com/photos/megumip/). Unfortunately I couldn't figure out how to put them in order....so you can either view them backwards, or start from the last page and see them in order! Sorry....

Erin drove up to Sasebo Friday night, and we hopped on the night bus for our 10 hour bus ride up to Osaka. It was not the most comfortable night I’ve had –but the buses here are a lot more comfy than Greyhound! The seats almost recline all the way back, but there isn’t too much leg room. We kept waking up every couple of hours or so, and it seemed to take forever, but we finally made it to Osaka!

We met up with Kelly (who also had a long night trek from Yamagata) and headed to our hostel. They were kind enough to let us check in and shower before we headed out to sightsee. Our room was a six-bed dorm…but really it was like being at summer camp – with two bunk beds in the tiniest room imaginable.

We then headed out to the Umeda Sky Building, which has a rooftop garden and is something like 45 stories high. Unfortunately we could not go up because the winds were too strong that day…but we did see them setting up for the International Beer Summit (which we were planning on visiting that night). So then we went to Osaka-jo (castle) - which was my first castle to visit! It was very interesting and pretty. On the grounds, there was a guy who was doing “anime” caricatures – so we waited like 2 hours to get ours done! But it was pretty hilarious when they were done! Let me know what you think of it….

Dan met up with us at the castle and then we headed out to Amerika-muira, which was mostly just lots of shops…but we had found a pub called the Pig & Whistle – so we had fish and chips for dinner! It was like our version of Thanksgiving dinner….

We then went to the International Beer Summit! They had lots of booths with international foods and beers, as well as a stage with dance performances and demonstrations. It was a really good time and we met up with some more people from Ottawa (Melanie, Tim, Sandra and Paul). Clearly we drank a bit there…and once it was over, we then made the poor decision to go to karaoke. Well it wasn’t a poor decision – because it was the best time I have had at karaoke so far…but we definitely made fools of ourselves (for evidence of this, please look at the pictures..). I’m telling you – the all-you-can-drink thing is a blessing and curse here in Japan….

Sunday we slept in a bit (nursing our hangovers), and then set out to find a good breakfast. We found a Friendly’s, but by the time we got there, their breakfast was finished – so we went searching for a Denny’s….which we also found, but they didn’t have all day breakfasts! So sad – we were craving the greasy bacon, homefries and eggs like at Broadways. But we settled for Osaka’s famous okonomiyaki – a veggie and meat pancake type of food. Very yummy – also took many pictures there as well…

We then found a tiny temple on one of the side streets of Dotombori, where you splash water on the statues for good luck and virtue. It was said that many people from the water industry (as well as prostitutes) would frequently visit this temple. Pretty interesting…

A parade was going on down the main street – we didn’t think too much of it – but it turned out to be a pretty big thing! Not anything like any of the parades in Canada! Pretty close to the parades you see during Thanksgiving in the states though. Lots of high school marching bands, floats, cheerleaders, girl scouts, etc.

We then set out to visit the Tenno-ji park – where they had a zoo and botanical gardens. We were a little to late to visit the zoo – but took a nice walk through the gardens. It was really big and pretty. Afterwards, we walked to the Shitenno-ji temple, which is one of the oldest Buddhist temples in Japan. The grounds were quite huge, and they had many stalls set up around the buildings selling old/vintage books, postcards and pictures, which were really interesting to look through.

Tim had told us about a tiny café in Dotombori which was owned by a Canadian – so we went back there for dinner – where we had a feast of poutine (!!!) and pizza! Sooo good. And as you can tell – our visit to Osaka was almost entirely centered on food….I think I gained 10 pounds – but we walked almost everywhere, so hopefully that helped.

We then went to the Tempozan area of Osaka where they have the “worlds largest ferris wheel” – which was clearly a lie (as Erin’s mom researched, it is most definitely the London Eye which is the biggest) – but it was pretty big nonetheless. It had a really nice view of the city at night, although my pictures didn’t turn out that great. Afterwards, there was an arcade, so we took some purikura (the little photo stands were you take the pictures and then add backgrounds, little drawings, etc to them. And I played the taiko drumming video game – lots of fun! We called it an early night, as Erin, Kelly and I were getting up early to go to Universal Studios!

On our last day in Osaka – we decided to do the “tradional” Japanese thing, and went to Universal Studios. But it actually is what most Japanese people do when visiting Osaka – they love their amusement parks!! We went on the Jurassic Park water ride, the Backdraft firefighter show, Spiderman 3D ride, saw the Shrek 4D show, and did the Back to the Future ride! Lots of fun! But we were so tired from standing in line…that we skipped out on the ET and Jaws rides, and decided to grab dinner (chicken, ribs and onion haystacks!) and head back to the city centre to get ready for the long bus ride home.

We said goodbye to Kelly, and then headed to our station to change into our sweats, grabbed a chu-hi (it would help us go to sleep!) and waited for the bus. The chu-hi definitely helped (as did our exhaustion from walking around all weekend and the gravol I took…) and I slept for most of the way home. We got back to Sasebo around 7:30, I booted it back home, showered and went straight to work! I’m doing okay now – but I have a feeling I might be falling asleep at my desk after lunch…..

Anyways – that was my Thanksgiving weekend! I hope you all had a great time and let me know how the turkey was! Talk to you soon!