XMAS in JAPAN

As a treat to us for ourselves for Christmas, we decided to take our first adventure off Shikoku island! We took a 5 hour train ride (yes, quite long compared to the 1.5 hour Shinkansen bullet trains, but that’s ¥100 per person) to Osaka! We stayed in the Shin-Osaka area which was only a few metro stops away from the central downtown. The first few days were exploring and walking all over. And by all over this means not only on the big streets but on the underground streets. Yes.. Imagine a whole shopping mall network under the streets. It was an entire underground city with restaurants, shopping, movie theaters. Anything you can imagine could be found in the underground mall. And it didn’t take up just one small road like the Gateway in SLC, but 10 city blocks and at all main subway stations. Note this city has 13 million people, more than any city in USA except NYC, so on Christmas eve the streets were packed. In Japan people treat Christmas as more friends or lovers holiday, going shopping, nice dinner, toys for kids, and partys. While New Years is the calm relax and stay with the family and eat a big meal holiday. Christmas day we went out and saw TRON. It was only in 3D which we have mixed feelings about (the glasses are too dark and cut out so much color and light, even when a movie is based on that), but we highly enjoyed the movie and the Daft Punk composed soundtrack was exceptional!!! The movie only cost about ¥14 which isn’t bad compared to other ¥20 places around town. We found plenty of used clothing stores which is one of our worst guilty pleasures, especially Tyler. Many choice items were purchased. We also travelled to Kobe, which is only about 20 minutes away from Osaka. We went there in hopes to visit an American food import store, sadly it was closed for a week holiday, so we settled for eating at a Subway instead. Subway as in the American sandwich joint. Yes!! But, as a side note Kobe is a really nice, fancy city. Very modern (due to reconstruction from the ‘95 quake) and mountains and ocean so close, unlike Osaka where one would need to travel about 15-20 minutes to see any kind of mountains/water near that concrete jungle. We had a great bowling night, it’s always hilarious to see hundreds of Japanese businessmen in their shirt and ties bowling like professionals. And once again for some reason they oil up the whole bowling lane, even where you walk. But not so many fall downs this time. This city is definitely built on shopping and business, but we were able to visit Osaka Castle which was very large and beautiful. One last thing that makes Osaka a great city is the large variety of food, and the traditional Osaka dish of Okonomiyaki. We will post a video description of this.  It is our new favorite meal. Temperatures in Osaka were highs of 45-50s,only one day of rain. All in all it never really felt much like Christmas, but we had each other so what more does one need. Awwwww.. Merry Christmas from Japan!!!