May 9 - 11, 2002. Osaka and Kyoto.

Thanks again to Adam for hooking me up with a shinkansen ticket out of town. Well, I went to visit by buddy Chris and my friend Mike in Osaka. Kyoto is right near by, and has a lot of culture (being the old capital of Japan) so I decided to check it out. I was only here for a few days, and two of them, I spent in Kyoto. When Chris took me there, it was pouring rain and we spent the better part of the day breathing in deisel fumes on stuffy buses. But it was fun nonetheless.

As far as size goes, Osaka doesn't compare to Tokyo. It actually reminds me of Toronto, the way it is here. I'm not sure I like that.

May 9, 2002. I don't know what the connection is, but Astroboy and his friends are atop all the info posts in Kyoto station. This place is enormous, and it looks really modern. Lots of glass at weird angles make up the exterior and the inside looks like a space port.

Before we get going, let me warn you that I didn't keep much of a journal while here, so I don't know what these pictures are of, since I'm sitting here 3 months later, typing this up.

This was such a waste of a day for me. I was alone in the city, armed with only a small guide book that Michio (one of my students) gave me. I was totally lost the entire day and saw like 2 things. One thing I did notice though, was this Kyoto seems to be 80% women. School girls at that. Chalk that up to school trips I suppose.

I'm supposed to meet Chris later tonight in Osaka, which is less than an hour away from here. Well, here we go:

I forget which shrine I'm at. I think it's Sanjusangen-Do (a temple with 1001 buddah statues inside). It was cool as hell, but I only spent 20 minutes in the place.

Ok, I'm totally lost at this moment. I think that this is something near the station. It isn't even on the tourist maps, it's so small.

Or so I think. This place is enormous, but I have no idea what it's called. Check out the photos below. Rain or no rain, it's beautiful here.

May 10, 2002. Back in Kyoto, but with Chris as my guide now. My god I'm helpless. I spent most of the day walking yesterday, but it turns out that you can buy an unlimited bus pass for 500 yen at the station and that allows you to get anywhere in the city for the day. This is the difference experience makes.

Same place, I forget where this is. My mind is already on dinner tonight, because Chris told me that she was going to take me to a garlic restaurant that she and Tom (her boyfriend) go to a lot. I went to a similar restaurant in Ebisu with BB Gina, M and Hawaiian Meg a month or so back.

A horrible shot of Chris in the dark. I actually have some more horrible shots of her, but she won't let me put them up online. We're walking around some temple-ish area again, and it looks really cool here. There were old security guards sitting under awnings to get out of the rain, it was so Japan.

May 11, 2002. Looking off the balcony of Chris' place. See that white arrow? It's pointing at our reflection. I loved standing on the balcony and staring at this, it was like watching ourselves on TV. Chris peeled me a grapefruit, watched a few episodes of Seinfeld (on tape) with me and then left for work. I watched one more Frasier and went off to meet Mike.

Here's Mike at Mos Burger. You can't see it, but we're pretty much the only two guys in here. We're totally surrounded by pretty, young girls. Needless to say, we took our time finishing our lunch.

The end of my stay in Osaka. I really want to stay longer, but I'm meeting Eddy and some other people back in Tokyo for my going away dinner. Here's Mike and me standing in front of a statue of me.