Seoul, South Korea

As I write this, we are sailing through the Bering Sea.  It’s a rough one!  The roughest waters we have been in on any cruise, which I think is over 20 at this point.  Sometimes we hit a wave that takes the front of the ship up in the air and down with a bang that rattles the whole ship. This is the first time I’ve gotten a little queasy on a cruise ship.

At at a park by the Seoul Tower

Getting to Seoul, South Korea

On April 24, we took the train to the airport in Osaka to head for Seoul, South Korea.

Everything went smoothly until we got to Seoul. For some reason, even if the train system in a place is easy to navigate, the trains leaving an airport can prove tricky.  We had problems in Osaka and Seoul with the outbound trains from the airport.  Rome was no problem, but these two, we had problems with.  The difference between Osaka and Seoul, is that Osaka was confusing from the get go and the people working at the train station at the airport were quick to look at the tickets we got from the machine and tell us they were wrong and direct us to a human that got us the right tickets to the right place.

Before I get into the trip to our hotel that took around three hours, I have to mention that we were also using a new navigation app - Naver (pronounced NAAver like in naval not naver like in navigate - which seems silly to me because it’s a navigation tool).  Every place we have ever traveled to, we have used Google Maps to get around and it works great. In most places it will tell you what train or bus to get on, when it will arrive, its terminus, how many stops you have before you get off, and what time that will be.  Same for buses.  If you are taking a bus to a train or vice versa, it will show you the walk between the two and what time the next one leaves so you can catch it.  Traveling would be SO much more difficult without Google or some form of GPS.

Naver is necessary, we found out, because of the laws regarding maps in South Korea.  Google is not accurate in the least in South Korea.  If you want help getting around, you must use Naver.  That is what everyone in Seoul uses.  In many ways, Naver is superior to Google Maps, giving you multiple times of arrival for buses and trains and will dynamically change your options if you miss a train or bus. Naver will tell you how many stops away your bus or train is as well as how many minutes until it arrives.  It is also great at notifying you when you are on the train or bus when your stop is coming up, letting you know one stop ahead of time to prepare for exit.  We think Google Maps could learn a thing or two from Naver. That is once you have learned the app.  It took a few minutes of effort and a YouTube video.  Once we knew, it was easy peasy.

The other day, Blaise googled if you can use Naver in other countries since it is superior to Google Maps.  The answer was yes, but it will not be accurate because it only provides information for South Korea.  So really the answer is “no,” right Google?  What a dumb answer.  

I digress.

In Seoul, we thought we knew what we were doing when we got to the airport.  It was supposed to be a train and then a bus that dropped us off right in front of our hotel.  Unfortunately we were still learning Naver which we learned later on doesn’t tell you what platform (like Google Maps in Osaka) or give you the terminus (like Google Maps in Rome), it gives you the next stop on that line which isn’t always readily available on signage. It is important to know what direction to go since you can easily get on the right train line or bus number going in the opposite direction from which you need to go.  What was difficult for us other than learning Naver was that all trains at the Seoul airport go out.  They aren’t going two directions.  The airport is the starting point for all the trains, you just need to find the one that is going the direction you need to go with the stop you need without knowing the right platform.

After much discussion and confusion, we got on a train.  Turns out, we were wrong and it didn’t have any stop we needed.  It was a long train ride out of the airport so we had some time to learn Naver and figure out where we needed to get off the train.  We opted for riding it out and getting off the train at Seoul Station, the biggest train station with the most options for trains and buses.  After getting off the train, we had Naver figured out and had a plan to get to our hotel.

After a couple more trains and a bus, we arrived at the bus station right next to our hotel around three hours later. Quite the learning experience!

Our Hotel

Our Hotel was the 3S Doksan Boutique Hotel, in the Doksan area of Seoul which is totally NOT near anything touristy.  This is something we don’t mind at all.  We like staying in areas that are not tourist focused so we can get a true picture on life in the area and interact with regular people who are simply living their lives.  We like getting that true picture of regular life in a place.  We certainly got that but at the expense of time since the touristy things we wanted to do were 55 minutes or more away, requiring at least one bus and one train, often more.  Nothing was a “hop on one of the many buses that stop right in front of the hotel and go straight there.”  You had to hop on one of those many buses and go to a train station or hop on yet another bus. If there is one thing I hate more than standing on a train, it is standing on a bus for a prolonged period of time.  

