Tokyo ===> Osaka

Oooookay,

It's been one week since ya looked at me.... wait, that's the begining of a song by Barenaked Ladies, but let's be honest, you weren't looking at my blog every week....

So my song should start out with.... It's been one month since ya looked at me......yada yada yada..

Well, my last post was on Dec. 1st and truthfully, a LOT has happened since then.

Frankly, I just do not have the time to write about it all.

I WAS going to write about when I climbed Mt. Takao with my friends from the university.

Also, you SHOULD be hearing about how AWESOME the Xmas party was. (Actually, I mean how awesome the PARTIES* were*)

BUT, I have decided to SKIP over all of that.

Why?

Well, the fact is right now, (In my time zone it is December 29 @ 11:40PM) I am in Osaka.

On Monday (the 26th of December) I thought to myself, "I am sooooo bored." Most people, when they say that to themselves, do NOTHING. I am not "most people." The next morning, I woke up and said "Screw this, I'm going to Osaka!"

So, I hopped on to a Shinkansen (High Speed Bullet train), and traveled 530 kilometers West to Osaka. (For the American readers, I have decided to no longer translate kilometers into miles... DO IT YOURSELF bwahahah.)

On the train I was really cocky, I thought to myself, "Hell yeah, I'm to Osaka." In my head, I visualized bumping chests and pounding the rock with my best friends.

When I arrived it was a different story.

Japan was completely foreign again. I may have gotten "used to" Tokyo but I did not get "used to" Japan.

Tokyo, as massive as it is, is pretty organized. The train system and street layouts, are meticulously drawn out like a map. Osaka might be similar, the difference is that I have only been here for 3 days. It took me 3 months to feel comfortable about my location in Tokyo, so it's not like 3 days would make me an expert of Osaka.

For those of you that do not know anything about Osaka, it's pretty much the center of the second largest metropolitan area in Japan. (I like the comparison of New York = Tokyo to Los Angeles = Osaka.)

Enough with the lecture........... Everyone reading this wants to read something EXCITING, and see some pictures, sheeeeesh what am I doing?

Alright, let's start this over mmmmkay.

I could bore you with the facts of economics, population, and land size, but I won't.

What I will tell you is that the food here is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO good.

"Takoyaki" "Okonomiyaki" Yummmmmmmmmm ==> GOOGLE them.

On top of that, the people here are so friendly. Over that last three days, I have had several, completely random people come up to me and spark up conversations. Now, I was used to that in America, but I had not experienced that yet in Japan.

I have to say, it was very relieving. After a few of these random conversations, I thought, "Damn, people all across the world are the same, they just speak different languages."

Okay well, I still have a lot to say about Osaka, but I am getting ready to go to a club to party.

So, the story ends here. (For now at least)

Bye bye.

P.S. Oh yeah, for you picture lovers..... this is a picture of the headquarters of a television station in Osaka. When I saw this building I couldn't believe my eyes. It looked like it was made out of PLAY-DOH.

Keywords: Japanese===>Have===>Crazy===>Game Shows===>HAAAAAAAA

Study Time Skyline

I have been very busy the last two weeks with midterms, and club activities, but I figured I better throw in a few lines for y'all to read.

Despite being on the other side of the globe, lately I have felt like I am experiencing normal life with just a slight twist. I had a Thanksgiving dinner. ( In Japan? No way!?!). Earlier today, during lunch, I was in a little ramen shop, and I heard the song, "Santa Baby" playing on the radio. I couldn't help but smile as I looked at my phone and realized it was December 1st.

Also, it might have taken a little bit longer than in Wisconsin, but the leaves have turned red and orange. The leaves turning red and orange, are just a normal part of Autumn, right? Well here people make an event out of it. "Let's go see the 紅葉！” is what they say...

What? Can't read Japanese?

haha just playin'... 紅葉　（kouyou)　is a noun that literally describes the colors of Autumn. Anyway, next weekend I am climbing Mount Takao, to see this very phenomena.

Yes, I said phenomena. It is something that is cherished here every year. That is the feeling I get. Just yesterday, I saw two girls walking by a tree that had colored leaves and one of them shouted, "きれい！" （which means beautiful), and then the other girl whipped out her phone to take a picture. I like how the people here take joys in some of the small things I usually consider normal.

After I visit Mount Takao, I will post a couple pictures and talk more about it.

As you can see none of this so far has related to the title of the blog post. Now I will explain.

I have started to get into a solid routine of studying. I still have a long way to go when it comes to my language skills here, so I hope I can keep up the current trend.

The place I can usually get the most work done is at the library on campus. I go up to the 8th floor and crank out as much Kanji as I can. (Kanji are these things===> 月火水木金)

Albeit, sometimes I find it hard to study on the 8th floor because when I look out the window to my left I see this....



...and boy do I love Skylines....