Dotonbori Hotel is Awesome

Surreal. Here I am, after 16 plus hours in transit, in a hotel near the Shin-Osaka train station in Osaka, Japan. The hotel is fantastic, with all sorts of pre-packaged and warning-plastered complimentary products (hair band, sanitary pad, "face milk", toothbrush, razor, uber-Qtips, etc).

Leaving was terrible (Mom started to cry just as a I cleared security, which set me off, crying as I went down the escalator). Flight was uneventful...was hungry and dehydrated the entire time (no surprise there), but no lost luggage, hurrah! Arrived in Osaka no problem, was picked up at airport by a Nova representative, who carefully shepherded us onto the bus into Namba, through an underground rabbit warren of shops and stores, and into our hotel.


Ohhhhhhhsoooooocuuuuuuute....random store in Dotonburi, the area my hotel was in, and the ubiquitous vending machine. Kobuta desho!

Ate dinner with the other new Nova employees (all from Canadur) at this scary clown restaurant. We picked it because the hotel concierge recommended it, but the huge display cases of plastic food (with prices and descriptions in English prominently displayed) also helped usher us in.


My dinner: Omurice (omelette over rice with gravy), a.k.a. more sophisticated version of Josie Grossie. YUM.

Everyone else had beautifully laid out Japanese dishes like soba noodles, tempura, katsudon, tonkatsu, etc. but mine was the easiest to figure out how to eat. We were discussing the various ways of thanking someone (domo, arigatou, domo arigatou, arigatou gozaimasu...) and the waiter who was clearing the plates, after looking both perplexed and amused, said, in perfect English, "You guys students or something?" Um, no.


I AM A NERD. NERD NERD NERD.

Alive and well, in Osaka. Taking the Shinkansen to Hakata station (in Fukuoka, on Kyushu Island) this morning. Getting hungry, so will head out in a little while to either plunder a combini or the hotel breakfast buffet. Heads will roll! More later.

Kumamoto no Kobuta desu

Am leaving in less than 24 hours for Kumamoto (on Kyushu Island, in the land of ridiculously advanced rear-end landing pads, Japan). Am a ball of excitment wrapped in a thick layer of panic. Couldn't get Blogger to upload image of the kanji for Kumamoto, so had to hotlink (bad! *slap!*), but visit the link

Packing is almost done, but there are tons of last minute things to take care of (how to configure my desktop computer so that Mom won't blow it up, leaving things for my parents to send to me in Japan, where the hell is Borgo...) Am getting close to weepy when I think of leaving home for so long.

I'm bringing a webcam with me so if anyone out there wants to chat on the Interweb, you have the option of seeing my lovely frazzled face as well. Probably won't have Internet set up for a while, but one of the first things I'm going to do is hunt down an Internet cafe ("Umm...Bittorrent kudasai?").

Instead of getting a new blog to profile my misadventures in Kumamoto, I'll stick with this one and change the title. Please make suggestions in the comments! GOing along with the pigs theme, maybe something involving kobuta (piglet) or tonkatsu (delicious breaded pork cutlet thingie yummmmarrrghghlglgleaaaa)...

OMG TEH AIR CANADA