The primary reason I haven't blogged since before December is because we have done nothing worth blogging about. We went to America for ten days, but this blog isn't called Ducks in America so... And after that, we did nothing in January and February. I mean, not literally nothing, but nothing worth taking pictures of or posting about. We hardly even hung out with friends until the last few weeks - January is super busy for everyone! The only thing I really took any pictures of was our karaoke date with some friends.
But anyway, last week we did have something worth blogging about: a visitor! Donnie is one of those rare people who is good friends with both parts of the couple (both Joe and me). Friends who are married/in a serious relationship, you know what I mean. Sometimes it's hard for someone to not feel like a third wheel or to be able to do things with each individual in a couple without feeling weird. Joe and Donnie have been friends for a longer time, but Donnie and I have been friends for 7 years. We hit it off instantly. I basically lived with Joe and Donnie when they were roomies my freshman year of college - I did everything but sleep and do homework there. Anyway, the point of all of us this, since we both had to work this week, it was nice that we could each take separate days off to spend time with Donnie so he wasn't left alone for half the week.
We both took off on Friday to meet him in Osaka after his plane got in. We put our bags in lockers and jumped right into exploring Osaka. Joe and I hadn't spent any real time in Osaka since we arrived in June, jetlagged and emotional, so we were excited to be able to really enjoy that awesome city.
We headed straight to Dontonbouri, which is a big shopping and food area. It's very popular with tourists, but has a lot of really legitimately awesome things. We had fun just looking shops and eating takoyaki and drinking our Sakura lattes.
After that, we headed back to our (awesome) AirBnb to drop off our stuff and refresh before the evening. Then we headed to Tennoji where shopped a little, ate some delicious ramen and played at an arcade. We were all pretty tired that day, so we turned in pretty early.
On Saturday, we headed out pretty early and went to the aquarium. Well, we tried to head out early. It took us two hours from the time we left to get breakfast and find the apparently super secretive combo aquarium and transportation tickets. After a wild goose chase with no one seeming to know what we were talking about, we ended up at the station master's office (lol), and he handed them to us immediately. It was a little bit of a frustrating morning, but pretty typical Brittany/Joe/Donnie shenanigans.
The aquarium is pretty famous in Japan, and with good reason! It was a really good aquarium - they even have two whale sharks. I'm pretty serious about animal rights, but they really do have a huge tank and I read about their process with the whale sharks and it seems pretty responsible.... Not like keeping a whale in captivity. But I digress. We really enjoyed the aquarium, and then we watched a crazy foreigner street performer and went up in the huge Ferris wheel. I wanted the car with the glass bottom but Donnie and Joe are both wimps about heights. I have to admit that even I got a little nervous at the top of this thing though... It is HUGE! After that, we found some random cats, then headed off to Den Den Town.
The whale shark with a giant ray
Aquarium from (halfway!!!) up the ferris wheel
It was a tad scary.
Since we ended up actually got started much later than planned, we reached Den Den Town once things were starting to close. We went in a couple shops where we didn't find much, then decided to just go to karaoke instead. We ended up spending three hours at karaoke. It was a blast! Donnie and I sang too many Disney songs and Joe and I butchered some Japanese songs together. We all had lost our voices after three hours.
On Sunday, we really did get started early and headed straight to Den Den Town. We spent the whole day there, nerding out over lots of anime goods. It was super fun and Donnie came out with quite the haul.
That evening, we headed back to Fukuyama.
On Monday, Joe and I both had work. Joe ended up getting to go home before noon because a student called in a bomb threat, which is scary but worked out well for Donnie and Joe! They spent a day chilling at home together and then we all went to yakiniku together for dinner.
Tuesday, Joe and Donnie went to Hiroshima. I don't know much about that day since I wasn't there, but I think they had fun. For dinner, we got massive amounts of gyoza for carryout and played a video game together while we ate.
On Thursday, Joe and I really did have to work. We went to ramen again for dinner. It was delicious as always.
On Friday, it was Donnie's last day. :( I always have mornings off on Fridays, so I took Donnie to buy his Shinkansen ticket. I was terrified because I knew I'd have to speak/understand only Japanese and I usually have Joe do this kind of thing. But I nailed it, guys! I was so proud of myself. Then Donnie and I went to Fukuyama castle to eat our lunch from the bakery, then went and bought Donnie a few last souvenirs.
We ended the trip with a dinner at conveyer belt sushi. A necessity for any trip to Japan!
We had such a great time with Donnie and we're sad he's gone. :( Can't wait to see you again in July, Donnie!
**Some of these pictures are Donnie's. :)
**Some of these pictures are Donnie's. :)
