Author: Chloe Kirk

Rice Crackers, Buddhas, and Deer, Oh My!

Post author By Chloe Kirk
Post date February 8, 2018
No Comments on Rice Crackers, Buddhas, and Deer, Oh My!

In rural Wisconsin, you hunt and eat deer; in urban Minnesota, you scare deer; in Nara, you feed and pet deer.

My lab director, Ray-san, invited me to his hometown of Nara to show me around and have dinner at his house. Thinking it must be close to Osaka because Ray-san commutes to and from every day, I accepted without a second thought. The morning of, an hour and a half worth of trains later, I arrived at Nara station. I would find out later it would take another half an hour worth of trains from Nara station to Ray-san’s home; I have no idea how he manages the commute!

Nara was much smaller than I expected with far fewer tourists than other historic Japanese cities I have travelled to so far. My first impression of the city was that it was just a far away suburb of Osaka or Kyoto, containing one shopping street as the only noteworthy object in view. It was not until after lunch when we left downtown Nara that I saw why Nara is famous.

We started by seeing how mochi is made!

A short walk away, but distinctly separated from the downtown food and shopping area, lies a massive park, filled with deer. When locals were describing the place to me, I could not believe their description of deer roaming the streets and biting for food. And then, not even in the park yet, I saw maybe seven deer to the edge of the sidewalk! I am over here freaking out about being five feet away from deer, and Ray-san goes over casually and begins to pet the deer, and the deer don’t move! I hesitantly walk over to try for myself, and the next thing I know all seven deer stand up and begin walking over to Ray-san who, without my realizing, had gone to purchase rice crackers, called deer crackers, from a local venue. Ray-san hands me the deer crackers and the deer suddenly turn around to begin vying for my attention using a combination of eye stares, nudging me with their head or directly biting my clothes! I am told to break up the deer crackers and give them to the deers, which I assume would make them back away after being fed, but to my horror they only became more direct!

The deer were not harmful, but it definitely was scary so I started running away into the park only to find more deer in the park also trying to get deer crackers! It wasn’t until I had given out all my crackers that the deer moved on to their next target holding deer crackers. In every turn, I found more deer either napping in the sunlight or hungrily surrounding park visitors with food.

All the temples are inside the park, and yet each are at least ten minutes walk apart from one another, which should give you some perspective about how enormous this park full of deer is. These temples are in pristine condition and some of the oldest in Japan, dating as early as 700AD. Many have been rebuilt over the years, but they still have not lost their magnificence. After visiting Kofuku-Ji temple and the nearby museum with many national treasures preserved from various Nara temples, we crossed the ancient Todai-Ji Temple gate with two wooden statues watching the gate, supposedly which only took 69 days to create!

Still inside the park, we reach a larger than life temple complex containing and even larger temple inside: Todai-Ji Temple. This temple contained the largest buddha in Japan!

After sightseeing, we stopped in a waffle cafe for a snack and proceed to Ray-san for a takoyaki feast (fried octopus balls) made by his wife.

While Kyoto is known for its many temples, Nara has the most historic temples. The locals are fiercely proud of their city’s history, including being Japan’s first capital city, despite dwindling tourism due to difficult access from Kyoto or Osaka. It is a place often overlooked by tourists looking for the highlights of Japan, but I would argue it is a must see for tourists travelling Japan from its deer park to the giant buddha to historic statues. Nara is not famous for its cuisine, and perhaps not more than a day trip, but I feel like I would have missed something if I had left Japan without visiting Nara.

Tags Nara, Takoyaki

Asia Japan Travel

My Japanese Dormitory Experience

Post author By Chloe Kirk
Post date February 6, 2018
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During my stay in Japan, I am living in a women’s dormitory provided for by work. When I was first told I would be staying in the dormitory, from my Western background, I was under the impression it would be one of two things: a university dormitory or similar to a women’s convent. I am relieved to tell you it was neither of these things.

Located an hour and a half from my work, Osaka Gas, (which is a normal commute time in Japan) my dormitory is situated at the top of a hill in a residential area. Bordering the dorm, there is a highway, but because of the special chemicals in the blockades between the highway and the houses (manufactured by Osaka Gas) you cannot hear any highway noise. On the other side of the highway is Kansai university, and many women attending the university live in my dormitory out of convenience. There are other women who have regular jobs staying at the dormitory, a couple preparing for major examinations like dental school, and a few younger girls who I have no idea why they are here.

