Summer Trip- The long road down to Osaka

Hey all! I'm finally back from my trip! I'll be writing about it in small doses as we did and saw a lot. Also, I won't be putting up all my pics (there are over 500) but I will put up the best now and try to get the rest up here and there. If there is anything that you want to see more of let me know.

After packing and repacking, I finally got my stuff into two bags. If you know me, you know what a feat this is. I tend to overpack. But I was quite proud of my accomplisment!

I headed out at about 7:20am to get to Akatsuka station to take the local train to Tokyo. I met Paul at Shinjuku station as he had been in Tokyo since Friday. It took me about 2.5 hours to get to Shinjuku and when I met Paul he was in some pain- he was seriously nursing a hangover from the night before. We bought some snacks and headed out on our journey. We could have just got the Shinkansen (bullet train) down to Osaka, but we decided to save money and take locals/express down. We saved about 6000 yen, but it took us all day. It was about 9 hours and 7 transfers to get to Osaka station. Osaka is the 3rd largest (or second largest?) city in Japan and is located in the southern part of the big island- fyi.

It actually wasn't that bad get down there. We had seats most of the time even though the trains were crowded. It was HOT but the trains have some AC. It was long but we got to see a lot of the coast and countryside.

We arrived in Osaka and had to wait a bit for the subway to take us to the part of town the hostel was in. As we walked on the platform, I noticed a japanese salaryman throwing up over the side of the platform, so we decided to go around him. As we came around a corner, we ran into him again and he projectile vomited wait in our path!!! A second earlier and it would have been all over me- WELCOME TO OSAKA!!!! After that gem, we got on the train and got to our hostel.

After getting a little lost and making a call, we made it to our Hostel. I've never stayed in one before so it was going to be interesting. Ours was located on the 6 & 7th floors of a building and seemed relatively OK. The first night there was 5 of us in a room, the next two nights it was just the 2 of us. Nothing really to say about it- it was a dorm! The AC worked OK and there were some bugs- which was disappointing!! But other than that it was fine. And cheap! So I really didn't care. Everyone there seemed to be European or Australian and on backpack trips. I think everyone thought Paul & I were together and kind of left us alone. which is fine because they all seemed to be the 'hostel' 'backpack-y' type. We just were there on holiday in our own country so to speak- they were all doing whirl wind tours of Japan.

After dropping off our stuff, we headed out to find some dinner (though it was about 11pm now). We found a train station and yes, a McDonald's!!! We were tired and everything seemed to be closed, so we ate at McD's- whatever, get over it!!

After we ate, we just headed back and had a drink on the roof top overlooking part of Osaka. And then hit bed! I was exhausted from traveling about 12 hours!!

Up next......E.T. says my name!!