lunatic bumblebee

The first thing we did the second day was going to the bank. We really hoped that they could help us to solve our “without-money-problem”. After one hour of checking cards and calling various financial institutions they told us, that there’s no cooperation between Japanese banks and .comdirect, so that you can’t withdraw money from their ATMs — although it was a Visa card and there’s the Visa logo printed all over the ATMs.

Still without money we went to the Toyonaka campus of Osaka University with a friend of my cousin. I liked the yellow ginko trees and leafs and the autumn scenery ressembles Europe a lot. After that we went to another campus of the Osaka University — Suita — where my cousin was. Actually, we wanted to lern something about Japanese students, but then we ended up in meeting the big Vietnamese community at Osaka University ^^..
Although they made fun of us, it was very nice to meet them and now I know that my cousin isn’t lonely in far Japan with so many friends.

After lunch we said good bye to all the Vietnamese students and went to visit some sights of Osaka. On our way to the train station we walked along a beautiful autumn alley. Everybody (including us) took pictures from the red glowing trees — even the business man with his mobile camera stopped every five metres to take a picture ><.. I think it’s best to visit Japan either in spring (when the cherry blossoms bloom) or in autumn (when the leafs change their colour). At the train station we met another friend of my cousin and with us five people (we both, Trung, Hang and Hung) we headed for the Castle of Osaka. My cousin planned to watch the sunset from the Floating garden observatory on top of the Umeda Sky Building (7th tallest building in Osaka), but when we arrived there it was already dark xD
But instead, we could see Osaka at night and inside the building we could enjoy some funny games. Before we went down, everybody got a star, where he or she could write down his or her wish and then throw it into the Wish Star Pocket ^^..

At the foot of the building we found a German “Weihnachtsmarkt” with original German “Schlager” and specialities. But we quickly discovered that it was a total ripoff — even more than in Germany: EUR 5 for a mini bag of “Schmalzgebäck” and even EUR 11 for 100g “gebrannte Mandeln”?!!
And then I met that kind of Germans I don’t like: unfriendly and prejudiced. One of the first things the “Schmalzgebäck-woman” said to Moritz was: “Die Japaner sind oberflächlich.” (“Japanese people are shallow.”) I mean, how many Japanese persons does she know to come to such a conclusion?

For dinner I wanted to try okonomiyaki (Osaka’s speciality). People say it’s the Japanese pizza, but I think it’s more like a pancake, much thicker and you can add all ingredients you want. We had some with octopus, prawn and beef. Normally, okonomiyaki is fried directly at your table — however the people there seem to not trust our skills so that they fried it for us, so that we could eat it instantly. On the way to the restaurant we found a citybank and we were finally able to withdraw money. Thank god citybank didn’t go bankrupt ;)

The only thing bad at that day was that I forgot to take pictures of the okonomiyaki. :( Maybe, there’ll be another chance for me. See you next time.

PS: The photos are available at: http://picasaweb.google.com/anhthudinhthi/

Anh Thu