I Tre Italiani!!

Konnichiwa everybody!! As expected I got a bit overwhelmed with my experience here in the past week. Now I will attempt to sum it all up for you in this blog. Last weekend we had a visitor from Nagoya. He is an Italian native living and working in Japan as an Italian/Spanish translator. We joined forces over the weekend and created some remarkable memories together.

Friday night Diego arrived and suddenly there was an flavorful mix of spoken Italian, English, Japanese and American Sign Language stirring up the evening. As our Italian trio made our way into Namba, a colorful and lively neighborhood of Osaka, we got started at an international bar where our tasty mix of communication was cheerfully welcomed by some Japanese locals eager to practice their English.

A few drinks and some friendly conversation seemed to be the right combination for recruiting some new members to our trio. With our joined forces we took the city by storm and strolled over to one of the many night clubs that litter the main drag of Namba. We suddenly found ourselves swimming in sea of Japanese clubbers, a sharp contrast to the previous environment. We bounced around the club singing along to some familiar American dance hits and also got a taste of some Japanese favorites. If being the only “Gaijin” in on the dance floor didn’t make us stand out enough, our rowdy entourage definitely made our presence known with some carefully choreographed and creative dance moves. As the lights turned on and club staff began escorting waves of sweaty belligerent patrons into daylight, we ended the night in championship fashion.

A few hours of sleep was all we needed to recharge our batteries for a new day of Eastern adventures. Brushing off the dust from the previous night, we started the day with a bike tour of Osaka by day with our destination set on Suma beach for some sunshine and sea salt. One thing you’ll notice about Osaka is the incredible amount of bikes parked along every avenue of the city.

Osaka has a fantastic public transportation system complete with subways, busses, and commuter trains but it seems the day to day locals fancy the bicycle as their main means of transportation. We were fortunately able to arrange bikes for the three of us and under the local experience of Emilio, we enjoyed a tour of the city by bike on the way to the main train station.We decided to make a quick stop for lunch, eventually deciding on Mexican cuisine, of all things, to be the suitable dining option.The restaurant made for an interesting experience with laughable English menu translations and a colorful environment fiilled Mexican themed paraphernalia.

The day was passing quickly so we picked up the pace by bike and took to the streets. Emilio never fails to make the simplest experiences interesting for us and onlookers passing by.

We got to the beach and I was immediately heartbroken with the overwhelming amount of trash littered on the beach. Even more heartbreaking was dodging some of the same debris in my brief dip in the water. This was somewhat confusing given the actual city is remarkably clean. I will have to do a bit more research to find out why the local beach isn’t treated with the same regard. Nevertheless the people at the beach provided some interesting scenery.

Aside from the beach itself, after sun sets there was a small cluster of beach-side bars and clubs that we deciede to browse before making our way back. We were warmly greeted by the locals who seemed to had already enjoyed the watering holes long before we had arrived.

A beer later we hopped back on the train and made a quick detour in Kobe, a nearby city.

Some of you might recognize the name from it’s brand of beef touted among steak connoisseurs back home. Although Kobe is known for it’s beef we preferred to dine at Sakanaya restaurant. I guess the only comparison back home would be one of those diners that have a bit of everything. When I say everything I mean it. Some stand out dishes was horse sashimi...

and, sorry to say this but, whale sashimi...

I want to express even more remorse for actually eating the whale. I guess when you take the politics out of the equation and bring yourself to the present moment in a different culture with different values you have to make a choice whether to challenge your values or abide by them. Obviously since the evidence is clearly on my table you can figure out what my decision was.

Moving past that internal conflict I was faced with yet again another moral dilemma when our sashimi platter arrived at the table. A caution to my viewers…if you are in any way offended by animal cruelty or mistreatment...

DO NOT WATCH THIS NEXT VIDEO.

Well the evening’s dining choices in Kobe was undoubtbly an experience that will be forever etched in my memory. However there was little time for reflection as we had the rest of the Saturday evening calling for the Italian trio back in Osaka. We wasted little time getting back to our bikes waiting to bring us back to our base station to wash off the grit from “trash beach” and punch through another championship outing in the city.

Being a “Gaijin” local in Osaka brings together a tight knit community of foreigners. After washing up, we went to another local club that hosted an event where I was introduced to this community. After meeting a healthy line up of Emilio’s friends I recall the word “family” often used when being welcomed to Osaka.

The English-speaking crowd was a welcomed comfort to say the least, but it was the warm energy from this international crew that made me feel the most at home.Once again we ended the night well after sunrise smiling as we rode home on a serene Sunday morning.

