Last day greeted with me with nostalgia
for a country as yet undeparted. I shall miss Japan as I did last
time I left it. I shall miss the politeness, the sexy legs, the food
(something the missus sure won't), the weirdness, the efficiency, the
public transport, the social aspect of being a gaijin,
the vending machines. I'll just miss most of it.
We slept in a bit,
and after packing decided to take it easy the last day in the Land of
the Rising Sun. Off to Osaka Castle for some sightseeing, grab some
food, find a post office, do some souvenir shopping.
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| Pumpkins |
Osaka-jo
was nice, albeit a bit... samey. After Inuyama Castle, Kyoto Jo and
Hiroshima, the architecture gets a bit old. You recognized the steep
roofs, the angry fish-dolphin motives, the steep stairs. But the view
was worth climbing up to the 8th
floor. Ladies at the counter were actually useful this time and
pointed us towards a post office nearby and a food street where my
target munchies could be located.
Finally
getting rid of the post cards which we'd carried since Kyoto was a
load of my chest. Not to be picky, but overpaying for stupid
postcards and stamps and then not sending them out would seem such a
waste. A quick ride to Namba on the subway and we found ourselves
looking for a way to spend our last monies: food and trinkets would
fit the bill nicely. The first one was easily accomplished: we found
an okonomiyaki place
off the main drag and managed to have some delish Japanese omelet. I
remembering ordering ika
and getting tako
instead. Good change, although it was a surprise to find octopus in a
squid dish. Kris went for... pork. What else? Actually two slices of
bacon fit the bill quite nicely, not for the bonito shavings which
screwed up her experience a bit. I just don't get it though. She does
love smoked salmon, so what's wrong with smoked and dried bonito? I
did scrape it off her omelet and she managed to finish it mostly.
Having
finished eating, it was time to find some souvenirs. I hate them
myself. I have tons of useless knick knacks and trinkets from my
travels that collect dust somewhere on a shelf long unseen, or
perhaps are packed tightly in a box in my dad's walk-in closet in
Seattle. I like pragmatic things like... booze and pens, and
electronics, and coffee. Not snowglobes, hanging things and cute
things. I wanted to buy a yukatta
in Kyoto but just missed the store on our last day. Pity cause it'd
come in useful for costume parties. But we had some money leftover
that we'd exchanged yesterday and we had to spend it. At the
difficulty with spending money in Japan was the first true surprise
of this honeymoon. In one of the most expensive countries on Earth we
could not find a decent souvenir store. Something with nice Japanese
stuff of course. After buying a couple hand-made postcards a decision
was made to go back to the hotel, take our luggage and go to the
airport and try our luck there.
Armed
with our bags, we headed towards Namba and Kansai International. The
ride was long but uneventful. And Osaka Kansai International Airport
was the cure for our unspent money. Great souvenir stores, food and
drink, even one with yukattas
(albeit at prices out of a normal beings ranged). We bid adieu to Japan for one last time as the plane took off to the rainy Manila.
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