Once more, Osaka by bike!

So my friends and I decided to bike to Osaka on Nov 18 just to have the experience and to do something fun for Francois' birthday. Everything was fine, we were all excited and the weather seemed promising. BUT the day of the trip we went out and realized that the wind was really strong. Basically the wind was blowing strongly against us the whole way there; it took us over 2.5 hrs to get to Osaka Castle, when I biked with my family it took us only 1.5 hrs. It was hell but we were so happy to get there. The view was beautiful and now we can laugh about it.

It's funny though because for some crazy reason Francois thought it would take us half an hour to get to Osaka...by bike! C'mon!! It takes the Limited Express train 25 min to get from the dorms' nearest station to Osaka. I don't know what he was thinking. Well, our final destination was Shakey's Pizza, an all you can eat pizza restaurant--pizza, pasta, salad, and curry and rice. As you can imagine, we were beat by the time we got there and so we ate like there was no tomorrow, well Chris, Marce, Diana, and I did. But no regrets, it was fun and it was a good memory. But I did feel guilty for eating so much so I exercised when I got back from Osaka. Great day, it's definitely one of those memories.

Carolina (from Ecuador), me, Chris, and Maria

this is a HUGE park! it runs from y house all the way to Osaka bay. My otosan told me my okasan and him biked all the way to Osaka bay and it took them 2 hrs. it runs next to the river. it's awesome because on weekends it's packed of picnics, BBQs, sport matches, it makes me happy to see people commuting in such harmony.

group picture! Francois, Chris, Diana, me, Caro, Maria, Marce. Francois, bendito entre las mujeres ("sacred/holy among women")

They went crazy when they saw this car. Moco means booger in Spanish so it was pretty funny.

I stole some of these pics from Marce.

Almost there!

At Osaka Castle. This guy was doing a bunch of cool malavares (tricks) so I had to take pics.

He had a wooden rod in his mouth and he balanced a porcelain teapot on it. Then he flipped it and caught it with the rod, it was cool.

At shinsaibashi station, looking for Shakey's

After Shakey's we decided to walk for a while before going back home. We found Hello Kitty's palace. Three whole floors of Hello Kitty merchandise, expensive, Hello Kitty merchandise. I'm so glad I'm not into her, saving myself a lot of money!

As you can see, I wasn't supposed to take pics (sign between the two Kitties) but I pretended I didn't see them...gaijin desu! (I am a foreigner! it's a phrase my friends and I use amongst each other to excuse ourselves for behavior Japanese might not agree with hehe)

This is the Kitty outside the store, pictures are allowed with her.

This shopping strip was soo packed! Japanese people spend a bunch of money on brand name stuff, they are obsessed. One of my disappointments coming here.

Shinsaibashi at night.

Going back home.

The day before I went to Osaka (by train) with Carolina. All the museums were free that day and I really wanted to go to as many as possible but Caro had to study so we left pretty late and only saw one. We ended up having to pay because they had a special exhibit, it was worth it though. I was just a little bit pissed because I wanted to take advantage of the offer, but whatever, that's life I guess.

Some sort of public building, I forgot its purpose but I think it's used for conferences and such.

Elderly people sketching the building, maybe they are taking an art class together, maybe just passing time by doing their hobby.

The Art Museum

Japanese students we went to. Cohei (he studied abroad in Ecuador for a year, he's Caro's friend) and Maki (she's Cohei's friend she studied in San Diego for a semester, I met her once at the Kisaichi picnic). We went out to eat okonomiyaki, it was yummy!