Friday 17th September

Arrived in Osaka at half 5. Had a bit of an issue at customs as I hadn't written down the address of the hotel I was staying at and I couldn't remember to write it on the customs form! It was on a label on my luggage but of couse I hadnt collected my luggage yet. The woman directing me in the queue wouldnt let me pass through customs without filling it in and when I tried to explain my situation to her it became clear she didnt speak english. Bugger. After about 20mins of me panicking I improvised and wrote down any details that sounded right. Phew! On to the next part where I had the contents of my suitcase examined which is probably just as well as it turns out I had a shampoo disaster and everything in my suitcase was covered. Which I wouldnt have cared less about except I was made to put my skates in my suitcase now wasnt I? ARGH!! Not the best start! My tour guide Crystal was waiting for me at the other end and we went to a cafe for a drink and I cleaned up the disaster as best I could. Luckily my skate stuff survived. After operation damage limitation we waited for Mitch O'Connell to arrive and then caught the bus into town where we hopped in a taxi straight to Azu Garden hotel.

Everyone else on the Osaka tour had already arrived, Mitch and I were the last ones. Everyone was staying in the same hotel - in the lobby I was re-united with Dennis and Josh who I met in March this year on the Tokyo tour. I was so excited it was freakin awesome to see them again! After quickly ditching luggage we all met outside to go for something to eat together. The view from the bridge just outside the hotel is particularly pretty.

Nippombashi

Quick introductions were made to the other peeps on the tour Bruce and Adam from USA and Karin and Aureole from Australia. We set off for the restaurant down a busy street. The lights, the noise, the music, the busy busy atmosphere, the scrillions of bikes and people, people everywhere it all reminded me so much of Tokyo. It felt awesome. I kinda felt like I was home.

Heading to the restaurant

Once there we had to take our shoes off (as is the custom in most places in Japan) and put them in lockers. I was starving and shattered as I hadnt had any sleep since the Wednesday night (I cant sleep on planes!) but I managed to keep my eyes open long enough to get some edamame and chicken skewers snaffled.

From the left: Mitch, Karin, Aureole, Crystal, me

Dinner was great! The guys were getting fired into the sake so I decided to be a good pirate and get an early night to re-charge my batteries! And before you accuse of me of being lame Dennis and Josh had the same idea I wasn't the only one! We stopped on the way back to the hotel to take this hilarious pic and it was like I'd never been away.

                                                          Josh doing what he does best

The last time the three of us were together we spent the whole time running around Tokyo making fart jokes, stupid noises, getting our pictures taken with anything funny and generally being total idiots. I had a wonderful feeling this trip was going to be the same if not better.