The Even Greater Tokyo Region

I think, first, this picture needs a little bit of explaining... It's one of my more prized Engrish items, which I got after a trip to Osaka during Golden Week. I think it is supposed to say "taste". If New York is the "big apple", then Osaka would be the "big teste". Literally, Osaka means, "the big slope", and figuratively, any road or train track to Osaka feels downhill. It is such a nice change from Toyama. Like, when I was meeting my host sister at Osaka station. Even with cellphones, it took 30 minutes to find each other. I love the possibility of getting lost, and that is hard to do back in Tonami.

Of course, I was treated to the hospitality of my brother, always convenient. Also, we took a road trip to his old host family in Okayama. Literally, this means "hilly mountains", whereas Toyama means "bountiful mountains". I was pleased to see that this was even more countryside than back home. My brother lived there for a year. so, I met his host parents who were wonderfully nice, and had an unbelievable 200 year old house. It has a stone wall around it, with an inner garden. It looks like a castle. The sliding doorways are a convenient 170cm meaning I could never live in such a house. For me, living there for a week would be like going for 12 rounds with Mike Tyson.

Next door, we visited the Temple. The temple folk also plied us with food and drink. This is true countryside. Back at the host families house, two separate neighbours came by to drop off surplus vegetables. It is such a cute lifestyle. You know, I complain a lot about living in countryside Toyama, but perhaps maybe, it isn't countryside enough.

My brother and his host father, overlooking the hilly mountain countryside.

Of the other adventures, the most noteworthy was going to Osaka port with my host sisters and their friend. It was on the last day of Golden Week, Children's Day. It wasn't perhaps the best day to go to a museum, a ferris wheel and an aquarium. The museum was of the surrealist painter, Dali. He's relatively popular in Japan, and holy crap. There were queues of people infront of every single painting, drawing and photo. It isn't such a problem for me, with the height advantage, but I cant imagine what everyone else was going through. Museums are tiring enough, let alone Dali, who was deliberately mysterious artist.

The Ferris wheel took over 30 minute's wait. This gave me time to ponder the sentence on the ticket: "The Tempozan World's Largest Giant Wheel". (in England, they are usually called "big wheels", although I feel that sounds like a monster truck wheel). Some quick research revealed that at 112.5metres, it is a full 50 metres from being the largest. But it was a brilliant clear day. Lunch also required a 25 minute satnd-in-line.

And if you thought that was bad... the Aquarium was busy to the point of being not fun anymore.

Despite all this, it was a brilliant day. It capped off a really good holiday, which I really needed. I came home to Tonami that night, and for the first time after coming back to Tonami after a holiday, I wasn't down about it. It might have been the warm weather. It might have been the relaxed atmosphere. It might have been the beer. I don't know. It was great having the Teste of Osaka, but it was good to be home.

As the proverb proverbialises:

(Japanese) People travel travel the world (but mostly other parts of Japan) during Golden Week, but come home to find their gold rush.