Stacey's Bodacious Japan Trip: Japan Arrival

Japan Arrival.

Ok, so, nothing really note-worthy has happened since my arrival in Osaka since yesterday. But I have nothing to do while waiting in the lobby of KIX airport awaiting the rest of the Study Abroad group, so I'm gonna chatter at you.

Me and my friend, D, arrived yesterday afternoon and impatiently hopped in a cab to take us to our hotel nearby. Don't do that. Taxi's are horribly expensive and even though I already knew that, I was still shocked at the horrid amount our trip cost. But if you are not impatient like we were, it is totally worth it to wait till the evening for the shuttle that takes you to the hotel. Save the monies.

After we got all settled in D and myself decided to walk around the neighborhood of our hotel to kill some time. We soon realized that we were so far outside Osaka, and so far into the suburbs, that it really was not as exciting as we had hoped, but we did end up seeing some cool things. One was a shrine on a street corner just a block from our hotel. As we were crossing the street to get a better look, an old man put some coins in the shrine, rang the bell within and said a silent, short prayer. It was really cool.

We walked a few more blocks away and found two convenience stores, one of which was a 7/11. These convenience stores have kept me alive for the last day and they are very handy, one might say: convenient.

Yummy Yummy

After we got tired of walking around this suburban neighborhood we decided to go back to the hotel and try the Japanese-Style baths. There were two separate baths for the genders, and the one for women had a code to gain access. Inside there are stalls with a faucet, shower head, bucket and stool on which you are able to wash yourself. After you wash yourself, you are allowed to get into a shallow pool/bath and relax. I prepared to do just that, and instead wrestled with the temperature of the shower/fawcet. It ranged from "Hot" to "Holy Hell-Fire" and once it got to "Holy Hell-Fire" it would not go back to "Hot". So after receiving first-degree burns, I made it into the bath and relaxed for the rest of the evening until I knew I could just about pass out. Upon waking up (at 5 am), and taking the (wonderful) free shuttle back to the airport, I've just been internetting-it-up for the last six hours. The rest of the people should be here in about... 2 1/2 hours. Then we will get to leave and head to our Dorms at Shittenoji University. It is closer to real Osaka (verses the boonies/suburbs) so I expect it to become awesome-possom tomorrow. But in the meantime: To the internet!