I got myself out of bed early on Sunday to go catch a train to Osaka. The train ride was not so crowded because of the time, so I was able to sit down and memorize some vocabulary. I arrived about ten minutes early in Osaka, and so I wandered around the station and enjoyed some people watching.
While I was waiting, a college-age guy came up and asked me where I was going, in English. I told him that I was waiting for someone, and he looked a little disappointed that he couldn’t give me directions anywhere. I chatted for a few minutes with him, and we both enjoyed speaking English for a while.
A few minutes later an older foreigner in a tie-dyed shirt and smiley face headrag approached me and introduced himself. His name was Butch, and he was promoting a comedy/magic show in English somewhere in Osaka. He gave me a flyer, and I said thanks. Just as he was starting to stay a little longer than was comfortable, I saw Kuniko come running out of the crowd towards me. I sent Butch on his way and gave her a big hug. Right behind her Miss Tamura and Yuri came over to say hello. Together we jumped on the next train and we were off.
Miss Tamura is a teacher at Kuniko’s old school in Kakogawa. She doesn’t speak much English, but she understands it well. We caught up with each other on the train, and then we went into the park.
The lines were unusually small – and we actually got to walk right up to some of the characters. We even got a chance to see Elmo, Kuniko’s favorite character.
We were able to do almost every ride in the park, and the longest we had to wait was 30 minutes. I was able to do some new rides, like Jaws, Terminator 3D, and Spiderman. Spiderman is a new ride, and was by far the best one. They’ve done 3D shows before, but this is a 3D rollercoaster. There were some things going on in there that were impossible for my brain to figure out. Usually you can see how they do things – this ride was done perfectly. If you ever get the chance, you won’t regret it.
For lunch we ate at Mel’s Diner, and then went on more rides. Kuniko was looking pretty tired, and I was getting tired myself. We decided that the last thing we would do is the Monster’s Rock and Roll Show. Normally it’s a pretty cheesy thing that I would skip, but Yuri actually had a friend of a friend that was performing. It was a lot more interesting when you (kind of) know someone on stage. He was this big black dude with dreadlocks playing a Dracula character. Every character had a song and dance number, and he did “La Vida Loca” which gives you a sense of Universal’s idea of “rock and roll”.
After that we went to do a little bit of omiyage shopping. It was then that Yuri realized that she had lost her wallet somewhere along the way. Yuri is a JET like me, and there are a couple of pretty important documents that we have to carry around – losing those is a major headache. The clerk that was ringing us up flipped a switch on her headset and they checked the central office. The wallet was there, so we picked it up on the way out. She had left it in Mel’s Diner – and everything was still inside, including about 9000 yen. What a relief!
We left the park feeling like we had done everything that we wanted to do, and we rode back to Umeda station together. Kuniko and I decided to have dinner together, and so we said goodbye to Yuri and Miss Tamura. They were really nice to allow me to join their “girl’s day out”.
Back at Kuniko’s place we decided to just order in a pizza and relax. We had some “jelly” made of honey for dessert, and then I got out of there fairly early. I wanted to make sure that Kuniko was able to get some rest before going back to school on Monday. She’s been working hard and under a lot of pressure. I think today was good for her mentally, but physically she’s going to be tired. Me, too, for that matter.
I jumped on the train, and got a seat right away. I fell asleep on the train, something I’ve never done before. Luckily I woke up about ten seconds before my stop and was able to stagger to the door and catch the Sanyo line train back home. What a day!
