Day 184 - So Long, Comrades

Tuesday, August 9th, 2016

Outside the Airport Bus Station

11th Day in Japan; Osaka

I am glad I packed last night. 

With 6 minutes to spare, they decided it was time to wake me up. The maid arrives at 10 after, hyper apologetically, to announce that it's officially past our time. Quite the Japanese way of kicking us out.

Japanese Hotpot

We help transport our Chinese comrades to the airport bus, and wave as they pull out of the station, shopping bags piled as high as the eye can see. We'll miss them, though it's much easier to coordinate with only two of us... especially when we don't second guess the GPS. Shimou wanted to try Japanese hotpot, which.. is like a more flavourless, healthier version of Chinese hot pot. You collect ingredients, throw them in a boiling pot, then eat them when they're ready. Asian people seem to enjoy cooking for themselves at restaurants.

Psychology and Combinatorics

A man in a top hat

We seek out our new apartment to rid ourselves of this baggage. The door code us 4 digits, and they keypad has 4 very worn down buttons: 4, 7, 8, 0. Not many combinations with that setup. I wonder what the math is to figure out how the security would be affected if they provide a different code with 4 different numbers to half the tenants. Two ways to get in, but each is far less obvious with more worn down numbers. Then there'd be 8 worn down digits to muddy the waters.

Taking the Reigns

Suffering
Shimou

Curry!

Now that the rest are gone and Shimou doesn't have any particular plans and no need to translate, I start stepping up and leading us where we want to go. We explore the area near the Tennoji district of Osaka. We discovered an mall with a park nearby and wander a lot, lost and tired, looking for a cafe with WiFi. Surprisingly rare in Japan. We need to transfer documents to a USB and print them at a convenience store. Looking back, it all could have been done at the convenience store on their wifi. Oh well.

After Business

That taken care of, we wander the park in search of some place to eat and settle on curry for last dinner in Japan. Most of the Japanese food hasn't been spicy at all, even when it's labelled as such. Shimou orders 6/7 spiciness, while I played it safe with a 3. She suffered. They offer to add honey, of all things, to the food to make it less spicy. She claims it works, which makes me wonder why. I always read that fat was needed to reduce the effects of spice...

The rest of the night was spent enjoying fast, limitless internet. No firewalls to slow me down! I enjoy a bath while listening to Alan Watts. Meanwhile, Shimou spent most of hte time trying to shift the excess weight from her suitcase into mine. This is what you get when you go to Japan with people who love to shop. 

Japan has great deals, great prices, and lots of high quality products, namely cosmetics and clothes. I highly recommend it.

Word of the Day - Japanese Edition

English - Japanese [pronunciation]

Goodbye
Sayōnara

[sigh-O-na-la]

Editing Music
Take You Dancing
Say Hi


Bonus: Instant Noodle Vending Machine