We learned a lesson on this one regarding how to find a good location for a hotel.  It is fine to be in a non-touristy area so long as you have an easy way to get to the tourist sites, like being near a train station where you can catch one train there, not five trains. It’s all a balance.

Cool building in our neighborhood - It is a daycare.

The hotel was interesting.  We stayed there for two weeks which is fine but they had absolutely no place to put your clothes - no drawers (not a single drawer anywhere), no closet, no wardrobe.  Nothing. So we literally lived out of our suitcases the whole time.

It was one of the most unusual hotels we have been to with a fancy remote control that turned everything in the room on and off, including the lights.  The guy at the reception desk says “we are known for our remote controls.”  I don’t know if “we” meant the hotel, or Seoul, or North Korea in general.  But he was quite proud of their remotes.

 

The room had interesting things like a flat iron for your hair, an air purifier, and a very expensive and very large massage chair.

Getting Around

Even with a very comprehensive train and bus system, you can potentially walk a lot in Seoul.

There are just as many buses in Seoul as there are in Rome.  They are relied upon just as much as trains and if you catch either during rush hour, you are standing shoulder to shoulder like sardines.  But there is no noise.  Everyone is quiet, like they are in Japan.  If you talk on a train or a bus, you better do it in hushed tones! And the cardinal sin is talking on your phone.

Speaking of how quiet the public transport is and phones, I have to mention this.  No one is standing around looking, reveling in the quietness on the trains, they have their earbuds in and are listening to and watching something on their phones.  And they don’t stop when they get off the train or bus.  I cannot tell you how many times we saw people walking down the street watching videos on their phones not paying any attention to their surroundings.  This was so common it got annoying. Maybe this is one of the reasons the birth rate in Korea is so low.

In South Korea and Japan, you always stand off to the side IN A QUEUE waiting for the train.  The people exiting the train get off in the middle and once they are off the train, then you can get on in order; never rush the train entrance.

The Culture

The culture in Korea is not hugely dissimilar to Japan.  Koreans may be appalled by this comparison, but this is just how I see it. It is clean but not as clean as Japan.  It is quiet but not as quiet as Japan.  It’s automated, but not as automated as Japan.  There are several of those types of comparisons.

South Korea absolutely does this better than Japan: retractable sun umbrellas at intersections so you don't burn in the sun waiting to cross the street.

We saw the biggest cabbage ever in Seoul!

Beauty Products

One of the things Korea certainly does better than Japan is beauty products.  They are top notch in South Korea and you will find many of those products in Japan so I think Japan may know South Korea is superior in this area.  I picked up some anti-aging eye and face cream, concealer, and shampoo and conditioner.  They are definitely superior to what we have in the U.S. and cheaper!

Their big beauty store is Olive Young and they are everywhere.  There are more of these than convenience stores, which is saying something in Asia since convenience stores are king in Asia!  There were places where there was an Olive Young right across the street from another Olive Young.  Beauty really is the business to be in in South Korea.

Kimchi

They like their kimchi in South Korea.  So much so that there is a specific rule that you cannot carry kimchi with you on an airplane because of the smell.

 

Dogs

They love their dogs in Seoul.  The dogs are just as clean in South Korea as Japan but what we saw much more than Japan is that people in Seoul would put their dogs in baby strollers.  This was more common than the dogs being walked on a leash.  We even saw a couple of dogs that were walking with shoes on.  And they must wear them often because the dogs weren’t trying to fling them off which is what our dogs would have tried to do.

Cost

South Korea was the most expensive country we have visited on this trip but still about 20-30% less than the U.S. I suspect we will have culture shock with prices once we get back to the U.S.

The People

The people in South Korea were so kind and were quick to volunteer to help you if you looked confused.  And most of the time when they helped you, they didn’t speak English.  Most were speaking Korean with hand gestures.

We had a younger Korean woman who spoke English at a train station where all the signs were in Korean, stop and ask us where we were trying to go.  I am sure we looked so confused as we tried to match the Korean words on Naver with the ones on the signs.  Not an easy feat when they all look like intricate pictures.  We told her where we were trying to go and she directed us to the right platform.  Would you have done that for a foreigner in the U.S.?  I am not sure I would have before this trip, merely as a result of shyness. But I certainly will now!