The dormitory is run by the house mother (ryobo-san), her accompanying husband (docho-san) and two female cooks/cleaners. (Note: ryobo means mother in Japanese, docho means father, and -san is added to show respect, like saying mister or misses). There is one woman in the dormitory who has been assigned to help me in the dorm, and so she often translates between me and ryobo-san.

Overall, I have so far enjoyed my stay in the dormitory. However, initially I was overwhelmed with all the formalities and rules regarding the dormitory. All I wanted was a place to sleep and cook after a long day, but reality was jarringly different. Although breakfast and dinner are provided for us, we have to schedule every meal we want a month in advance, and, if we are unable to make one of those meals we schedule we need to notify ryobo-san immediately. This proved difficult the first couple weeks when jetlag had me routinely sleeping through and missing dinner. Additionally, almost every meal consists of a main entree of fish, often involving fish with many little bones. Not only do I not like fish, but have you ever tried pulling hundreds of tiny bones out of a fish smaller than your hand with chopsticks? If not, I can tell you from experience that it is near impossible to do! Now, in order to make all my meal times and not upset the cooks, I proceed directly from work to dinner every night without pausing at my room to nap, and I convince myself to at least try every part of the meal!

A Typical Breakfast (There is a bread option, but most other people choose to take the miso soup and rice option)

Another set of rules I found extremely tedious in the first few weeks was the procedure to leave and come back to the dormitory. I understand the procedures are for safety, but when I was expecting to be so independent while I was here, it felt like these dormitory’s rules were stripping my independence away. Upon arrival to the dormitory, you must remember to beep in with your key fob at the front door to notify you are back.

Once entering the dormitory lobby, you immediately take off your outdoor shoes, walk to your shoe locker and unlock it with a combination, and exchange your outdoor shoes with your indoor slippers. You are also required to leave your room key in your shoe locker when you leave which inevitably means and extra trip back downstairs for me after I reach my room to realize my room keys are still in the shoes locker.

In your slippers, you can finally go to your room. And when leaving, you must do the exact reverse procedure, except instead of using the key fob to beep in, you must use the key fob on a separate key fob to beep out. Now if all of this isn’t enough for me to remember in the early hours of the morning or late at night, it only gets worse if you want to sleep out for a night or are out past 11PM. If I am out past 11PM without notifying ryobo-san, she will call the company I work for to notify them I am missing. If I want to sleep out, not only do I have to fob out on a different machine, but I also need to fill out a going away sheet of paper which is only written in Japanese! I just had to do it for my first time because I plan to spend a weekend in Tokyo, and it took me nearly 20 minutes to fill out with the help of ryobo-san!

I have become used to all the procedures now, but learning all of them on my very first day was a lot to remember! In addition to these rules, there are many formalities it is rude to do or not to do in the dorm. For example, you cannot wear your pajamas to the shower room or dining hall and you must say different Japanese phrases for when you arrive or leave the dormitory and when you take or return food trays from the dining hall. It’s a lot to learn in a short amount of time, but now that I am getting the hang of it, all the procedures and formalities seem much less daunting! I have also made a few friends in the dormitory who can speak English. Just a couple of interns like me and one other Japanese university student. I didn’t realize how nice it would be to have someone to fluently speak English with until I got to Japan where so few people can understand what I am saying! I’m off to the dormitory breakfast now. Until next time!

Tags Home, Osaka

Asia Japan Travel

Kobe Beef

I’ve never been fond of beef. I never understood why someone would want to eat an almost raw cow, with jokes such as “I want it so raw that I will be able to hear it moo.” But when I was offered to go to a Kobe beef dinner as a welcome party for me arriving in Japan, I could hardly refuse. If you haven’t heard of Kobe beef, it is supposedly some of the best beef in the world. The cows, raised in Kobe, Japan, are fed a special diet of Japanese beer and are massaged to give the meat the perfect consistency. I was actually told a story by a Japanese man who insists that the American basketball player, Kobe Bryant, was so named because his father loved Kobe beef so much!

The restaurant we arrived at for Kobe beef was a cook it yourself and all you can eat style. There were over 15 of us at the welcome party and so we split up into multiple tables, each with their own fire to grill the beef. The setting looked nice, but nothing extraordinarily fancy and nothing to indicate the magnificence of the meal that I was about to take part in.

