Osaka Bus Trip

Osaka Bus Trip
Saturday, October 28, 2007

6 am comes really early, especially after being Baby Spice at a Halloween party with all of your friends. That’s okay though, we were going to Osaka for a day of relaxing.
Tara and I caught the train and headed to meet one of the principals that arranged the trip. She and many of the teachers had invited us to go with them for the day to Osaka. We were going to have a big lunch and then have free time to shop or do whatever. Some of the teachers brought their kids and we going to go to Universal.
I slept the whole bus trip, right through the Japanese voice over for Shrek. Thank goodness, I hate hearing Disney movies in Japanese. To be honest, it freaks me out. I totally expect English and then it’s not…just confusing. We stopped a few times at conbini’s to get food and have rests but I didn’t get off that bus. It was the best bus I’d been on so far!

When we got to Osaka, we were early for lunch so we went into a shopping building that had many nice stores like Luis Vuitton, etc. All of the stores were closed when we walked in so we had to wait. At the stroke of the bell everything opened. The escalator, which was previously blocked off by a rope, was unroped and a guard hopped in front and then everyone followed him. He rode all the way to the top of the building to silently announce that the stores were open. It was weird but cool.
See the guard up in front? Leading us up the escalators?

A glass elevator...a long way down

We were taken to the Hilton. We went up to the 35th floor to a restaurant where we were going to be eating lunch. It was a gorgeous vies and the best part was that it was a buffet!! This may not sound like anything to you, but for Tara and me it was heaven. We are always served a small portion of something that we hate and then we are starving for the rest of the time. A buffet was the best news we had heard about food in a long time. Osaka, 35 floors up
Our resturaunt
Some food...Western style

Japanese teachers

We went shopping after that. Tara and I went to an arcade (an outdoor strip mall thing). It was fun. I bought a few gifts but mostly had a good time walking around and looking at stuff. We didn’t have too long though because we had to meet up with our group again. Our lunch took a lot of our time!

After meeting our group, we finagled our way back to our bus, riding subways and running through train stations. When we finally loaded the bus again we were tired. The kids were back from Universal Studios and they were all decked out with face paint. I slept on the bus ride home to avoid listening to another Japanese movie.