Travel Diary, Japan, November 19th
It’s 7 AM and I know Will has to go to school, but there’s no way I can wake up. I close my eyes and pretend I’ve forgotten. At 9 AM, I do the same thing until 10:30. Will still hasn’t woken up either so I hop in the shower and rouse him.
I’m pretty beat up from the week. I have a blister on my foot which is finally healing up. My head and stomach are both in alcohol recovery. I have bug bites in multiple places on my body. My knuckle is bruised from punching the wall and my arm is bruised from falling down. Now it’s time to go to Yodo and retrieve my pack, walking several miles both directions.
We eat breakfast at the vending machine fast food restaurant again and take the train to Yodo. I’ve been borrowing money from Will all morning because of the trouble with my card. When we finally get back to Hisa’s house I use her landline to call the bank. Despite the call I made before I left, they’d forgotten I was traveling abroad and placed a hold on my card. It takes a few minutes to get it fixed up, and I feel much better.
Will has missed his afternoon class as well, which I feel bad about. We head to the train and buy our tickets. I am headed to Yodoyabashi in Osaka and he is off to catch his last class. When I make it to Osaka, Ai is nowhere to be found in the station and is not answering her phone. I place an expensive cell phone call to Will asking him to email her and tell her where I am.
Ai arrives a little while later and the two of us head to the Osaka Aquarium. The Aquarium is really amazing inside, with lots of very deep exhibits that you can view from several floors. My camera battery dies halfway through and most of my pictures are too dark to make out but I really enjoyed my first aquarium. The whale shark and manta ray are particularly impressive. My favorites are the penguins, though, who are eager to please an audience.
Osaka is very cold and windy now, so we make our way out by taking the shortest path possible to the next building. We stop in a mall to try the “Magical Ninja Adventure” which is an indoor ninja maze. It’s funny and clever, but I am too tall for the maze and can look over the walls for the right path. I also learn that there are variations of Hello Kitty for each city in Japan.
Ai and I head back to her home on the train and on foot. Her mother is waiting with dinner ready and we eat a quiet dinner. I’ve definitely changed gears coming to Osaka. Will is a young college student with many english speaking friends learning Japanese. Ai and her mother live a much slower paced life. Feeling the trip beginning to catch up to me, I head to bed early and sleep like a rock.
