osaka

enroute for kyoto, we called for accommodation but learned that everywhere we wanted, or could afford to stay, was booked out for the weekend. we made the decision to hop off the train at osaka and try our luck there. it was about nine o'clock at night, so options were running out fast. on our way to where we thought we'd try to stay, we bumped into a scottish gent named duncan macbeth, who told us where he was staying. after a strange and one-sided phone call to make a booking with no success, we decided to just show up and see what would happen. getting off the train, we quickly realised that we were on the wrong side of the tracks. it was raining and dark, and there was trash everywhere, also with homeless men roaming the streets. with no other options up our damp sleeves, we decided to get to the hostel, and just accept whatever was on offer. the hostel was an old converted hotel, and seemed to mainly occupied by really old, not very healthy looking single japanese men. nj got a single room that smelled so bad of cigarettes, he couldn't even stay in there for a minute. we went in, and yes, it stunk real bad. it wasn't just like someone had been smoking in there, it was more like someone had rubbed an ashtray all around the room, then smoked a whole packet, then rubbed the ashtray around the room again. funky. he gave up on the room, and joined elise and i in our twin room, which didn't stink. pretty damn hungry and tired at this stage, so we went in search of something to eat. we chose a place one block from where we were staying, and walked in. it was more like a bar, that had some raw meats laid out in a glass case in front of us. out of options, and tired, we thought we'd give it a go. some old, and quite sad japanese people were sitting on bar stools singing karaoke, while we came to grips with what we had walked into. funny thing about japan is, that even in the dodgiest part of town, you don't really feel unsafe.

a beer to calm the nerves, and i decided to pop our japanese karaoke cherry with a rendition of footloose. i went down well with the surly crowd, and eased all our nerves. after a few songs each (elise sung a simply beautiful version of lionel richie's hello. just beautiful and NJ sung a quite scary version of come as you are, which somehow seemed appropriate), we decided to call it a night and head back to our hostel. we asked for the bill, and they tried to rip us off, but not wanting to be taken for such and obvious ride, we dug our heels in. it took about twenty minutes of broken english, and three or four rundowns of what we had consumed for us to convince them, that we weren't paying for what we hadn't had or hadn't done. due to communication problems, it didn't end up as cheap as we thought, but we had to pay, so we stomped out of the bar without saying thanks or goodbye, which was the harshest thing we could think to do, without causing any trouble. i stole a lighter which made us a little happier, but not much. back at the front door of our hotel, we saw a strange man, sitting on the ground laughing to himself, popping medication (i think). nj said he saw him fall into some bushes earlier on in the evening, which came as no surprise. a very strange night indeed. it all just seemed to re-enforce how well we've been looked after in tokyo. we all laughed about it in the morning, and vowed not to let it soil our view of osaka.


the travellers live to fight another day.


waky, waky. let's get out of here.


the stunning view form our hostel room.