That is the summary of my first weekend in Osaka. As I am now preparing for another weekend here, I will again say to all of you to be patient for my next blog. In my next entry I will share my tour of Kyoto loaded with fantastic sights and experiences that I am eager to share with all of you.

For my “non-signing” viewers, I apologize for the lack of captions on the video segments. In thinking about how I wanted to reach both my audiences, I had initially intended to do all of my narratives in sign language and caption them. However, as my video collection grew throughout the week this proved to be a daunting task. I hope that you are still able to enjoy viewing them and feel free comment or question anything you see in my blog and I will do my best to fill in the gaps. With that said I’m off to get back to living…

Mmmm....Tastes like Tiger!

After writing my first ever official blog early yesterday morning I seemed to annoy Emilo right out of bed. Breakfast was on the brain so after some deliberation I posed the question, “what’s for breakfast in Osaka?” We set off to explore the answer.

My friend lives in a neighborhood called Daikokucho, which is apparently just outside of the lively areas of Osaka. Without a Denny’s or any golden arches in sight, we came across a local chain restaurant with a name I definitely cannot pronounce. At these types of establishments don’t try ordering at the cashier. You will quickly be re-directed to the ticket vending machine to choose the meal of your liking. Judging from the tiny thumbnail pictures above the glowing buttons I assumed that the picture with an egg, sausage, seaweed, rice, cabbage salad, miso soup and a VERY interesting dish called natto, would probably be part of the breakfast menu. So I pop in some coins, push the button and out comes a ticket, almost identical to the subway tickets from yesterday. You bring the ticket to the counter where your order is met with a respectful bow and they get cooking. So I get my food along with some nice hot tea and practiced my new Japanese phrase that is typically said before you eat "itadakimasu," which means roughly "have a good meal". Everything was agreeable and within my palate except…natto. Holy Jesus! Basically, it's beans covered in this gooey stringy fishy savory goop (I will add a picture when I see it again because you have to see it). Not only does it challenge the taste buds, but it also challenges your personal hygiene. Each bite of this stuff will surely leave stringy mucus zip lines running from the dish to your lips. It was simply just an all around unpleasant culinary discovery. Maybe it will grow on me by the time I leave (shivers).

I also had my first Japanese supermarket experience. As many Asian markets, Japanese restaurants, or a local chinatowns you may have been to, I can tell you that it dosent prepare you for this experience.

Upon entering you might need a shopping cart to collect your groceries.Pay attention the scale of this cart and you'll realize that even a hobbit would be like "WTF!" Entering the supermarket you'll find the atmosphere a cross between a strip club and the set of "The Price is Right". Neon lights encompass every wall in the store and there is a person chanting an endless tirade of what I can only assume to be the day's grocery specials.

Unlike the subway, you will be hard pressed to find anything written in English. Of course there are your familar fruits, vegetables and staple food items. What makes this shopping experience rich is that there are countless "mystery" items to marvel at and discover throughout the store. I happen to fancy Japanese rice crackers. Simple enough right? I came across one variety package that had a little surprise in it.

Tiny fish that are dehdrated to give them that nice cracker crunch. Cant wait to see what that tastes like!

After our shopping adventure we came back to the apartment and put together a nice lunch. With rice ready to go in the cooker all that was left to do was slice up the peices of raw fish we purchased, accompany it with some wasabi-soy sauce, and mmmmm... oishii... as the Japanese say for delish!

Without getting into too much detail, I want to share small part of the experience of living in a Japanese apartment. Naturally, after two Japanese meals in a day, you might need some "alone time" to get some things off your chest that might be weighing you down. The Japanese have a very particular way in how they utilize this time. Apparently, toilet seats are not in fashion here so in a typical apartment you might find a toilet that looks something like this.

Mind you this toilet has been retrofitted to attempt to accommodate a more western style of relieving yourself. In traditional toilets, that whole seat ring would be gone and what would be left i

a nice watery ceramic hole. Although the seat has been modified, you might notice that space in front of the toilet has just about enough leg room for a two year old. So I decided to give the traditional way a try. When in Rome right?? What you see is just a bird's eye view of how you might go about using this particular model. Now I know what chicks feel like!! I also know that I have pretty good aim...

