Our last day in Osaka was spent touring around the city with Ian’s family friend, Joe, who has lived and worked in Osaka for twenty-something years. We had planned to meet him at Starbucks at 10AM, but we were late. We got lost on the trains, took the wrong one, had to backtrack to take the right one, and finally made it there about thirty minutes late. Fail. We got overpriced coffee and cocoa to warm up, talked a bit and caught up with each other’s lives, and were on our way.
Joe took us on what he called the “nickel tour” of Osaka. In truth, we probably got to see some things that we wouldn’t have had we gone on our own. The first stop on the nickel tour was Ami-mura, American village (below, left). This was like jackpot for us. It was a little section of town that is very trendy and has American shops like Burger King, McDonald’s, Apple store, an Army surplus store, and other American stores. We felt like we could be ourselves there!
We walked around, meandering our way through the city. The more architecture we saw, it reminded us of Chicago. The buildings just looked like Chicago, and Osaka even has a river going through it like Chicago. Plus, it was crazy windy and cold that day, so it really felt just like Chicago! Our next stop was at Hard Rock Café (above right). I’ve honestly never been to a Hard Rock Café, so it was an experience. All of us celebrated the fact that we could get nachos with REAL cheese (Japan doesn’t have variety. It’s all the same--white and tasteless.), onion and chicken wings, and ranch, honey mustard, and BBQ sauce for dipping! We ordered two huge appetizers and split those. It. Was. Fabulous. Justine and Ian both bought “Lucky bags” at the gift shop. It’s a Japanese New Year tradition to sell lucky bags at a lot of the shops. The bags are closed, so you can’t tell what’s in it. You grab one, pay for it, and then open it. Ian paid 5,000 yen for his, but he got two or three shirts, a shot glass, and some other Hard Rock trinkets. I wasn’t thrilled about the price, but for the amount of stuff that he got, it was a good deal.
The next stop on the nickel tour was the bus station. Since we were leaving Osaka that night on the night bus, we wanted to know where it was. Plus, we were still carrying our luggage, so we were able to rent a locker and put it there. The bus pick up point was very confusing, and we were glad we had Joe with us! We first went to the bus station, but they told us that it was on down the way. We had to stop and ask directions again, but finally we found the random parking lot that our night bus would leave from.
We had been talking about a magical place called Sweets Paradise all day. It is an all-you-can-eat sweets buffet, and after the difficulty of finding the bus stop, we decided it was time to hit up Sweets Paradise. It was only a few blocks from our bus stop. The place was VERY cutesy. The décor was red and pink hearts. It seriously looked like we had walked into a Valentine’s Day card. 
However, for the price of about $16, we had an all-you-can-eat sweets buffet. AMAZING! Do you want to know how to make me happy? GIVE ME SWEETS. (I always told Ian to never buy me flowers. Buy me chocolate instead. Flower die and go away. Chocolate will stick with me much longer on my thighs, stomach, arm flab, etc.) While there was real food on the buffet, I only ate desserts. I probably developed some type of diabetes that day, but it was totally worth it! 
I filled my first plate full of sugary deliciousness, (picture below) and everyone was questioning if I could eat all of it. Little did they know that I LIVE for sweets!! Once I devoured that and began a second plate, I think they fully understood what I was capable of. It was a little sickening to eat so much sugar, but Sweets Paradise also had a tea bar. I drank two cups of hot tea, and that really settled my stomach.
Joe took us to the building he works at, but unfortunately, it was closed, so we wondered the streets of Osaka. He took us by a love hotel that is Christmas themed. (Love hotels are extremely popular in Japan. It’s exactly what it sounds like, and some of them are themed, have security, and are always very secretive.) It was complete with dancing reindeer decorations, lights, a dirty Santa, and trees. At that love hotel, it’s Christmas 365 days of the year! We decided to end the night in a Irish pub with a few drinks. I’m not sure if it was the march around the city, the massive amount of sugar I consumed, or what exactly, but I was falling asleep at the table. 
After one last picture of the nickel tour crew (above), we boarded our bus and were on the road by 9:30. That was one of the worst nights of sleep I’ve ever had. I could never get comfortable in the tiny seats, and the bus stopped every three hours for a potty break. Every time I felt like I was in a good sleep, I would wake up as the bus stopped. When we pulled into Kumamoto that morning, Justine, David, Ian, and I were ALL very grumpy and exhausted. Originally, Ian and I had thought about staying in the city until the afternoon so that we could wander around, but we absolutely did not have the energy to do it. We had to wait for over an hour for the bus from Kumamoto to Hitoyoshi, and then it was a forty-five minute car ride home for Ian and I. We spent the rest of that afternoon curled under the kotatsu doing nothing. After a long and tiring night, it was the best possible option!
And so that concludes our Osaka adventure. We really, really had a ball! It was nice to get away from Yunomae and explore a little more of Japan. We’re hoping to have more opportunities to do so this year. We’re hoping to go to Nagasaki later this month for the lantern festival, and next month we’re going to Okinawa! I’m also hoping that the first week in May (Golden Week), we can go to Hiroshima. There’s so many places I want to go and see and just not enough time (or money!) to do so!!
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