Oh by the great, comfy easy chair of Bobo do I ever feel like I've been put through the ringer right now. This entry happens to be coming to you straight from the rapid service train to Yasu and right now, you would n0t believe the sheer magnitude of achy tiredness I'm feeling. To follow up that incredible barbecue yesterday, today I finally did a bit of traveling and some true tourism, joining a group of students who were headed out for Osaka (although my attitude wasn't nearly quite so sterling this morning; I had to get up early and catch an early train to Hikone to meet up with the rest of the students; given the hour that I got home last night, that let me get a lot less sleep that I was hoping from a Saturday). So bright and early this morning I arose, said my good mornings, ensured that there was nothing my host family had planned for today that a sudden disappearing act to Osaka would interfere with, ate my toast, drank my coffee, and then hopped on my bike and took off for Yasu Eki.

At which point I realized just how tired my muscles were from all the high impact goofing off I did last night. Despite that, I hauled my keester to the Eki just as fast as I could (I had grumpily hit my snooze alarm a couple of times, and so was running just a bit later that I should have been). Once again, I arrived at the station just in time to watch the train I wanted leave the station (which made me really resent the terrible headwind I was pedaling against all the way to the station), and had to cool my heels for twenty minutes until the next one showed up. Fortunately for me, that was a rapid service train, which got me to Hikone Eki just a little later than I was supposed to be, which could have been a problem (I had told them previously that I wasn't sure if I'd be able to wake myself up in time to get to the station, and so not to wait for me) but the train to Osaka wasn't due to arrive until fifteen minutes later, so I was in the clear. The group I was going with, aside from myself, included Jonie (who I believe that I have mentioned in a previous entry), a pretty angel of love and justice (but not really map directions) who is always a pleasure to share company with-

[please note that the previous description has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that she occasionally reads my journal]

-Evan, always helpful in talking to Japanese salespeople when I'm afraid too, Eve, who although possessing an eighth of my experience with Japanese still seems to have ten times my know-how, Eric and Rachael, our de facto leaders and decipherers of correct cardinal directions, Katy, who occasionally whacked me with the 'clue X 4' and put up with the inanity that comes from having to walk two steps ahead of me, Justin, who provided a distinctive landmark whenever the crowds were thick, and Dan, who I will say nothing about because he is big and dumb (the fact that he is sitting next to me, and might possibly be reading as I write also has nothing to do with this assessment).

We went around seeing the sites, our first stop being the Umeda Sky Towers. They were 'only' thirty-five stories tall (it doesn't sound like much now, but when you're standing on the observation deck two hundred meters above the ground, and watch a plane descend past you on its way to the airport, well it feels pretty darn high). Also, landmark wise, we saw Osaka-jo (castle). At some point in the not to distant past the good city of Osaka seems to have redone a good portion of the exterior in gold gilt, which really makes a rather interesting castle seem a bit gaudy and cheap…

Lunch was something that I was particularly proud of. We had split up at that point, because we were going through the underground mall, and there were all sorts of restaurants that everyone wanted to try. Eve (who incidentally is in the level one class) and I ended going to a yakotori (grilled chicken in various incarnations) place. I was feeling a bit intimidated, since I of course did not feel the overwhelming confidence usually necessary to comfortably eat in a foreign restaurant, but it was either eat at a Japanese restaurant or go hungry. Really not that hard of a choice, all things considered. I don't think I even managed to do anything vastly embarrassing. I even managed to work up the courage to ask for lemonade to drink, and when it turned out that they had no lemonade, I asked for an orange juice. By the end I was of course feeling insufferably proud of myself, since I had managed to eat lunch without causing an international incident.

Now it was already mid afternoon at that point and having seen some of the more impressive sights, people wanted to go shopping. This I wasn’t looking forward too quite so much, because there were spiffy things that people wanted to buy but I couldn't, because my funds had already been depleted enough by CDs I'd gotten for Elena (that and traveling in and of itself is _really_ expensive; just the various tickets I had to buy to get to and around Osaka cost me nearly $50). So I tagged along, checking out electronics stores and what not, occasionally cursing the fact that I did not have a magical wallet of yen manufacturing, because there were some very cool (if utterly extraneous) gizmos lurking around almost everywhere.

I did end up buying a few more manga: the first volume of Read or Die, the first Volume of Excel Saga, volume three of Great Teacher Onizuki (even barely able to read a work I still love it - and I feel sorry for the principal; he just gets his car fixed, only to have Onizuki fall off the roof and land on it again) the latest two volumes of Evangelion (I suppose I could be patient since they'd both be out within a year in English, but I love that series so much I'm more than willing to just look at the pictures and figure out what I can), the latest volume of Hellsing, both volumes of FLCL, and finally volume 23 of Berserk (which is almost impossible to read, but oh so pretty).

For dinner we went to Shakey's, which had an all you can eat pizza (Well, the Japanese version of pizza anyway) and pasta bar for ten dollars. And I bet it turned a profit too, until we came in. Maybe I was imagining things, but every time I went back up to the buffet, I could swear that the waitstaffs' expression grew more and more dismayed. Well, we'd been walking all day, and we were hungry.

After that we did a bit more browsing, slowly wending our way back to the subway station, and then to the train. Relatively speaking, it was still rather early, but the train ride home was an hour and a half, so by the time I actually dragged my tired carcass back home, I was dead tired (and very nonplussed about the long bike ride back from the station on top of everything else).

English quote of the day: 'We make happy!' "(from a radio station billboard, a 'you' ostensibly missing from that somewhere)