Central Park Team Tokyo

Police Report "Funness"

so on monday i went to get my police report for my spanish visa...since the probability of my having all the stuff i needed was 1 to 1,276, needless to say i didn't. so tuesday i went back with all the things i needed. here the story picks up:

the best part was when i got there the guard didn't speak any english (or so he pretended!) and it took about 20 minutes to get into the police station, where as the first time, with my supervisor, who is fluent in japanese, it took 23 seconds. by the time i got in, the police report people were on lunch break, so i had to come back in an hour. so i went to get some vittles myself. only it was 3 blocks just to the nearest convenience store! then another block to some reasonably priced restaurants (aka yoshinoya, which you may not know, and mcdonalds, which...). i mean what are these poor government officials doing for food?! (and to clarify, the main police station of tokyo, is in the middle of the government district. diet building, department of the interior (not design), etc.) so once i ate (and they got my order wrong, which almost NEVER happens in tokyo) i went back and was let right in and it took all of 10 minutes to finger print me and fill out the application. so a little bit of stress there. but on a good note it was beautiful outside and i wore sandals (although there was a stiff wind, probably coming from oz).

now if i can just get into the building next time to pick it up. oh and fingers crossed they don't turn up any dirt on me...

Osaka

Ok I know you are all hungry for some video, and while I did consider doing some video at one point on my trip to Osaka, I decided it was too loud there, and forgot to do any more. So I'll give you a picture run down.

Well I decided I shouldn't very well leave Japan without visiting Osaka. So I found out there is a train pass you can use 5 times (any 5 days within the college break here, but you don't have to use them in order, so that was great) and it's only $115. So that is pretty cheap. So I boarded the train at 8am Sunday morning for a 7ish hour train ride to Nagoya. I would stay with 2 of our missionaries, Hank and Linda, there. Here is Hank and I eating some Ramen (which is not just noodles, it's a whole production):

The next day we went to an amusement park trickily called Spaland:

Then the next day on to Osaka. Here I stayed with some more of our missionaries, the Seelens. They took me to their favorite Okonomiyaki place. Kind of like a pancake looking thing, but much better and not breakfasty:

We hit up some recycle shops, or second hand stores, or whatever. My favorite store chain in Japan is bookoff. So of course we had to go there:



What is a trip to Osaka without going to the Castle. It has moats and kindergartners!















By the way I went with some of my Mom's former students and they got me to try on some armor:



Here is the castle:



After wearing some armor and becoming a certified professional takoyaki (fried octopus ball) maker, I was passed off to another of my Mom's students and we went to the golden temple:




So I had fun, and I really like Osaka. The people there didn't seemed to be scared of me! But in Nagoya they would get away from me =(.