One day, we were stopped in a park sitting on a park bench near some elderly women and when they left, they attempted rather diligently to speak to us in Korean, even after we told them in English we didn’t understand. They just kept on going - all smiles.  They seem excited to talk to us. It was sweet.  I pulled out my phone and brought up Google Translate and tried to explain the live translate so we could speak to these lovely ladies.  They didn’t understand and finally walked off.  I am sure they laughed at us.  We tried but if a conversation in Korean involves more than hello or thank you, we are out.

We had a rather sweet encounter with a man in a laundromat.  We were trying to figure out the washers and dryers since everything was in Korean.  An older man was there washing his clothes and pantomimed how to navigate everything for me.  He just walked up and started helping.  I didn’t ask.  Later while our clothes were washing and he had already folded his dry clothes, I saw him get some dryer sheets out of the machine.  I thought that was odd. And then when he was leaving he handed those dryer sheets to us as a kind gesture.

On the opposite side of things, we got a lot of stares. This happened more so in South Korea than any other place we have visited.  So often that we both noticed.  I don’t know if it was because we were both tall to them, if it is because I am taller than Blaise, or if it is because I am so tall.  Or perhaps it is our stunning good looks. Perhaps not the latter.  Or maybe staring is more culturally acceptable in South Korea than other countries.  At times it was unnerving.

Thoughts on South Korea

Overall, we loved Korea!  I think we would have enjoyed Seoul much more if our location were more central to all the sites we wanted to see.  It became a bit annoying traveling over an hour to see any we wanted to visit.

South Korea is one we want to return to and spend time in the southern parts and Busan.

I’ll spend my next blog talking about the places we visited in Seoul, just to break this up into smaller pieces.

If any of this writing sounds odd, it was because I was extremely distracted by the trivia going on while writing it.

Osaka - Final Thoughts

I am going to try something a bit different this time.  I have waited so long to blog and there is so much to say that I am going to post this in smaller bits.

I need to wrap up our time in Osaka, talk about our time in Seoul, our cruise, and then maybe talk about my overall thoughts looking back on the trip as a whole, the latter with, maybe, some superlatives (favorite/least favorite, most/least scenic, cleanest/dirtiest, etc.).  Let’s not forget the time in Alaska to come!

If there is anything you want to know about, let me know and I can include it in a future blog.

Thoughts on Osaka

We only spent three weeks in Osaka but could have easily spent three more, we liked it that much.  I am not sure what it is about Osaka.  Maybe it is Japan, in general, but we really loved it there.  I don’t think it is that Osaka is incredibly aesthetically pleasing.  It has beautiful parts, with its parks and gardens, and the cherry blossoms the first week we were there sent it over-the-top amazing.

One last view of the cherry blossoms

The architecture is not that memorable. It’s not gritty like Hanoi or cosmopolitan-feeling like Kuala Lumpur or as diverse as Bangkok.  And there was not as much English spoken there as other places we have been. But there was something about it.  The people were kind.  The streets were crazy clean.  And the society there, in general, is orderly. Except I really don’t understand why they drive on the left but go up escalators and stairs on the right. I think that leads to confusion when walking.  That problem is only in Osaka.  Everywhere else in Japan, everything happens on the left.  The right-side thing in Osaka makes no sense.

Escalator in Osaka (and the back of my head). You stand on the right so people can walk up on the left if they are in a rush.

All the streets have ample sidewalks where you are not dodging parked motorcycles, cafe seating, and potholes.

Every place we went seemed fairly accessible by train and a few minutes of walking without a bunch of transfers.  But I think that was in part due to our location near Osaka Castle.  The nearest train station was about a 7 - 10 minute walk which really didn’t even seem that long because it was straight down the street.

While we were looking forward to Seoul, we were sad to leave Osaka.  We are already talking about returning, if not to Osaka, to other places in Japan.  They don’t speak much English there but that really didn’t detract from the experience or keep us from doing things we needed or wanted to do.

Although, when trying to find a place to get my hair color, cut, and style, one salon turned me down because I did not speak Japanese.  They were afraid the language barrier would be a problem in figuring out what I wanted done.  This was ascertained from Google Translate.  It all worked out because I found an English speaking place to get my hair done and it is the best it has looked in months.

They love their dogs in Osaka.  They love them small,clean, and not stray.  We saw several people clean their dogs' butts after they pooped.  The white dogs were crazy white they were so clean.

We got used to the vending machines for drinks.  They were everywhere and cheap.  We got so used to it that when we got to Seoul, it was a convenience that we truly missed.