The first course of beef was brought out on a huge cutting board, and sliced right in front of us. From there, the beef was placed on the grill so the flames could lick up the side of the beef.

Within just a few minutes, a pair of tongs had hoisted the biggest pieces of Kobe beef from the grill onto my plate and I stared at it in amazement. While it was barely cooked and dripping pink juices (which I have always thought of as blood even though that may not be true), the smell made my mouth water and watching everyone else take a bite of their own Kobe beef with such ecstasy convinced me to go ahead and see what all the fuss was about.

Boy do I know what the fuss is about now.

Not only did it change me to liking beef, but it was hands down the best meat I had ever had. Yes, even better than bacon. I never wanted to stop eating it. As each plate with more Kobe beef was brought out, we all found ourselves fighting over who could take the last piece. I tried almost every body part of the cow that is edible, from the shoulder to the stomach to the kidney to the tongue. The only part I didn’t like was the stomach because it was so soft and squishy no matter how long you cooked it for.

I ate and I ate and I drank and I ate. An hour in I knew I was full, but I also knew it may be ages before I ever get the opportunity to eat Kobe beef again, and so I continued to eat. Two hours in I started to feel sick because I had eaten so much food, but still I kept eating. It was only at the three hour point where I truly began turning away the beef, and thankfully that was when dinner was already wrapping up.

The trip home was brutal. I could not walk more than a shuffle without feeling sick from eating too much and the next morning I was still full and so didn’t eat breakfast, but I wouldn’t have changed a thing looking back on it. It completed one of my bucket list goals to try Kobe beef in Japan, and it lived up to every expectation I had been told! A truly once in a lifetime experience.

Tags coworkers, Kobe

Asia Japan Travel

Kyoto

Behind the endless skyscrapers of Tokyo and Osaka, Japan portrays her culture and heritage in every aspect of Japanese life. None of this holds more true than in Japan’s old capital of Kyoto. On a day trip from Osaka, I arrived to Kyoto early in the morning with vain hopes to see everything in one day. My co-workers laughed when I suggested seeing all the temples and shops in one day, especially in such cold weather, and, despite my best efforts, I ended up not being able to see more than half of the city.

Kyoto is known to be a traditional Japanese city, and Japanese women come from all around to dress in traditional clothing and makeup and take pictures at various temples. The city is exactly how you would expect a Japanese city to look, with small winding streets lined with shops selling souvenirs and Japanese sweets and occasionally a doorway into a small temple.

While exploring the old streets, occasionally you turn and find yourself looking at a massive temple you were not even looking for.

From the train station to the first temple I wanted to visit was quite a walk, and so I made sure to take plenty of time to stop and try the local sweets and gift shops.

Having not even made it to the first temple I planned to visit, I had already seen over 20 temples! But the biggest surprise to come was up this long flight of stairs many people seemed to be climbing; the staircase was so long that you couldn’t see what was at the top. On a whim, I decided to follow the crowd off the main street, up these stairs and once I reached the top I was awestruck. A gigantic temple with an even larger statue of buddha was staring directly at me.

Around every corner of Kyoto there was another surprise, but eventually I made it to the first temple I had planned to see: Kiyomizu Temple

Kiyomizu temple is a complex with many temples, unfortunately most of which were under construction when I visited. However, the ones not under construction were vividly painted white with orange accents and, not surprisingly, drew quite a crowd.

Learning how to enter all these temples without offending local culture was a challenge, but by just staying quiet and being respectful of my surroundings I seemed to not upset anyone. One common practice people did, especially at the bigger temples, was to wash their hands before entering them in a sink like this.

After visiting many temples, I started to understand more about the cultural symbols I had been seeing so far while in Japan. For example, at many of the temples you can buy charms such as for good health that you put in your bag to supposedly give you that charm’s attribute. I had seen many of these charms on peoples bags traveling to and from work, but didn’t understand what they were until coming to Kyoto. Another example is that hung by many smaller shrines, there are these wooden disks tied to parts of the shrine with writing. On these disks, which people buy them in stores in Kyoto, they write wishes before tying them to the shrine.

