osaka round two

sometime late last year, before the craziness of the holiday season began, tiff, carrie, and i found out that the kaiser chiefs would soon be playing in our beloved osaka. january 27th to be exact. we saw the kaiser chiefs back in july of last year at the fabulous fuji rock music festival. they were entertaining, they were talented, we adored their music, and it was just plain ole’ rocking fun. ok, so back to the holiday season set in 2005. i suppose the craziness of the holiday season that i’m referring to isn’t exactly what you folks over in the western half of the world think about regarding this insane period of time. i was more referring to the time when most ALTs get ready to make their annual holiday sojourn to tropical paradises, struggling asian countries, or home to some familiarity. if you read some of my earlier entries, you’ll realize that i for one, however, didn’t do any hectic packing, last minute planning, flying, and vacationing in distant lands.

sooooo, because of the fact that i was stuck in snowy-wonder-winterland, i was damn well ready for our concert party trip to osaka to take a load off and to soak up some non-snow-filled air into my pores. i just knew the the fresh air would do me great good.

and boy did it. we were only gone from a thursday night to a sunday evening, but the trip was well - very well - worth it. i needed that trip in some ways, if only to get away from snow madness for a couple of days. it was so refreshing to realize again that there’s a world outside of our conservative, aging joetsu city. that people are alive, fresh, sassy, bold, and energetic. and not afraid to talk to foreigners! as soon as i arrived in the city, i felt like i came alive. i felt like i’d taken a deep breath of ‘wake the hell up!’ i felt comfortable. i felt like i was in my appropriate element. . . . . . . i felt at home.

i recently have had to make a major decision – a thought-provoking, life-changing, and stress-inducing decision – about my current job situation, more on that later. the ending result is that i'm staying in niigata for a third year (the issue wasn't if i wanted to leave japan or not, but whether i wanted to stay in the country or move to the city) but as i write this blog, the question keeps popping in my head, ‘why the hell am i not moving to the city???’ it’s a hop, skip, and a jump away. i would thrive there in a way that’s almost necessary to my being and almost impossible in conjunction with me living here. hmmmm.

so, osaka! we took the train to the bus pick-up point in myoko and a bus to osaka – which was over-night. we arrived at 6:30, groggy and a little sleep derived; the friendly, teasing, older-gent japanese men dropped us off merrily, wishing us a good time.

too early for check-in and stumbling around in the still-dark, early morn hours, we passed a still-open restaurant with a few tables of patrons eating drunk after the wee-hour partying? breatfast? late dinner? who knows . . . we ducked in for a sit. and a beer. that beer turned into 2 beers. beer for breakfast! breakfast of champions from what i hear.


this was outside a korean restaurant. we were wandering by on our first day – a friday morning, hungry and wanting some food. after taking a photo and out there no longer than a minute or two, a woman – an employee of the restaurant – walked out and explained, in fabulous english - that these were fertility statues for a couple. finding our ignorance and picture amusing, and not in the mood for korean, we ambled on.


meandering around the hundreds of shops in shinsaibashi, we found this fabulous hat i decided to don. buy? no . . . these are the hats that the goth girls and boys and little boy peeps put on before displaying themselves in harajuku, tokyo. and apparently in osaka too.
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moving on into the evening. unfortunately, we couldn’t take pictures at the show of course, and the night after is just short of a blur.

another favored bathroom shot . . . the only picture resulting of the evening


the next day: rested and a little hungover, saturday

shopping in a jewelry store turned into a photo shoot


ready to go out for the night, we made a pit stop


and another one


thanks to tiff’s research months ago, we researched ourselves right into 3 bar stools at the fabulous martini bar on saturday night. Fun, cheap, and definitely interesting; it was the first stop. i recommend it highly. after several martinis [for accuracy’s sake: a mix, first of vodka martinis and then apple martinis] and dinner, we moved on. but first – dinner. dinner was . . . . . . . . get this!! nachos and other, good ole’ american junk we never get in niigata. we were conclusively pleased!

a man i wouldn't stop chatting me up . . . it's ok; i didn't mind too much. it was interesting at least!


pleasantly loud and animated, we dragged with us 4 men from the martini bar. and then we met up with 2 more – these two boys, nori and nobu – we met last year at fuji rock festival, and we adore them. we had agreed to meet them at sankaku park (triangle park due to it's bordering shape), and what an elated meeting it was! after uttering loud and happy exclamations, we trooped on, all together, to the rock club (rock rock) that we would patronize.



carrie with the boys, nobu and nori


rock rock in action




some new friends: mauricio and rodrigo. not sure about forefront japanese boy.


tiff and i earlier in the evening, already a little saucy


cute cute nori


nori nobu


this man would not get off the floor, as well as his buddy not pictured here. spoke to the buddy later in the evening, however, and he was amiable and polite


and tiff and i in the later evening hours


will save my comments on the freedom in this picture for another blog and will probably repost the picture. fabulous.


the rest is history. literally, right tiff and carrie?

next morning, loopy, giggly, and loud, we managed to stuff everything in our bags for only a one-hour late check out (1 pm). and then off to find much-needed lunch. this was en route to lunch in the apple store, rocking! the music was a kind of mix of folk, soft-rock (not like your mom’s light and easy hits), and traditional japanese music. notice the man on the right playing the traditional, japanese instrument, the shamisan.
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now this is the section for the ‘engrish’ mistakes we found over the weekend:

mmmm mmmm good


nothing like some nice ass for dinner


notice the catch phrase




and if you didn’t catch it, a closer view


fresh-faced, loving the city, and not wanting to go home, the weekend regretfully ended.