My third night in Osaka now and its sure been an interesting ride! Spent most of Thursday in bed as I was totally knackered with all the late nights Id been having. It was worth it though as I woke up really refreshed and ready to hit the town! The only thing I had time for before the sun set was to check out the Umeda Towers (i think thats what its called) that boasted of spectacular city views - and I wasnt disappointed!
Met up with some Aussie guys at the Tower and we decided to join forces for the rest of the evening and together we checked out the Dombutori district in downtown Osaka where neon is the light of choice and "bigger and brighter" is the local mantra! After sampling some amazing cuisine (NO clue what I actually ate....) we headed over to a karaoke bar and rocked the night away to Madonna, the Backstreet Boys and AC/DC before we ran (RAN) to catch the last train back to our hotels!!!
Spent Friday in Hiroshima which is just about an hour and half away from Osaka on the Shinkansen (thank you GOD for inventing that and the handy dandy JR pass!!)
It was Good Friday, and a seemingly auspicious day to be in a city that spells a message of peace... and more importantly.. that of hope. It was a bright and sunny day and walking around the Peace Park, I was struck by how Hiroshima is not remembered as a city destroyed, rather a city reborn. By its very existance today, Hiroshima and Nagasaki are cities that stand to remind us about how ugly war is and how fragile and yet how resiliant life is.
I've been having such a wonderful vacation, that at some point or the other my luck was bound to turn - today was that day! Lost my wallet between hotels (5 mins apart) and spent all of the morning sifting through dirty laundry trying in vain to locate it. When that proved futile, there was nothing to do but call and cancel my cards. Amex was easy. Stupid Scotia doesn't have any local numbers so was forced to call les parents in the T Dot and ask them to do the needful. Fortunately I had most of my cash on my person and my passport and other documents are all safe - so really... things could have been worse!
Determined not to let this morning's events deter my vacation... I headed off to Hemeiji this afternoon to check out Hemeiji Castle - a Japanse Treasure and World Heritage Site. Glad I made it there as its definately a MUST SEE and wandering around there really lifted my sadly downtroden spirits! The super large super dark chocolate cone that I devovoured along with the other kids also helped! (yes, I'm sometimes 5.......:p)
Will try and get a good night's sleep now as I head off to Kyoto tomorrow..... after all as Scarlette said.... "Tomorrow IS another day!"
1 comment:
Welcome to the "I lost my wallet on Vacation" club. At least it was just a couple of bank cards...
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