Since moving to Japan, I’ve had five different people come
visit me from America. My first four visitors all came within my first year and
a half of living in Japan. It wasn’t until recently the fifth person came to
visit towards the end of my four year. If you do the math, you’ll realize that
it had been well over two years since I had a visitor! The amount of things,
places, and people I know in Japan have increased exponentially…not to mention
my Japanese ability! I was soooo excited to finally have a visitor again who I
could really show my Japanese life to even better than before.
The person who came to visit me is my high school friend and
neighbor, also named Stephanie! She had always wanted to come visit me in
Japan, but since she was in flight school, she couldn’t spare the time or
money. A couple years later, she is now a pilot, and thanks to that, she could
fly over to visit me almost for free (she still had to pay for her connecting
flights from Seoul to Osaka and from Osaka to Tokyo on the way home). The
timing finally worked out!
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| Double Stephanies! |
Actually, it was a very short trip because she couldn’t get all
the time she wanted off of work, but still, it was a great mini trip! So let me
tell you what we did!!
She got here on March 22nd at night. I met her at
Kansai International Airport, and we rode the train back to my town together. I
learned something new, actually. Before, I always told whoever visited me to
prepare their Japanese money in advance. Credit cards are hardly used in this
country, so you must have cash. Of course, it is still a good idea to prepare
your cash in advance to give yourself peace of mind, but I found out through
Stephanie that for a smaller fee than what you’d usually pay at a bank, you can
withdraw yen from 7 & I Holdings ATM’s with your American credit card. It
might be the cheapest way to convert your money, and there is one of those
ATM’s in the airport. I’m not sure I it works for 24-7, though, so be careful.
Once we got to my town, we stopped at a Family Mart
(convenience store) to get whatever snacks and drinks Stephanie wanted in the
house while she was here. Living in Japan for as long as I have, I have become
quite used to everything here. I am no longer surprised my most daily things.
Of course, when I first got here, I would spend a half hour in the convenience
stores looking at all the different things for sale. It was so interesting!
Watching Stephanie look at all the different foods and asking me what things
were really made me feel nostalgic about when I first came here. In fact, one
of the most fun parts about Stephanie visiting me was seeing her reaction to
everything and remembering how I once felt that way.
It was pretty late when we got back to my place, so after
chatting and snacking a little bit, we went to bed. Actually I had to work till
about 11am the next day. It was my last day of work before Spring break
started. I figured after Stephanie long trip here, she’d need time to recover and
sleep in anyway.
When I got back from work, Stephanie was in a dead sleep
haha! I eventually woke her up, and we went downtown to Shinsaibashi/Namba.
First we got lunch at an okonomiyaki place.
Stephanie can’t eat fish, so I think the fishy flavor of the okonomiyaki was a little too much, but
she loved the yakisoba! We made sure
to get pictures with the Glico Man, one of Osaka’s famous landmarks. There was
a little shrine nearby, so I thought I’d she enjoy seeing that too before we
started shopping.
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| Glico Man selfie. |
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| Yakisoba. |
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| Splashing water on the shrine. |
We went in several stores, played in game centers, and did purikura before heading to a cat café.
It was actually my first time to go to a cat café in Osaka, so I was pretty
excited! There were lots of cute kitties. :3 Before heading to dinner, I made
sure to show Stephanie the Glico Man lit up at night and also gave her a brief
love hotel tour haha! Something she pointed out was that it’s amazing how the
Japanese make use of every available space. One small building will have like
20 different stores or an unmarked staircase down to a basement can lead to a
nice restaurant. Very true!
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| Purikura #1. |
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| Purikura #2. |
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| Cat cafe. |
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| Cat cafe. |
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| Cat cafe. |
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| Cat cafe. |
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| Doutonbori at night. |
Due to jetlag, Stephanie’s
appetite was pretty messed up, so she wouldn’t get very hungry in the evening,
and at about 6 or 7pm, she’d crash of exhaustion. So we made dinner a quick
event. There’s a standing sushi place in Kyobashi that has become my favorite
sushi place because it’s high quality, fresh, delicious and very cheap! They
bring the sushi out to you as soon as you order it, so we were able to get in,
have a few pieces, and get out quickly, so we could go home and sleep.
Stephanie said it was the best sushi she’s ever had in her life! Like I said,
she doesn’t eat fish, but she loves shrimp and some other shellfish, so she
could eat that. I also introduced her to chu-hi
(like alcoholic flavored soda) that night which she enjoyed.
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| Best sushi everrrrr. |
The next day, we slept in, hit up the dollar store in my
town so she could by some more souvenirs, and grabbed a snack of
takoyaki and
taiyaki before we headed in to town to eat lunch. Again, the
takoyaki was a little iffy for her, but
the
taiyaki ended up being her
favorite food in Japan which took me by surprise haha! For those who don’t
know,
taikyaki is like a pancake
shaped like a fish that’s filled with usually bean paste or custard. Stephanie
loved the custard ones. For lunch, I took her to my favorite place to eat in
all of Japan. Kushikatsu Doteyaki in Kyobashi.