But most drink machines did not have plain bottled water since the tap water in Osaka is super clean and as a result, everyone drinks it.  This was the first place since we left Osaka the first time back in October, where we were able to drink the water from the faucet.  AND it tasted like bottled water.  I had no taste issues with it at all.

The Japanese do love their automation, from the money machines when you pay for things at stores to the website ordering in restaurants to the mall police robot.

Automation Example #1:  Carvana-style parking lot

Automation Example #2:  I like to call this a lazy Susan for cars.  You find them in some tight parking lots.  You pull your car onto it and it rotates so you can easily drive out of the parking lot.  Genius!

Restaurants

The restaurant ordering was weird to me.  You had a waitperson but you had to use a QR code to order your food.  They would give you a physical menu but when it was time to order, you scanned the QR code to place your order.  The waitstaff would then just show up with your drink and food.  BUT, you didn’t pay with the QR code.  Usually, you would go to the cash register near the hostess stand and pay there, dumping your money in the machine which would automatically spit out your change.  I am sure I drove some people nuts because it took me several iterations to figure out, you didn’t have to feed your bills and coins one by one.  Just dump your change in the bin like you are dumping coins in a CoinStar and it sucks them in and counts them for you.  Same with the bills - just feed your stack of bills and the machine takes care of the rest.

There were some street vendors and carts where you did not order directly from the vendor.  They had a machine off to the side with pictures of the items they sell on individual buttons that corresponded to the menu.  You press the buttons of the things you want to order and then pay the machine.  When you are done, you stand there and wait for your food.

One thing you absolutely cannot do in Osaka is customize your food.  You take it as they prepare it.  It is considered extremely rude to request changes to what you order - asking for things on the side or without something or with something additional.  If it’s not on the menu the way you want it, you don’t get it the way you want it.  You get it the way the chef wants you to have it.  So if you are one of those people that routinely specializes menu items at restaurants, you are screwed in Japan.

Bakeries

Osaka’s bakeries rival Paris.  Not quite the fanciness of a Paris patisserie but the taste is on par. Had we not been walking so much, weight would have been gained.

One of the things the Japanese bakeries are known for is “salt bread.”  It looks similar to a croissant, without the flakiness.  It is crispy and buttery on the bottom with a touch of coarse salt sprinkled on top.  Salt bread is delicious and if you like bread, I highly recommend it!

Bathrooms

The bathrooms in Japan are amazing!  They are plentiful and clean.  Every garden and every park had public restrooms.  They were always clean. Every time.

The women’s and men’s restrooms both had little urinals for little boys.  Most stalls in the women’s restrooms had little pull down seats for the little ones.  Some even had a separate place for the kiddos to go to the bathroom within the women’s restrooms.  These places consisted of low walls so the parents could watch from the outside with a little urinal and little low-to-the-ground toilet.

The nursing rooms were palatial.

Most restrooms had the fancy toilets with various types of integrated bidets, with music and/or water noise (“for privacy”).  My favorites were the ones that assumed you wanted the noise as soon as you locked the stall door.

Music Makes Everything Better

We noticed that if there was an unpleasant or rudimentary activity, there was some sort of pleasing music to go along with it.  The trash trucks would play music as they made their rounds.  Oftentimes, it was Camptown Races (which by the way, is an American folk song from the 1850's) or some sort of nursery song.  Some convenience stores would play classical music as you opened their doors.  They would play music as a train would arrive.  I wish I could remember all the examples but it was always some sort of campy electronicy music.

Big Regret

Our one regret for Osaka and Seoul is that we thought about going to a baseball game too late.  We tried but the games were sold out.  How fun would it have been to experience a game in a place other than the US where baseball is just as beloved as it is at home?! Yet another reason to return.  We will be sure next time to buy tickets long before we ever get there.  Being huge baseball fans, we both still want to do this.

On April 24, we sadly left Osaka, Japan and headed for Seoul, South Korea, our last stop before we got on the cruise ship and headed back to North America, specifically Alaska.

I think this is a great stopping point.  My next one will talk about getting to Seoul, South Korea and our time there.  Hopefully, the time between blogs this time will only be a few days, if not tomorrow.

Osaka, Japan

Happy Wednesday!  Happy Tax Day!

Getting to Osaka, Japan

We arrived in Osaka two weeks ago on March 31, after a very long travel day.  Our flight to Osaka from Kuala Lumpur was not scheduled to leave until 2 AM the morning of March 31.  Because we had to be out of our AirBnB by 11 AM March 30, we were at the airport lounge for quite a bit of time.  About 5:30 PM, we received an email from the airline saying that due to “operational issues” we were not leaving until 5:15 AM.