Exploring Kyoto gave me an entirely new perspective of Japan. While Osaka, where I live and work, contains the hustle and bustle of modern, technologically advanced Japan, Kyoto holds fast to the cultural heritage that embodies Japan. I feel humbled to be allowed to see such beautiful temples and statues, some created over 500 years ago. In America, we appreciate our history in so much of a different way than in Japan. Instead of embracing our history and preserving it in our cities, we remember our history to push us forward and seek new heights (e.g. the American Dream). One of the best things about traveling is comparing and contrasting your home culture to the one you are in, and it was astonishing to think that America has nothing close to what Japan has with Kyoto. America does not have an entire city dedicated to preserving its magnificent past. Yes, we have museums and colonial Williamsburg, but it pales in comparison to living, breathing and feeling the past where the present is still thriving. Kyoto is so hard to explain without visiting it yourself and I would highly recommend travelling to Kyoto if you find yourself in Tokyo, Osaka or another part of Japan. However, there is so much to see I will need to head back soon, hopefully during cherry blossom season!

Tags Kyoto

Asia Japan Travel

Making Japan Feel Like Home

Post author By Chloe Kirk
Post date January 26, 2018
No Comments on Making Japan Feel Like Home

When I first arrived at the dormitory I was about to spend the next half of the year in, and had dragged all my suitcases upstairs, I was unsure how to react to my new room.

Before landing in Japan, I was told close to nothing about my living conditions other than it was an all women dormitory. While there was a closet, desk, TV, bedding and shelves, the TV was only in Japanese with no English subtitles, I didn’t see any mattress on my bed and the room itself was tiny. I was only given a brief five minutes being shown around my dorm room before heading back for an afternoon and evening full of activities.

Despite having very little time between work and traveling to be in my dorm room, I have begun to turn it from a tiny inconspicuous room into something I can see myself living in happily for the following months

Shopping at the DAISO for bedroom goodies

I have also learned to appreciate my room much more than I first did upon arrival and all my initial qualms with the room are now put to ease. While the TV does not have subtitles, I am never home long enough to use it and if I want to watch TV I just watch Netflix on my laptop. A mattress was given and, although not as thick as I am used to, it provides an excellent place to sleep after being on the move for 13 hours straight. And the room is still small, but it allows for it to be heated faster and less space to decorate!

Beyond making my room more homely, I have been learning Japanese in my downtime as well as trying to figure out the train system in Osaka to help myself become more like a local. Every day going off to work I feel a little bit less like an outsider, having to look up one less time than the day before to figure out what stop I’m at or adding a couple more Japanese phrases to my vocabulary to use at work. Maybe some people would say I’m being overly optimistic for only my third week in Japan and perhaps next week I’ll feel the negative effects of culture shock hit me again, but right now putting in the extra effort is helping to make Japan feel like home.

Tags Dormitory, Home, Osaka

Asia Japan Travel

Skewered Heart for Dinner

Post author By Chloe Kirk
Post date January 22, 2018
No Comments on Skewered Heart for Dinner

Most people like barbecue and most people like chicken, including myself, so I thought nothing could go amiss when I agreed to go to a Japanese barbecue grilled chicken restaurant for dinner.

This was my first dinner experience out not accompanied by someone fluent in Japanese, as it was just me and Anna, the other intern in my dormitory. Before arriving, I dismissed any idea that the language barrier would make eating at a restaurant difficult. I figured I could just point to what I wanted, completely forgetting that in order to point to words on a menu you have to understand what the characters mean.

After five minutes of attempting to understand what the hostess was asking from us, which we learned much later that she was asking where we would like to sit, we were escorted to a table and immediately provided hot green tea and wet towelettes. (Towelettes are commonly provided at any Japanese restaurant to wash your hands with before the meal and use as a napkin during the meal). Using the Google Translate App, we discovered one item said skewered, suggesting that meal would be chicken skewers. We decided to order two plates of chicken skewers, partly because it sounded delicious, but mainly because we did not know what anything else on the menu said.

As we waited for the food, I became progressively more hungry to the point where every food plate brought out by waiters I wanted. One plate I saw over and over being brought from the kitchen looked like french fries! Upon further Google Translate we found and ordered our own and when they arrived they were actually real french fries but instead of salt they were drenched in garlic butter! I felt so American that my first dinner outing without someone who is Japanese I found and ordered the most American thing on the menu: french fries.

