Hi! It’s me! Lily!
So today we slept in a little bit – and then we checked out of the hotel and explored Osaka a little. It’s such a big city! Like Tokyo! I mean, Austin has a mean downtown, but it’s just a few very tall buildings clustered together and then just sprawl. But Osaka just has trains and buildings and all sorts of stuff all smushed together into a glorious mess!
But my favorite place is the Umeda Sky Tower! It’s a 40 story tall building with open air escalators at the top! And you can see all of Osaka! It’s amazing! Emiko pointed out a building that has a road running through it! How does that work!!! Their cities are so dense they run roads through buildings!!! And while we were walking down the street, we ran into an obaachan who gave us some ame-chan! Especially Hiroshi! I’d heard of the grandmas from Osaka who give candy, but I met one! She was nice!!! We had a nice lunch, then went to Shin-Osaka station to hop on the shinkansen, and… well, we’re back in Saitama now!
And we’re all soooo tired!!! After we got back, I just got in my bed roll and took a nap!!! I mean, the train was nice and everything, but we did a lot of stuff over the last few days! Tomorrow we’ve got nothing special planned. The weather’s supposed to be nicer tomorrow, so maybe we’ll go to the Sky Tree and get some nice pictures of fujisan!
I asked Emiko what we’re doing next week, but she didn’t say anything. She just said it’s a surprise. Aww! But I’m sure I’ll like it. She hasn’t steered me wrong yet. Japan has been so much fun! And I’ve been getting to know ojiisan and obaasan and ojisan and obasan (aunt and uncle – vowel length matters) and Ai and Hiroshi… and Emiko and Aika and Mika too! And they’re really nice! Very different from Dave and Sabby and Beth and David… but nice all the same! But ojisan and obasan went back home – I think they needed a nap too. Ai’s staying over though and she and Liz and I are having all sorts of fun. I’m teaching her how to brush hair! I mean, she kind of knew how, but not as a recreational activity! She loves it! And she has such thick, black hair too!!! Put a white shirt on her and she could be a ghost! Hahaha!!! Japanese people aren’t huge on physical contact, but she zones out and turns into jelly just like everyone else!
And she’s teaching me how to put my hair in twintails!!! I’m so cute now!!! But I think I’ll keep my ordinary hairstyle for the most part.
We’re teaching Ai ‘truth or dare”, and… well.. I think we’ll need to put a sock in that. She’s kind of… easily embarrassed. And the language barrier isn’t helping.
She wants to know all about Texas. She asked us if everyone wears cowboy hats and rides horses! I laughed and said no, but we do eat a lot of BBQ. She wants to try some!
Anyway, It’s a nice lazy Saturday, and after all the stuff we’ve done, it’s perfect!