There was a hotel right outside of the land side lounge (outside of security) we were hanging out in so we went over there and booked a room.

We got to Osaka a little after noon March 31 and it took us well over 2 hours to get through customs and get our bags.

I figured we were due for a bad travel day since we had been fortunate enough that all travel days since we left in September had been so very smooth and easy.

While we were walking from the train station to our AirBnB (which was only minutes from the train station) after leaving the airport, it started raining on us.  We ducked into a restaurant to get out of the rain since neither of us had eaten since the night before.  The restaurant turned out to be right around the corner from our AirBnB.

The AirBnB

The AirBnB is rather utilitarian.  I was looking forward to a fancy toilet like our last home stay in Osaka back in October but it is a much simpler toilet.  BUT - it still has a sink on the back of toilet on top of the tank that starts running when you flush the toilet.  This must be a thing in Japan.  No heated seat or music or complicated set of buttons on this one.

The apartment is long and narrow.  As you enter, there is a small place to take off your shoes.  You then step up into the extremely small galley kitchen with the toilet and shower rooms off to the left (they are completely separate rooms).  Then you go into the main room where there is a two-seater table and chairs to the left, various counter top kitchen appliances on the right, and Ricky and Lucy beds.  The balcony is on the other side of the beds.

What is odd is there is a little table with a rice cooker, electric kettle, toaster oven, and microwave but no place to plug them in where they sit.  You either have to move the appliance to the kitchen table or move a multi-plug extension from the other side of the room so Ami can trip and fall over the cord, to use any one of them, including the microwave.  It is so weird.

The place is very clean and the price includes a weekly cleaning. The beds are comfortable and the shower is hot with great water pressure.  And aren’t those the most important things?

We also LOVE the location of this AirBnB.  We are about a 10-minute walk from the entrance to the Osaka Castle grounds.  It is a beautiful place to walk and simply enjoy nature in the middle of a bustling city.

Osaka Castle and the Sakura

Why Osaka?

As you may remember, we were in Osaka right after we got off our cruise to Tokyo back in October.  It seems like a lifetime ago, I was standing on that packed train from Tokyo to Osaka for an hour and a half sweating like a snowman in a sauna.  That was one miserable train ride!

The purpose of being in Osaka then was some medical tourism - get our colonoscopies and my breast MRI.  However, we lost two days because we got stuck (happily so) for an extra two days on our cruise due to a typhoon.  Then we got to Osaka and our first day here was a national holiday.

As a result, we only had five days here, two being the weekend, and one day being a holiday.  That left 2 business days for 2 colonoscopy preps, 2 colonoscopies, and 1 breast MRI.  So we skipped that effort in Osaka and did it later in Da Nang Vietnam.

But those five days in Osaka whetted our appetite for Osaka.  We knew we were coming back to Japan in the spring for the cherry blossoms (we now know as Sakura) but had not decided exactly where that would be. We had read that the blossoms were wonderful at the Osaka Castle. So, of all the places in Japan to return to, we landed on Osaka as the choice.

We do not regret coming back here in the least.  We love it here!  The city itself is not as attractive as other cities.  For example, the skyline of Kuala Lumpur was beautiful. Here, the buildings are as utilitarian looking as our AirBnB.  Osaka was bombed out during World War II so most buildings were built after the war.

Osaka just has something that speaks to us.  Maybe it is because we have spent several months in places that felt more third-world than here.  We’ve been in places where if you drink the tap water, you get sick; where you can’t flush the toilet paper; where litter is commonplace; where you have to walk on the street because the sidewalks are adorned with motorbikes and seating for restaurants; where crossing the street is an art and risking your life if you aren’t bold enough to keep on walking no matter what vehicle is coming at you; and where you have to check the air quality daily to make sure you won’t have a breathing problem that day.  Part of it may be that while Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where we had just come from, had parts that we really loved, it was not our favorite place to stay for a month.

Don’t get me wrong, we really enjoyed all the places we visited.  We learned something from each place we’ve been and our lives have been enriched in so many ways by the things we have seen and the people we have met.  I don’t see how you can travel around the world and not realize there is more that connects us than divides us.

But Osaka is a breath of  fresh air, literally and figuratively. To answer your question, Jackie, so far, Osaka is our favorite place on this trip.