Immediately after serving the french fries, our chicken skewers came out with four very different looking skewers of meat. Through broken English, the waiter described each meat and they were as follows (from the top left skewer): chicken heart, chicken thigh, minced chicken, chicken breast and some sort of green bean. However, because of the broken English, I didn’t hear chicken heart, I heard chicken hot, assuming he was warning us that the chicken had just come off the grill.

I began with the chicken breast because that was what I was most familiar with. It was amazing, but incredibly difficult to pull off the skewer and eat with chopsticks. I must have looked like I was having problems because the waiter came back soon after and offered forks for me to use but I was insistent I would eat this food all with chopsticks. How else will I learn? About half way through the meal, I had not yet tried the chicken heart, and Anna asked if I was scared to try it. “Why would I be? It’s just hot chicken,” I replied as she started laughing, “no, it’s chicken HEART. H-E-A-R-T.”

I panicked, and it must’ve been pretty obvious because Anna offered to take it. But this is what you eat in Japan! And if I am going to be living in a country for five months I will need to get used to eating foods like this, and so I declined Anna’s offer. The skewered chicken heart tasted just like all the other parts of the chicken! Shockingly, I actually enjoyed it once I got over the fact it was heart! Now very proud of myself, I finished my meal and walked back to the dormitory full and sleepy from eating so much.

My big takeaway from this night was that just because something is not eaten commonly in America or I have never eaten it before doesn’t mean it will not taste good. I have to keep reminding myself to be open to trying new things, otherwise I’ll be stuck eating plain white rice for five months. It was a big milestone and my first major test I passed that I’m not just going to say I will try new things, but I am actually trying new things too. If you would have asked me a month ago whether I would be eating chicken heart, I would have said not in a million years! Japan is helping me explore new tastes and textures and for that I am extremely thankful.

I threw myself into this new culture and am learning to embrace it. While I have not entirely adapted yet, I have much more confidence in my ability to adapt. Here’s to hoping I continue trying new things!

Asia Japan Travel

Hello Kitty Restaurant

Japanese pop culture has many unusual quirks such as J-Pop (Japanese pop music), slapstick game shows and anime cosplay. But one facet of Japanese pop culture I was not expecting is this real, and some might call extreme, love of all things Hello Kitty.

I first began noticing little pictures of a white cat and pink bow on the corner of chocolate boxes and advertisements on trains or on the pockets of some women’s shirts. Once in awhile I might spot a pink umbrella covered in faces of hello kitty or girls wearing socks sporting a similar design. However, I chalked this up to Hello Kitty simply being more popular than in the United States, little did I realize yet how much more popular it was.

On a long day of sightseeing, I passed by a window display advertising Hello Kitty themed desserts. Partially because of my sweet tooth, and partially from hunger, I decided I would go try one. I entered the store to which the window display was a part of, and instead of a counter to order the desserts, I was bombarded by all manner of things Hello Kitty: bookbags, keychains, wallets, sweatshirts, stuffed animals, postcards and moe. I strode through the store, determined not to be tempted to buy more Hello Kitty goods than I had planned, and once I reached the back of the store it opened up into a little mall with more Hello Kitty stores!

Finally I found the store in the mini Hello Kitty Mall that was selling the desserts; relieved, I immediately sat down and ordered. While I was waiting for my dessert to arrive, I took in my surroundings which was the Hello Kitty restaurant. Everything was pink, with one wall decorated in Hello Kitty wallpaper, and another wall was cut out with a floor to ceiling window giving gorgeous views into a private, pristine Japanese garden complete with a waterfall. To my right, I noticed two women eating curry rice, but the rice was shaped and dyed in the fashion of Hello Kitty! That is when I first noticed a life size, stuffed Hello Kitty sitting with the women. At first, I imagined the women must have brought the Hello Kitty from home or purchases it in one of the many many Hello Kitty stores, but as I began to look closer, not just at the decorations but at the eating companions of many diners, I saw that they, too, had life sized Hello Kitties next to them! The waitress must have seen my puzzled expression because she soon came over to me with another life sized Hello Kitty, extending it towards me with both hands and offering “picture?” The desserts arrived closely behind the waitress offering me the Hello Kitty, so a joint photo shoot occurred with me, the Hello Kitty and the desserts.

The desserts were yummy, however slightly overpriced. It was quite the experience!

