30th june
Shanghai to Nagoya Japan
(spring airlines do not give food or even complimentary drinks!)
got the train to Nagoya station and walked to the apartment we are staying in (air B&B). A man was kind enough to help me out getting my train ticket and another in finding and contacting my host. we have the place to ourselves. its small, compact, but nice, organised, clean and tidy. plus complimentary teas/coffees.biscuits/candy. got chatting to ryan and Rebecca who were in s. Korea airport for their stopover - apparently there was a load of people in traditional costume doing some sort of performance!
I went out to explore, the weather was good and the sun was out (it doesn't set tin after 7 here, though its an hour ahead of china)
I explored around the castle area and walked past some of the local government buildings. the area is quiet and super clean and tidy. lots of bicycles and not so many scooters. the cars are in great condition too, no sun rusting/ peeling. the taxi's here are funky. like some from from Chicago 1920's mixed in with a bat mobile with their ridiculous mirrors that stick out from the front hood of the car, not the side of the car window.http://jpninfo.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/japan-taxi-black.jpg
the people aren't too noisy either, very polite (so quiet compared to the Chinese!) its like china and Europe combined here. the people really look after themselves. very tidy clean, and look good, young when clearly older.
There's no graffiti anywhere, some of the grass and green grows a bit wild giving it a bit of a tropical feel matching the humidity and giving it a tropical jungle forest feel.
I wandered around some of the small streets coming across a market street area, they had made and hung up 'mascots' made from paper and wood, the size of baby elephants. it was a work in progress, perhaps there's an event or festival coming up.
I didn't get to meet Ryan and Rebecca until much later, after 11pm. ryan's baggage is lost. DISASTER. they will send it to him and give him some compensation. they were utterly exhausted yet we were still up chatting until after 2, missed them!
1st July NAGOYA 名古屋
they have a brand called "SWAG DUCK" we then went for some dinner at a sort of Italian/japanese/asian diner called "SAIZZERIYA"
Not too expensive but small portions though (but thats a common thing in Japan it seems and sort of overpriced) but it was delicious, I had a mini mushroom pizza. if you bought a drink it was also free refills for all their drinks. some weird a bit weird though, very sugary. my pizza was quite garlic and I tried some of ryan's "meat sauce" with it, before we walked back. tired
2nd July OSAKA 大阪
we got up early to get the train to Osaka, it takes just over 2 hours. with rapid. we booked seats and waited. they are quite regular. we waited 30 mins but it seems you can just hop on whenever, its a very comfortable ride, the seats recline, so I slept! upon arriving we got on the metro JR LOOP LINE, 4 stops to KOBASHI (160 yen) it was very hot. the area we are staying in is quite working lively street, full of shops and restaurants, very busy and full of life. we passed a mouth of veritas and an "open street" mall with some wishing/ prayer trees, a bit like what you see in the temples in china I guess. we followed our air b&b directions to our house. again no host he was just finishing up cleaning and had left us the key, unfortunately there's no lift for her and we are on the 4th floor we a big suitcase (guess its good we didn't have the 2nd one) its a big room with a huge comfortable bed, however the air con is poor. and only a kettle
strange asian man (in odd attire) came over, his English was amazingly good, but he was a bit of a complete nutter..... he asked where we were from, we said u.k and he started trying to guess where exactly, he knew a lot of places surprisingly, we eventually said n.i and he knew Belfast, but then again it is a capital. he said, oh you must be protestant and said its the right religion no Virgin Mary (?) he told us he was originally from North Korea and had lived in Japan since he was 19, that the Japanese are controlled and like robots / stones and the police are brutal, he told us he had been tortured in prison for punching a guy in the face (a likely story I'm sure he did something worse, he perhaps he punched someone important or a member of the law?) he ranted on about their controlling ways ( no bins, you must recycle...which I think is a good thing, the loud speakers on the police cars to get people to pull over, like a real "great firewall of china") how people will report you for littering / speaking too loudly on the phone in public transport etc.
Japanese wives and catholic wives (his friend had married a Filipino catholic) and they are also bad. he told us he was a freedom fighter and the
to ask for a photo "TORU SHASHAN" at a nice forest/park area. but there was wayyy too many mosquitoes and giant ( Godzilla mutant haha) bugs (cicadas and cockroaches) from here we decided to head to the "American street"
And a very tasty Osaka Speciality, Roasted/BBQ cabbage cloth lots of mayo ( the sort of sweet kewpie asian kind) plus their brown "meat" sauce, no idea what its called and egg. They were all small dishes (probably why they are all so slim along with all the bike riding they do, even seen some men riding bikes in short kimono outfits)
vending machines, and he has also found a love of Fanta Grape. It was a funny day, There was a Japanese man (old) at Nagoya Station, he asked for a picture with red and I, getting ryan to take it, I had my huge backpack still on too. after he shook hands with red and went on his merry way. then...reb rounded on Ryan. for "not protecting me" he'd grabbed her bum during the picture haha. this sort of thing is a problem in Japan apparently, so much so that all phones have a sound when taking photos incase men are trying to take pictures up skirts on the metro. there's some women only trains on the metro too to prevent harassment and for women to feel safer.
Back at the room we
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