First weekend

I am still very much jet lagged. I have been waking up at 3-4am in the morning. What else is there to do but watch television?? I was watching some random children's cartoon for a while then some anime started playing. I think first Pokemon came on, then Dragon Ball Kai, then One Piece. Umm...when I thought Saturday morning cartoons were dead in the states....Sunday morning cartoon = the next best thing??

Nick, Lindsey, and I went traveling around Osaka with some of our co-workers. They were gracious enough to take us sight seeing for the day. Our first stop was at Osaka Castle in Osaka-Jo. We saw this on the way to work on our first day, so it was exciting to see this up close and personal. Inside there were lots of interesting stories about how the castle came to be and the different wars that went on during different periods of times.

The following pictures are from the top view of Osaka Castle. We can see and excellent view of the city.

I have been seeing this character all over Japan. I'm not really sure who they are or why they are at the bottom of Osaka castle for tourists to take photos. Either way it was fun!

Another event that was going on that day was a free lance music performers. People were dressed up doing various kinds of music. It was too bad we didn't stay too long. I think this is the only picture I took of the event.

Welcome to Namba! It is one the bigger shopping areas around Osaka. You can see a picture of me on the right exchanging the Dollar for Yen, 'cause someone (i.e. I) forgot to exchange my money before coming to America and did not convert any of the money over after arriving at the Kansai Airport! I would say it was a major fail on my part, but at least now I have money to get by until the first pay check comes around. :) In Namba we went around the different shopping areas. I would say the closest equivalent that I could think of that could describe this area is like San Francisco where they have different towns like China Town, Japan Town, etc. Except this place has areas that are based on what they sell. So one area called でんでん had a lot of electrical appliances, video games, music, and dvds. Other areas were おたく areas where anime fans would love the area. I didn't know until we came back home that we visited an area where they sell American style apparel!

This is a picture of everyone in the group eating たまごせん (tamagosen). It is a giant rice cracker with cooked egg on top and other toppings. It was very delicious as you can see I couldn't wait to start eating mine! Haha...

Here are couple videos that I took while in the city!

And of course there are tourist photos:

The night was finished with some dinner. There were many interesting foods at this restaurant. One of the more interesting things that we tried at this restaurant was raw horse meat. It was pretty good, so don't let the name deffer you away!