There are reasons we like it here other than just how it differs from some of the other places we have been on this trip.  Osaka is clean and orderly.  While I get the sense that the locals here would rather you speak Japanese and frankly be Japanese, they are kind and patient about our lack of conversational Japanese and Japaneseness.

While I think the people here are polite and kind because children here are raised to be that way and to follow very specific ways of doing things, they are still nice and helpful.  For example, when we stopped by the restaurant when we first got here because it was raining, when we left the restaurant, a man who was merely walking by the door of the restaurant as we were struggling with our luggage trying to get out the door, stopped and held the door for us to walk out onto the sidewalk more easily.  He wasn’t going into the restaurant; he was just walking by.

About Osaka

Osaka, the actual city, is populated by 2.81 million people and the greater urban area is the 10th largest urban area in the world at over 19 million people.

Getting Around

Public Transportation

The city, like most we have visited on this trip, has an extensive public transportation system. It consists of mostly trains (subway, elevated, ground, and monorail).  I am not sure I have seen many buses here. I know they have them because Google Maps gives me that option from time to time, but it is usually trains and walking.  Often you have to change trains to get anywhere here but they make it easy with signs and painted colored stripes on the ground corresponding to the color of the train line (blue line, red line, purple line, etc.).

Private Transportation

There is no Grab here and Uber is limited.  They have an app called Go which is mainly taxis, where you can call the taxi like you call a Grab or Uber and they give you a set price.  But we found the price of the taxis to be expensive.

While there are cars here, there are not many.  We have not seen a traffic problem here, not once. It’s probably because the public transportation is so widely used.

What you don’t see here which were prolific in Thailand, Vietnam, and Cambodia, are motorbikes.  We have seen maybe a handful.  People just don’t have them here.

What they do have here are bicycles.  Lots and lots of bicycles. And walking.  I think it is wonderful!

Covered Streets

There are many covered streets around the city.  They are pedestrian only and have all manner of shopping, services, and restaurants.  They go on for blocks and blocks in a straight line and it seems each one has its own personality.

What is Life Like in Osaka?

Quiet

The first word that comes to mind is quiet.  You can walk the streets in the middle of the busiest time of day with people walking about, and it is quiet.  The Japanese do not appear to be a loud boisterous people.  They are calm and subdued, efficient in their acts and speech.

That’s probably why they don’t have motorcycles.  Motorcycles are loud.

Even the trains are quiet.  Never speak loudly on a train.  And if you have to talk to the person you are with - whisper.  They are the quietest trains you have ever been on.

Driving and Walking

Driving is on the left side of the road so presumably you should walk on the left side of the ample sidewalks, but they don’t always do that.  I think it is because there are always people riding bicycles on the sidewalk.  I think that is a negative of Osaka - having to dodge the bicycles on the sidewalks.

I read an article the other day where Japan has passed some stricter laws for cyclists and one of those was no riding on sidewalks.  If that is true, that law has not made it to the streets of Osaka!

Osakans are some cycling folk

Escalators

The odd thing about Osaka is the escalators.  While in other parts of Japan, just like you drive on the left, you ride the escalators on the left so that those in a hurry can walk up them on the right, Osaka is the opposite.  You do everything else on the left, like driving, but you better stand to the right on the escalators!  Doesn’t make any sense. 

Formality

Everything here is very formal.  Lots of bowing, which I have established, I love.  I don’t know why I love it, except that I find it charming.  Also, you don’t have to shake anyone’s hand which is likely more sanitary.

People here still wear suits.  During the work week you will see tons of people in suits.  Women don’t wear nice dresses.  They are in suits too.  And they are always dark suits.

The children even wear suits to school.  At least the older children do - junior high to high school aged.  Male and female. You see them during the week on the trains.  And they all have the exact same black backpacks.  You can’t have your own unique-style backpack; it appears there is a standard they have to adhere to with the backpack situation.

Even the little children have cute little uniforms with the cutest little caps.  I didn’t take pictures of this because I thought it would not be cool to take pictures of someone else’s children.

Children Following Rules

The reason I say the people here are compelled to follow the rules from a very early age is what we saw with toddler-aged children on daycare outings.  We have seen several groups of very young children (age 5 and under) on outings.  There is a very strict routine in how these children travel on these outings.  They must walk in a straight line two-by-two, holding the hand of the child they are walking next to.  They have two and often three workers on these outings watching the children.  There is always one adult in the front of the line and one in the back.  Sometimes they have a third roamer. If one of the children digress from this protocol, an adult is VERY quick to correct the child, whether a child tries to wander off or merely lets go of the hand of the child next to him/her. The correction is not mean or forceful.  It is a gentle but firm correction.  It was very clear that no deviation from this system would be tolerated.

