Is it a Life Experience?: July 2018

Sunday, 22 July 2018

Kyoto

Hi from the Kyoto tower...

Loved this temple but looking forward to visiting a small local temple with Atsuko in Tokyo

Of course the main event in Osaka was the earthquake! Caleb and Hiromi had just left to go shopping. We had just washed our coffee cups when one crashed into the sink. I leapt under the table. Roger looked at me aghast! The floor rippled under me. I crouched thinking "My God this is an earthquake and its big." The building then started to sway from side to side. I now know this is a really good thing. Eventually the swaying slowed to a halt. We both felt a bit nauseous. How lucky that we were in the new part of town where all buildings are "Earthquake Proof".... others were not so lucky.

Caleb and Hiromi had gone into the city to shop. It was chaos there as everyone ran in different directions...We were glad to see them home!

We had planned to travel to Hiroshima that day, but I had to finalise some changes to my manuscript and so we decided to go the next day. Good decision as we would have been stuck on a train for hours as the train lines were buckled! Bad decision as during the earthquake my files corrupted and I had to start editing all over again.... hours of work lost! Ah well, we were all safe.

We did have some fun in Osaka though. While Caleb and Hiromi discovered an excellent place to eat we decided to check out what was behind these red curtains..... Holy Moses, another bad decision (it was actually fun!) Every single person in the place was totally drunk and smoking... including the chef! We ordered something to the great hilarity of everyone. I pointed to the chicken that the people on the next table were eating and to some sort of rice.

Our meal arrived. The chicken looked (and tasted) great. The raw meat mmmm?! Hotto I said. This caused more laughter. By now everyone in the restaurant was looking to see what stupid thing we would do next. The hotto meat came back steaming. I still don't know what it was but I do know I wouldn't recommend it to anyone!

We finally escaped to return home to hear what a fantastic meal Caleb and Hiromi had eaten. Ah well at least we had a travel experience and we will be much more wary of peering through red curtained doors!

Osaka was a complete contrast to the mountains...warm, lots of people, art works, spruikers and tourists.