Tags Kyoto

Asia Japan Travel

Hello Kitty Restaurant

I first began noticing little pictures of a white cat and pink bow on the corner of chocolate boxes and advertisements on trains or on the pockets of some women’s shirts. Once in awhile, I might spot a pink umbrella covered in faces of hello kitty or girls wearing socks sporting a similar design. However, I chalked this up to Hello Kitty simply being more popular than in the United States, little did I realize yet how much more popular it was.

Asia Japan Travel

Independence at Last

This first week has been very busy and full of me trying to learn Japanese culture. It has been so packed full of events that I haven’t had any time to decompress from it all. Everyone is extremely friendly but unfortunately, not many people speak English and, because I don’t speak Japanese yet, there is a lot of bowing and hand gesturing involved in my daily interactions with people. This is my first weekend in Japan and I do not have any obligations until Monday morning when I go to work so I plan to make the most of it!

Today I went to explore downtown Osaka! I am on the fringe of Osaka, by train lines but still a 20 minute train ride to Osaka Station (downtown Osaka). The other intern for Osaka Gas who is living with me, Anna, took the train with me into downtown Osaka to explore. We had taken the train before and had passed through Osaka station, but had never been able to take in all the views the station provided because we were busy going from one meeting to the next.

Upon arrival we were lost where to start. Immediately exiting the train station itself, you are bombarded with endless rows of shops from grocery stores to 100 yen stores (like the dollar store but a million times better) to clothing shops to restaurants. To even get outside the building the station was a feat in of itself. Technically the station is outside and you can feel the cold air as you walk through all the shops, but you cannot see any sky or exit. We finally found ourselves on a walkway between Osaka Station and other shops and had a minute to take in the jaw dropping views. Osaka Station alone was a skyscraper

More walking revealed endless buildings filled with shopping, restaurants and games After hours of shopping, I felt like I had enough new clothes to dress to the local fashion and so we proceeded to our last stop for Anna to get a SIM card: the electronic superstore.

This building is another mall itself, selling everything you could possibly imagine with floor after floor of products. The building was more crowded than the Mall of America!

Within Osaka Central station there are endless food shops to try and trains constantly coming in and out.

Waiting for my Train Home at Osaka Central Station

Coming back to the dormitory where we are living after that and everything sounded so quiet. While I enjoyed seeing that side of Osaka very much, it also made me appreciate that I am living somewhere residential during my stay in Osaka which doesn’t have the constant hustle and bustle downtown Osaka did. All 2.7 million people who live in Osaka all seem to go to downtown Osaka on Saturdays! With all of that being said, I got some great new clothes to fit in better while in Japan. I stand out enough being the only 5’8” curly haired blonde in a building, but no longer dressing in skinny jeans and sweatshirts will help me at least look like I know what I am doing here even when I am still learning the ropes of life in Japan. Throwing myself out from hiding in my dormitory and learning the train system to Osaka Station taught me I am more capable than I give myself credit for and not to talk myself out of exploring just because I don’t have a detailed itinerary of every store and building I need to see.

Hopefully tomorrow I can go back down to Osaka Station with a bit more confidence and explore further than I did today! But for now I am going to try to practice some Japanese phrases. Sayonara!

Tags Train

Asia Japan Travel

15 Hour Jet Lag

Twenty four hours and 6,159 miles later I am sitting on a bed in a hotel room questioning whether it is worth it to get up and shower or just fall asleep right here. It’s only 6PM in Japan but it feels like 3AM for me. Everything is numb from traveling for so long and despite only eating barely edible airplane food and gummy bears for the past day I am not hungry at all.

The company I am working with was unable to pick me up directly after my flight because I flew in late but it worked out great so I had some time to rest first. The hotel I am staying at for the night couldn’t be more perfect for a night of rest before beginning the next five months of my life on the opposite side of the world. They provided everything you could possibly desire for a night in a hotel after traveling and then more including a four step face wash kit, a personal back massager, bath robe and slippers. All of this has convinced me to take a bath so I can appreciate these amenities while I had them.

It hasn’t hit me yet that I am in a different country so far away from all my family and friends. All my mind can think is sleep. I have so much to do but no energy to do it in so I think my best plan is to relax. I just have to keep reminding myself that while being in a foreign country seems daunting, I will survive and enjoy it because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I am thankful I safely arrived and am excited to see where the rest of the week leads once I am well rested.

Goodnight.

Tags Osaka, travel

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