Lines, Lines, and More Lines

They like to line up here.  I think this speaks to their orderliness.

When you are waiting for the train to arrive, you line up on the sides of the doors.  You must be on the sides so the people walking off the train can easily exit.  Once all have exited, the people on the sides can get on the train.  In a line.  There is no clump of people pushing to get on the train.  You do it quietly, orderly, and in a line.

Side Note:  Do not sit in the seats for the elderly, pregnant, or those with small children even if there are hardly any people on the train.  They WILL give you a look and it won’t be kind.  They simply don’t sit in these seats unless they meet the criteria. I made this mistake once realizing much later what I had done.

There are also random lines on the sidewalks into various businesses.  Some of them get very long.  I don’t know if these are just popular places or what else might be going on.  We see them nearly every day.

Vending Machines for Beverages

There are vending machines everywhere on the streets with cold and also hot drinks.  There are two right across the street from our building.  Just out there on the street against a wall.  And the prices are cheap.  Most places, a drink is only 100 yen, which at the current exchange rate is about 63 cents.  And they are not tiny, smaller versions of bottles.  They are regular-sized bottles.

If you go to touristy places, they will cost a bit more but we have never seen one more than 190 yen, which is about $1.19.

Random vending machine on the street

Automation

If you can automate something, they have done it here.

For example, the security in the mall was a robot.

Also, in most stores and in many restaurants, the collecting and dispensing of money is automated.  They tell you how much it costs and then direct you to the machine in front of them.  You dump all the change in at once and put all the bills in at the same time and it will dispense your correct amount of change.  The person working there never touches the money.

It took me a few days to figure out that you did not need to feed the coins or the bills one at a time.  I suspect I annoyed the hell out of the workers.

There are other examples of the automation but they are not coming to me at the moment.

Restaurant Conveniences

Many of the restaurants here will provide you with warm, individually wrapped wet disposable semi-cloth napkins - what we always called wet naps growing up.  They are handy but I can’t figure out if we are supposed to use them before the meal or after the meal.  I’ve done both.

Many restaurants and service places (like nail salons) will give you a basket to set your purse and other personal items in so you don’t have to set them on the floor.  In the U.S. we have solved this with hooks under bars and tables, but Osaka has opted for baskets.

Interesting Business Models

Times Car Rental

Times Car Rental is a very interesting business model.  There are parking lots all over the city for Times Cars.  From what I can see, you download an app to your phone and rent the cars by the hour or at 15 minute increments from the app.  I am not sure if you have to be a member and pay a monthly fee or if you just download the app and pay.  It appears you do not have to deliver the car back to the location you retrieved it from.  You just park it in a designated Times Car parking lot.  There are no attendants at these lots.

They say this is useful for a drive across town to shop or for day trips.  I suspect if you had a job across town and there are Times parking lots near your home and office, you could use it daily to get to/from work.

I think it’s fascinating!

Picnic Rental

Sunday we were at a restaurant called Focacciamo, which served sandwiches made with delicious homemade focaccia bread.  It is located across the street from the Osaka Castle grounds.  The restaurant has baskets and blankets you can rent for a picnic.  You fill out a 1-page form, pay 1000 yen (about $6.30), take a basket and a blanket along with your food.  Then you can hop across the street (not frogger style like in Vietnam, but nice and orderly at a crosswalk where you have patiently waited for the green walky man on the little screen to tell you it is your turn to cross the street) and have a lovely picnic in the free gardens. How wonderful is that?!

Baskets and blankets to choose from for you picnic

Cherry Blossoms

This is what they call “burying the lead” in journalism.

Cherry blossom season (Sakura) is the whole reason we returned to Japan.  This has been a dream of mine since I was a child.

This was not something Blaise really cared to do, but now that we have been here during this magical time, he has gone so far as to say, if you are going to go to Japan, you MUST do it during Sakura season and if you go any other time, you have missed out.

The cherry blossoms are nearly gone now but it was such a magical experience. For me.  I can’t speak for Blaise on this but he has admitted they are beautiful.  I actually teared up a couple of times as we walked among the blossoms.  Yeah, I know - I’m goofy.  I am sad they are gone.  But if they were around all year, would it really be as special?

