The week was frustrating. Data collection was a slow and rigorous process and I'm still not even sure if I can trust the method. It was basically based on your drawing abilities and a series of guesses on whether or not you are looking at a grain boundary or some random dark line on the sample. I stayed until at least 7 o'clock each night, so I was getting pretty exhausted as the week wore on.
On Thursday morning, I saw this group of school kids with yellow hats on on the way to the lab. It was a little bit of a mood brightener.
So cute..
I decided to leave the lab a little earlier on Thursday to go visit a local onsen. This was my first trip to a hot spring. I used the bathroom first thing when I got there. If you know anything about Japan, you are familiar with the custom where you take your shoes off before you enter a house or certain buildings. Well, when you go use the bathroom, they have another pair of shoes for you to wear so you don't have to touch the bathroom floor with your feet. Here's a pic of the biggest pair of shoes they had available.
meh..
The onsen was awesome. I went with 2 German friends and a Mexican friend. Inside, it was basically a bunch of naked guys sharing a bunch of different themed jacuzzis. I was a little worried about the sanitation of it all, but when I first walked in I saw that everyone takes a full on shower with body wash and shampoo. So, I followed suit and finally was able to fully relax after a week of hard work. When I entered one of the baths, there were two young Japanese guys talking in Japanese. They weren't very tactful because I overheard their entire conversation about how the gaijin (basically only my friends and I) have big dicks.. When I turned to look at them, I think they were a little bit worried. They kept debating with each other whether or not I had understood them or not.. Classic...
April 25th-27th:
The weekend turned out to be a great one. Started hot with a welcome party on Friday night. Basically, it was a rager in the middle of campus.
We drank, danced, and talked until about 11 o'clock, at which point we decided to go to karaoke as a big group. It was a all you drink soft drink karaoke, but my friend and I decided to spice it up by bringing in whiskey and have cocktails while singing. Here's one of the Japanese guys singing "Under the Sea". I thought this was so funny I had to capture it on camera...
Karaoke went on til about 5 in the morning. We had to ride our bikes home 3 stations after a long night. but the morning was the most quiet, peaceful state I'd ever seen Osaka in. It was nice not to hear the trains/traffic/airplanes/people/other often obnoxious sounds. Here's what it looked like:
Just outside the karaoke place.
Our dorm's common area.
View outside my bedroom window in the land of the rising sun.
On the 26th, I got up around noon and met up with my labmates in Umeda (Downtown Osaka). My senpai, Kariya, helped me get a hold of a cheap prepaid phone. Honestly, international phone service exchanges are the biggest pain in the ass. Get it together providers... But yeah after that, we went to a Mexican food place because my lab mates all had expressed interest in trying Mexican food. The place was this tiny hole in the wall restaurant that rattled loudly every 5 minutes because a train was passing by somewhere through the walls. The food was ridiculously overpriced, and was a bit of a stretch from the more traditional Californian Mexican food I'm used to. The guacamole needed cilantro, tomatoes, and more lime. It seemed like they just squeezed an avocado into juice. Also, a burrito roughly the size of my first cost 1000 yen, basically 10 bucks.. It all tasted close enough to the real thing to be considered Mexican food I guess, and my lab mates gobbled it up. They loved it and want to visit Mexico now haha. The mexican food was getting to be too expensive, and we were still hungry. So my buddy Motohiro kun took us to a local ramen shop he used to frequent in high school. Finally, the crew was satisfied.
That's a satisfied looking crew.
Sunday, I was awoken at 10 AM by a phone call. It was the local elderly folks bugging us to get out of bed to visit the local Banpakukoen, or Banpaku exhibition park. I'll post a bunch of pictures from it since nothing too eventful happened aside from the views.
The massive sun statue in the park. Really non-Japanese and looks like its out of a Pokemon game.. Nice.
Flower
Observation tower
Panorama from the tower. This is a HUGE park, with lots of different botanical gardens. It was impressive.
Flower Hill
More from Flower Hill
More plants name of flowers
Who cares?!
Entered the Japanese Gardens
One of those lantern holders
Oh yeah, one of the elderly folks announced that I will be playing a concert for everyone at lunch time.. It was pretty awkward, because I brought my guitar to just mess around on it when we would sit down. I ended up playing two tunes for them and they seemed impressed. But I did not expect to be put on the spot like that.. meh.
Anyhow, after a long day I met up with Suguru again! This time, he would treat me to the best curry udon in town (according to him) as a late birthday gift. Curry Udon is basically curry broth with thick noodles and some beef, so it usually runs around 400-500 yen. But this time it was a 1500 bowl of Udon and the quality was apparent. Here are some pics.
This bowl looks regular sized in my hands, but keep in mind I'm massive. I had 4 serving of noodles.
My American friends and the girl Suguru brought along.
Saying goodbye at the station. Until next time. Arigato Suguru Senpai.
This is what happens when you park your bike in a forbidden spot.. Ours were right next to this bike, but did not get abused like this one. Massive trolling going on here..
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