So just the day's adventures seemed to be coming to a close, my friend remembered my earlier mention of wanting to see a Japanese baseball game. Tonight was my lucky night! His friend Shinya, a Tokyo native living in Osaka, was an avid sports fan, particularlly of baseball. The Hanshin Tigers, former team of Ichiro from the Seattle Mariners, had just beat Yokahama the night before for first place in their division and they were playing them again last night to hold on to their spot at the top. We had arranged Shinya to meet me at the train station while Emilio went to work for the evening. Arriving at the station, I had some time to kill so I decided to browse what seem to be from the outside an gigantic perfume section of a Macys. A closer look revealed that instead of perfumes it was a Japanese delicacy market. A majority of the space was overwhelmingly filled with carefully crafted desserts and pastries.

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Up close...

After browsing the market, I started to feel the afternoon slump creeping in so I stopped at one of the station markets to get a pick me up. I was extremely pleased to find that in Japan, when there is no time for a nap, I could rely on.....

BLACK BOSS to keep me on my feet. No, not a joke or a spoof. Dead serious, down the white guy with a pipe in his mouth. I really don't know if they thought about the marketing of this particular brand. Or maybe they did.... Anyway, black boss and many other varieties of coffee products are widely sold in these espresso shot cans. You can get them on the street out of vending machines. You can even get them hot in some of the machines or stores. Definetly not as good as a fresh brew but by and large much cooler than Starbucks.

So, after my recharge I met Shinya outside of the market. Thankfully he spoke English well and I could tell he was a cool guy right off the bat. We took the train to Koshein Stadium and on the way I learned that baseball has been in Japan for close to 100 years starting with the Tokyo Giants. The second oldest team, the Hansai Tigers, had a rich 75 year history as the overwheming pride of Osaka baseball fans. Entering the stadium I knew right away that this would be unlike any other game I've been to. Let's start with the fact you can BRING YOUR OWN BEER into the stadium. Not only that, but they actually have tables at the entrances where stadium employees are waiting with paper cups to pour YOUR beer to bring to the game. That already made my day but fortunately there is much much more to share.

How about cute japanese girls with keg backpacks ready to pour you a fresh, cold, Asahi Dry, the official beer of Osaka, for only FIVE BUCKS! This one beer maiden in particular seemed to like me. I did attempt to talk to her and try to meet up later to see how I can get my hands on one of those keg-packs. I can't think of a better way to meet people at a party!

So the actual game is played identical to American baseball. However,there are a few differences in some of the traditions and protocol. For example, the pitcher bullpen is located beneath the stadium. The replacement pitchers are swiftly brought out to diamond by electric golf carts. Makes for much less dramatic transition of the game. Imagine the "Sandman" being brought out by cart without Metallica? Don't kid yourself though. Whatever dramatic nuances that are lacking in the game, the fans definetly make up for. The fans in this stadium are some of the most energetic, loyal, and passionate fans I've ever seen in sports. The entire game the whole stadium was singing and chanting catchy rally cheers. During the seventh inning instead of the national anthem and the traditional "Take me out to the ballgame" song, the Tiger fans have their own celebration. Video describes it all but make sure you watch till the end.

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The balloons apparently work because in the bottom of the inning the Tigers rallied 6 runs to come back from a 0-2 Yokahama lead. The balloons also brought some rain but this did not diminish the energy of Tiger fans as, I have to be honest here, a majority of Yankee fans would be heading for the subway at the first sign of a drizzle.The Tigers won in first place fashion and the fans stay long after the game is over to show their appreciation in pouring rain.

Yoda, from Star Wars, made a special appearance, sharing his support for the team with a message on the jumbotron. . One other uniuqe thing about Japanese baseball fans is the customization of their jerseys and clothes. Shinya and I met one adorable Tiger fan family that decked out their little tiger for the game.

So we made our way over to the hardcore fan sectionThe fans had drums, horns, and those noise making bats you bang together. This particular cheer is still stuck in my head long after the game...

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Finally, for lack of a better term, there were male cheerleaders orchestrating the crowd celebrations. Watching them from right field I know these guys were on it the entire game. I wondered if they were actual employees of the team or just dedicated fans.

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We left the stadium in good spirits and me chanting Yooooo Yoooo Yo Yo Hanshiiiin Tigaaaaas all the way home. The experience was amazing! The fans were beautiful and thanks to a little help from my new friend Shinya, I felt very fortunate to briefly be a part of their community. That is until I told them I was a Yankee fan. It seems that the Tigers of Osaka are long time bitter rivals of the Tokyo Giants. Hideki Matsui played for the Giants. Enough said... Oh and to top it all off, if you look in the picture of me above, you might notice the shirt I wore to the game. Yes, the New York GIANTS. Shinya had my back though so I wasn't worried.