There is a whole culture around the Sakura.  It is not merely a tourist spectacle. The people that live here get out to see them, to photograph them, to picnic under the trees, to spend time with friends and family enjoying the beauty.  Probably more so than the tourists.  One evening we saw a group of about 10 in suits sitting on a blanket, under the trees eating dinner.

The Japanese consider this a special time because Sakura bloom for only one or two weeks, and represent renewal, mortality, hope, and new beginnings.  More traditionally, Sakura represents the samurai spirit  - living extraordinarily and dying young.  I’ll skip that last part if I can help it.

Hanami is the tradition of friends and family gathering in temples and parks for parties, picnics, and socializing under the blooms.

There is a whole language or terminology surrounding Sakura.

Here are a few words I learned:

• Hanami - see above for the meaning

• Sakura Zensen - the forecast predicting bloom times

• Mankai - full bloom

• Sakuragari - traveling from place to place to view the blossoms (we did a lot of that)

• Hanafubuki - “flower snowstorm” is when the petals fall like snow

• Hazakura - the time when the flowers fall and the leaves appear

• Yozakura - visiting the illuminated cherry blossoms at night

There are many other words, but you get the gist.

A late bloomer we saw just yesterday.  These blossoms are fluffier than the ones we have seen previously.

Hazakura

Yozakura at the Castle

Getting Lost

We did get lost one day on the trains trying to get to the Expo ‘70 Commemorative Park to see the cherry blossoms.

Google Maps is generally fairly good here, getting us where we need to go efficiently - telling us which train to get on and which platform to use to hop on the train going the correct direction.

The day we went to the Expo ‘70 park, Google Maps failed us.

Google Maps told us to get on the express train.  I figured the stopping point was the train stop we needed since the expo park was pretty far out there.  Apparently Google Maps did not discern that this express train was going to skip our stop, along with every other stop.

After we got on the train, I looked down at my phone and Google Maps and we were all of the sudden 5 stops into our ride but had never actually stopped.  We were barreling through every station.  Pre-retired Ami would have freaked out.  But I didn’t.  Nor did Blaise.  We are retired and have all day to get there.

At the first stop, damn near to Kyoto, we got off, regrouped with Google Maps, and got on a new train going back from whence we came.  This one was a “semi express” train.  Like a dummy, I thought, OK, a semi-express won’t stop at every station, but it will make some stops.  And surely Google Maps knows what stops the semi express train will make.  I was wrong.  We overshot our stop.  We flew through all those train stations.

Again, we got off at the first stop on this “semi express” train and regrouped.

What we learned from this is to avoid any train that says “express” whether fully or semi express, if you are staying in the metro area.  If the train says “local” it will stop at every stop and you will eventually get where you need to go.

We arrived at the park about an hour and a half after we expected to.  It was an adventure and we learned something.

Things Other Than Cherry Blossoms

It is so nice to simply wander the streets here.  The sidewalks are wide and plentiful and not something we are used to after Vietnam and Cambodia.

We did the Go Karts yesterday which was so much fun!  I would do it again tomorrow if Blaise would.

Go Karting in the streets of Osaka

Tomorrow we are taking the bullet train to Hiroshima.  It is supposed to be very moving.  Hiroshima, not the bullet train.

I would like to take a day trip to Kyoto.  There is supposed to be a cool bamboo forest there.

We tried to go to a baseball game.  How much fun would that have been?!  There are two professional teams here in Osaka.  Sadly, all home games for both teams were sold out.

We met a semi-retired man at a coffee shop last week and he suggested a few places to visit so we will probably do a couple of those.

Next Steps

We leave on April 24 for Seoul, South Korea, where we hope to visit the DMZ and the Kukkiwon (the Tae Kwon Do international headquarters).

May 8th we fly to Tokyo and get on the Azamara Pursuit and head for Whittier, Alaska.

We have finally decided what to do once we get to Alaska and decided to stay on the Pursuit for the Alaska cruise that ends in Vancouver on June 1.   It is bought and paid for.

After that, we will head to North Dakota to visit some friends and then head back to Texas.

We have sold our house in Southlake and should close on it before we get home so we really don’t know where we will go once we get back to Texas.  We are looking to see what we can rent in Oklahoma so we can try to finish our house up there this summer or at least make substantial strides in that direction.

I can’t believe we are on the tail-end of this trip!