I have a whole
post about this place. Not
exactly the healthiest lunch, but we both enjoyed our delicious lunch of
kushikatsu and deep fried
gyoza (potstickers).
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| Kushikatsu. |
Our next stop after lunch was Osaka Castle. There was some
huge concert going on at Osaka-jo Hall, so it was really hard to get around the
crowds, but eventually we got to the castle, took a few pictures, and then headed
to a game center again to take more purikura
and play games haha! We also bought sweaters in a store. She got one with a
panda on it that says, “pandaaaaa” in Japanese, and I got one with sushi on it
that say, “osushi” in English. So cute!
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| Osaka Castle. |
In the evening, I had an English conversation class to
teach, so after resting at home for a couple hours, we headed to the class. I
made her participate in the lesson, and I think she had a good time. I know my
students were excited to have her there. After the lesson, I took her to kaitenzushi (rotating conveyor belt
sushi) since I knew she’d get a kick out of it, and believe me, she did! Even
though she wasn’t that hungry, she was having so much fun ordering the food and
having it come out on a little train, that she actually ate a good amount.
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| Here comes the train! |
She was starting to hit the jetlag wall after dinner, but I
wanted her to meet my boyfriend once, so we met him at my favorite bar nearby
for one drink. It was short, but I’m so happy I could introduce him! I figured
I give her some peaceful resting time alone. So I walked her home, and went
back to the bar for one more drink (ok two) with my bf before calling it a
night.
Her last full day, we made a trip to Kyoto. Stephanie’s favorite
animal is monkeys, so I wanted to make sure she could see wild monkeys! I took
her to Arashiyama. We got a lunch of tendon
(tempura on rice) and noodles before climbing the mountain up to the monkeys!
She was so excited to see them! We went into the hut to feed them, and even
though it was like my fifth time to feed the monkeys, I had something happen to
me that’s never happened before! There was an old grouchy monkey that Stephanie
was feeding apples to. I went to feed it a peanut which I guess didn’t want
because it got pissed and grabbed and pulled on my finger, knocked the peanut
out of my hand, and screamed at me. LOL! We got a slow motion video of it. It
was…interesting, to say the least.
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| Tendon and udon. |
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| Bitch monkey. |
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| Pretty monkey. |
Our feet were tired after the climb, and we still had a lot
of walking left to do. I wanted to take her to the bamboo forest in Arashiyama
next, but on our way we saw the rickshaws, and even though it was expensive,
Stephanie decided it’d be worth the price since our feet were hurting, so I got
to ride a rickshaw for the very first time, and it was so much fun! It took us
right through the forest! That was probably my favorite part of the trip!
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| Rickshaw! |
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| So much fun! |
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| Bamboo forest. |
The final stop was Kiyomuzu Temple
(after getting more taiyaki haha).
Stephanie had two requests when she came to Japan. 1) She wanted to eat sushi
and 2) She wanted to see a temple. I figured Kiyomizu Temple would be a good
one to show her. After enduring the Kyoto busses on the way there, we made it
up to the Temple. It was super cold that day! We were both exhausted, but I
think Stephanie was impressed by the temple. After appreciating it, taking
pictures, and stopping by some souvenir shops, we made the long journey home. This
time we skipped the bus back to Kyoto Station and took a taxi. I felt rich
haha! We were too exhausted to get dinner that night, so I just ate some mac
& cheese that Stephanie had brought me, and she went straight to bed.
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| Kiyomizu Temple. |
The next day, the 26th,
we got up, went to the dollar store one last time, and stopped by the
convenience store to get snacks for the train ride to the airport. Stephanie’s
favorite convenience store items ended up being these little maple pancake
things and bubble tea. It was sad for me when she left, but I was so happy she
came and visited me.
In my sadness, I decided to do
some day drinking in Kyobashi to lift my spirits while I waited for my
boyfriend to get off of work. Lol! I started drinking about 1pm, and it
definitely took my mind off the sadness of Stephanie leaving. I thought my
boyfriend would get off around 3 or 4 at the latest, but he ended up working
really late until 6, so needless to say, I got blasted haha…thanks to the old
man at the standing bar who kept paying for my drinks. :P
Since Stephanie can come to Japan
for cheap, I hope that she gets another chance to visit some time! I still have
many other places I want to show her! It
warmed my heart when she told me that this was the best trip she’s ever taken.
She’s even been to Europe and stuff! Her reason was that Japan is so different
from America whereas the European countries she went to weren’t. It really felt
like a different world. Also, she appreciated Japan’s cleanliness. I’m so happy
I had the chance to show her my second home. Come again any time, Stephanie!
