And so.. I’m back.

Unstable internet and lack of time have prevented me from making a post and uploading my photos. I’ll most likely start making posts smaller in the future, but I always feel compelled to add photos to each post, so people know what I am talking about.

Summer thus far has been uneventful, mostly me just trying to study Japanese, hanging out with friends, watching Entourage and some Korean/Japanese dramas, and trying to enjoy myself here in Japan. I plan to go do one more trip somewhere nearby before the summer vacation ends, as I really only made one big trip.

After saying good bye to Lindsey, we left for Osaka on the 31st of July. Me, Aaron, Ryan, Ayumi, Yuri, and Brandt went to the Shinjuku bus station and got on a bus to go to Osaka at around 11 pm at night. The bus ride was 8 to 9 hours long, but it was fine because we all just slept during the ride.

We arrived in the morning, spent a little bit of time looking for the hotel, dumped our luggage, then started going around the city. First place we went to is Osaka Jo Koen (excuse my bad romanjification).

Osaka Castle is most notable for when Tokugawa Ieyasu laid siege to the castle in order to defeat the Toyotomi clan and consolidate his rule over Japan. They renovated the castle a few times, and fell into disrepair and was damaged in the modern period before and after World War 2. They repaired the castle, and renovated it in the 90s. The inside of the main castle building is actually a museum now.

The museum is very intersting, with a lot of displays of items from the castle like armor, weapons, documents, etc. One of my favorite displays was the figurines for the battle and siege. English on a lot of the displays helped to understand what I was looking at. For the most part, the museum described the history of the castle and the role it played in events in the past. Osaka Castle is probably Osaka’s most notable landmark, and one of Japan’s most important cultural places.

The view from the top floor is pretty nice, you can see a good amount of Osaka from up there.

I think it is pretty cool to see a lot of cultural stuff here, most of the time while in the Tokyo area I mostly see just a lot of the country’s modern pop culture. It was kind of mentally refreshing, but not physically, because I think I spent the whole time there constantly wanting a shower due to the heat and humidity. But hey, its an island country, that’s just the way it is.

The next day, we all went to Universal Studios Japan. Being as I have never been to the one in America as far as I know, it was a lot of fun. While there were not many roller coasters ( I think there was just one), there were a lot of theme and show rides which were good nonetheless, like Back to the Future, Terminator 2, ET, etc. Best one? Hard to say, but I really liked the Spiderman one. Good use of visual elements to create a good ride despite the lack of heavy movement on the car’s part.

The one that was really not worth it had to be Jaws. 30 minute wait in line with a 2 minute ride that was pretty uneventful and outdated. I thought this picture was pretty cool though. For the most part, a lot of the things you would probably find at an American Universal Studios were there at the Japan one. A lot of english signs, lots of the pictures and video (dubbed in Japanese), and lots of American food. The Waterworld Show even had Caucasian actors (with Japanese voice-over).

Later that day, we went to Dotonbori. From what I could tell, it was like a shopping/eating area-thing-place, up and down many winding streets and alleys. We went to an izakaya there, and just took it easy for the evening. We were all pretty tired to look around, but it seemed like endless rows of restaurants and drinking establishments.

Next day, we took a train to Kyoto. On the express, it was like 45 minutes or so. When we arrived, we got one of those tourist maps and decided to go to the Gold temple. Or the Silver temple. I forgot the name.

After a short bus ride, we hiked a short distance up the hill to the temple. The area is pretty scenic, a lot of older style Japanese buildings and homes. The place definately had a different feel than Tokyo, although at times the look was not too different. There were lots of tourists, plenty of Americans and Europeans.

The temple itself was very nice. Despite the large amount of tourists, it still managed to have a very tranquil and quiet ambience. Some of my favorite photos of the trip were taken here, which you can go check out on my flickr. There weren’t a lot of english signs, and my Japanese being terrible, pretty much tried to guess or figure out what I was looking at. After checking the place out, we ate and made our way back to the station. I kind of wish we had more time to check out the other places in Kyoto, but perhaps that is reason to go back again at a future time. One of the things I really enjoy about sightseeing in Japan is seeing temples and shrines. I think I’ve seen enough buildings and the like in a lifetime, but I never get tired of visiting temples and shrines here. Maybe because we don’t have any back in Texas?

We went back, got ready to go home, ate, and then hopped on the bus home. The ride home was uneventful, although I did sit next to a very cute girl. The 9 hours weren’t too bad.

The photos for this set are partially on my flickr, but I had to make a new flickr account for the rest. The other flickr site is here . Don’t ask about the profile name, you figure it out (hint: had to do with what I was eating at the time I was making the account).

I will be attending the Tokyo Game Show this September, I hope to bring back some information and pictures of some new video games. Hopefully, I will get some free swag, because hey, who doesn’t like free stuff?