So there it is! Blog number two. Once again I was up at 5 AM and couldn't go back to bed. Of course that left me plenty of time to type this nice juicy blog for you all. I expect that things pick up over the weekend and for my sleep schedule to get back on track by then, so chances are I wont have as much time to post as frequent. But I will do my best to keep you all in the loop when I can. I hope you all enjoy it and continue to follow my trip. Feel free to comment, share or whatever when you can.

Scratching the surface.

Travelling to the other side of the world rarely goes this smooth. Before leaving for Japan, I wondered how I was going to get from Tokyo to Osaka to meet my friend Emilio who I would be staying with for the next month. The options before me were 1o hour bus ride ($50) or 3 hour bullet train ($120). Before I hopped on my direct flight from JFK to Toykyo, I decided to look into the final option, a one hour flight which ended up the most practical choice for the money ($150). Don't get me wrong. I try to cut corners where I can. However, the way I figured is the more time you spend getting to somewhere the more money you spend eating, drinking, or picking up some random item that catches your eye (I foresee this happening often in Japan). Since it was the same airline and the price was comparable to the bullet train, I figured flying would be the most economical and practical option. Maybe I'll take the bullet train back to Tokyo just to say I did.

Anyway, fourteen hours later, with little to no sleep, I arrive to Tokyo and quickly transfer to a flight to Osaka to meet my friend. On the flight over I had a window seat and enjoyed a gorgeous sunset above pink cotton candy clouds and jade colored hazy blue skies with the mainland floating by in the panoramic backdrop. I arrived in Osaka with, what I had come to find out were, terrible instructions on how to meet up with my friend once I here. Fortunately I'm a skilled metropolis dweller and most public transport around the globe operates on similar principals. With only a train line color, subway stop, and a time to meet, I was able to navigate my route using posted maps and ticket pricing. It seems most public transportation information is posted in both Japanese kanji and in written phonetic English. They even repeat subway announcements in English. This helps...

I arrive in Shinsaibashi Station on time to meet Emilio. However, I missed where exactly we would meet. After a few mins though, I enjoyed a warm hug from an old

friend in the most surreal of settings. Soon we were walking among the neon lights of Osaka roaming the streets in search for some authentic Japanese grub. Ask and you shall receive...

Emilio ordered a few dishes in this smoke filled equivalent to the late night diners of New York (pre-Bloomberg). The first dish was this rubbery speckled block what seemed to be gelatin acoompanied a spongy phallic tube submerged in tasty broth. I don't event think my friend knew what it was. At least the broth was good! Next we had more familiar items such as fried octopus balls, circa my trip to Australia, and stir fried soba noodles which I enjoyed thoroughly. Accompanied by some robotic poured glasses of Asahi brew I was already feeling the authenticity of the city. After my second beer I was also feeling the effects of my lack of sleep rather than the alcohol. With only a few hours before the subways stop service for the night, we decide to explore a bit of the nightlife in Osaka. It was a Tuesday night so the streets were kind of quiet. Along with my friend's commentary, I wandered across hundreds of sights, sounds, and smells that I have never experienced.

The streets in Osaka are full of interesting little contrasting surprises from the narrow hallways of random artwork and honorary shrines to serene lantern lit canals with loud neon lights reflecting in the water. We ended the night stumbling what seemed like two Buddhist prayer shrines tucked away in a back street. Both were facing opposite directions. One seemed to be a cleansing area with a beautifully carved stone bowl and traditional wooden ladles. Emilio explained that when pouring the water over your hands it was important not to return the poured water back to the bowl but to allow the water to fall outside washing away the impurities. After the cleansing ritual we walked over to face 3 moss covered statues with a similar bowl and ladle set in front. The ritual, according to the people we saw doing it before we got there, is to ladle the water from the bowl and pour it on each of the statues, followed by a moment of silence or prayer.

I have only been on this side of the world for less than 12 hours and I can say that in the short time I've been here, I've already made the price of my flight here worth it. Just a glimpse of what the rest of this month will hold for me has already got me up at 5 AM typing this to share my experience with all of you. As I get settled in I'll be using an actual camera rather than my iPhone and hope to have much more pictures and video to document my experience throughout my time here. This is my attempt to finally try and take some serious note of my fortunate opportunities to trek the globe and share it with all of you. I hope you enjoy and please feel free to comment, question, or share with anyone you think would enjoy it.