Deep thoughts from...me?

Hope everyone had a good Christmas filled with Turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and presents. Mmmm...mashed potatoes....


This has been my first Christmas away from home like this and honestly, it wasn't too bad. I mean, granted there were no presents and normally I'm pretty bah humbug about the whole commercialization of Christmas. Suffice to say, Christmas day was...odd. No lights up, everything was open, and everyone was carrying on business as usual around here. It was also 15 degrees out.

So, on the most joyous of days, a bunch of us Japan orphans (people from our training group) as I like to call them got together and had our own little ghetto Christmas where we Kris Kringled it up and had a smorgasbord of foodstuffs that ranged from KFC to Flan. Good times indeed. :)




The very next day we went to the Osaka Aquarium, or the Kaiyukan as it is more commonly known. The building itself is very unique in shape and is home to a very docile whale shark. To give you some perspective on size, the whale shark is about 3 times the size of a great white. The aquarium had so much to see inside with exhibits on penguins, otters, dolphins and all kinds of crazy fish. The main attraction is the whale shark which is in a huge central tank that spans many levels. You start your tour at the top and it spirals down a few floors so that you can see the fish from every level. Very cool. There was also a whole room filled with Jellyfish that was totally awesome, but alas my camera had called it quits by that point.

Here's some of the cooler stuff I saw!



I think this was a girl penguin in the middle of molting. It was funny because she was the biggest penguin there and nobody would hang out with her. Black sheep! errr...penguin.




A whole crapload of fish swimming in a circle. I don't get it.



Whale Shark! Unfortuneately the aquarium glass is about 30cm thick, so getting clear pictures is kinda tricky. Also, it's hard to gauge the acutal size from the pic itself.



Here's some crabs that are flippin scary. The extra freaky part is that they look like spiders and in the tank they don't move at all. They just sit there...plotting...







After all that fish watching we all had a craving for sushi, but we decided that's kinda wrong. heh. So off we went to find what is reputed to be the best ramen in all of Osaka. I neglected to mention this earlier, but I have become somewhat of a ramenist, which in other words means I'm addicted. Ramen is usuall pretty cheap and finding a really good bowl can be tough. However, when you do find a good one, it can be one of the most satisfying meals you can have. After searching for half an hour we found our spot. The place is Ippodo and yes, the ramen was super flippin' awesome. :) No pics because camera was dead, but I'm sure we'll be going back soon. :D

That's all for now! I think I'm going to Takatsuki the day after which is close to Kyoto to visit a fellow J-Orphan so more to follow! Matane!

And a hohoho to you too.

Hey Everybody!

As I'm sure a few of you know, getting the internets at my apartment has been quite the long and arduous process. However, I'm all connected and ready to go, so I've finally gotten off my lazy ass and found this little place on blogspot where I can post about wacky Japanese-ness and the acompanying photos. :)

First of all, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! May everyone eat lots of turkey and stuffing with rich gravies and awesome desserts! What am I having for Christmas you ask? KFC! It's Japanese tradition. Seriously. The funny thing is, Christmas is only a commercial holiday here and has mutated into some kind of pseudo-pre Valentine's day. As if having one wasn't already bad enough! With marketing slogans like "Love of the Season", how can you not get into it? (hence I heart engrish) The other odd thing was my lamenting of how North American society is so commercially driven and the desire for material possessions is so overwhelming. After being in Osaka for a while, you realize that North America has nothing on this tiny little island nation. Everybody here has a cellphone, and probably 1 in 4 people that I see have some kind of designer "accessory". There's LV stores EVERYWHERE. But I digress. Everything is open here on the 25th and there's no such thing as boxing day! They save all that up for New Years which in essesnce is like our Christmas.




On a happy note, Val and I saved the cutest kitten ever! We were coming home Friday night and we heard this really loud meowing coming from behind a flowerpot. Our neighbourhood is apparently the "ghetto", so stray cats are somewhat common. Worried that the poor thing might be hurt, we took a look. To our surprise, it was a 2 month old kitten! He was really tiny and hasd some gunk around his eye, so we felt really bad for the little guy (we found out later it was a she) and we brought him inside. We figured she could use a night in a warm place and maybe some cleaning up.

We cleaned her up and and made a little bed for her out of a box and tried to go to sleep. The thing is, she was sick (she kept making cute cat sneezes) and her eyes were pussing up and sealing over when she closed them. We tried our best to keep cleaning it, but it was just too hard as it was all caked into the fur. The other problem then, was that when we left her alone she would do her meowing thing that was actually annoying sounding because it sounded like a wounded duck. At this point she couldn't see, but she liked human contact and would calm down if we picked her up or if we petted her. Surprisingly, she was extremely well behaved and never tried to claw us once!

The next day, we decided it would be best to make the long trek to ARK (Animal Rescue Kansai), the only animal shelter in our region, that was an hour and a half away. The funny thing about Japan is that it has many aspects of a socialist society, yet there's (so I've been told) no organized programs for the homeless or animal shelters. That's why finding ARK online (go internets!) was so important. Otherwise, we wouldn't know what to do with this cat. We wanted to keep her, but that would've meant we'd get kicked out of our apartment. They're pretty hardcore like that here.

The interesting part of the next morning was taking this little dude through the multitude of train stations in a little box. She didn't try to escape too much but did meow occasionally, but at least it was entertaining for the people sitting beside us. Three trains and 2 hours later we finally reached Myoken station which is the last stop on this one train line that is literally out in the middle of nowhere. Please see exhibit a:

Exhibit A:



The good thing about ARK is that it was out in the middle of nowhere, which means lots of rooms for the animals to hang out. Granted, the compound was a maze of spacious cages, but there were volunteers there walking and playing with the dogs outside. We dropped our little cat off and were assured it would be taken to the vet first thing Monday, to have its eyes checked out, shots and all that good stuff. The good news is that it's at the perfect age that people would adopt her instantly. And, she's a good colour apparently. Oh, and we did name her before we left Ark. We named her Butters. :) If you watch need a point of reference, hit this . Val and I agree that Butters is the cutest thing ever (before we met the cat), so naming it thusly seemed appropriate. We're hoping we can talk to our landlord and convince him to let us keep it, so we may have another roomie in a month or so. :)

Of course, here's some pictures!







More on our adventure arriving in Japan later, but for now, eat drink, and be merry!