Ahoy,
Everybody we had spoken with gave us a concerned look upon hearing one of our destinations would be Osaka. We activated our JR passes, picked up food for the ride and hopped aboard a long distance train to Osaka. I noticed right away that Osaka looks less modern and older than Tokyo. Perhaps it was the rain, but everything and the neighborhood for our hotel looked a little more bedraggled (READ: sketchy). I had the address for the hotel, but the address meant little to nothing for me. I flagged down a man who immediately parked his bike to help us look. He spoke no english, and we no Japanese, but he was incredibly kind and helpful. He spent a good deal of time walking around with us and asked another lady to help us. With these 2 strangers leading the way, we found our hotel. He even paused to make sure we got in safely. Our room was traditional tatami style bedding with a door too short for A.
A had his heart set on a particular udon place he found online. I knew this was trouble. Everywhere we've eaten abroad, we stumbled upon. He said the place has no sign, but he saw pictures of the interior so he would recognize it. I had no idea how we would ever find this place. We wandered probably for a good hour before we decided to ask a hotel concierge. Luckily, he knew where we were looking for and we found it miraculously.
I picked up another omusubi at the market on the return to the hotel because I had gotten into the habit of eating several a day. Getting to and from our nearest train station was something of a magic trick because it was through a tunnel, and some stairs into an entirely different world. It's a mind bender every time to reorient ourself.
geographically puzzled,
jt
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