THE MORNING BEFORE PILL AND ONE NIGHT IN THE SLUMS OF OSAKA
November 28th 2008 02:49
I had not seen Jude in a month or so. No one had seen or heard from Jude in a month or so. He vanished along with something that none of use really understood. So it was a bit strange to see him the morning before we left to Japan. He knocked on my door and I opened it and I saw him standing there, unshaven, hair not caring, a slight smile on his face. He told me, Take care, man, and I nodded, and he gave me a hug and I asked him something and he left. I watched him walk away, and the morning was not shifting, a car drove past, I needed to say something but nothing came and I closed my door and decided to deal with it some other time in some other day in some other month.
Trevor and I headed to Coolangatta airport to catch a morning train. There was a pub in front and it was eight in the morning and people were getting drunk outside. I looked at Trevor and he looked at me. We were 4 hours early…
We arrived at Osaka after an 8 hour flight with hazy hangovers. After waiting for Trevor to get out of the toilet for about an hour we headed straight for our hostel. The first thing you’ll notice when landing in a whole new country is the people and the number of them. Then you’ll notice the weather. Then you’ll realise the smells, the clothing, the taxis and the buildings and this tremendous, sudden confirmation will slit you in such a way that even you wouldn’t be able to immediately comprehend.
We caught a train, got off and realised we had no idea where we were. The buildings were gigantic and the lights were bright and multi-coloured and people stared at us and we stared back, confused. We walked along further, heads aching, and found set if squatter homes. A homeless guy surrounded by plastic bags, old clothes and porn stood up and urinated in his underwear while staring at us. We stared back for a while then kept moving.
After about 2 hours of wondering around the area and clumsily asking questions we found exactly the hostel we wanted: cheap with a shared bathroom and faulty locks. We threw our luggage in our room and headed straight for a train. We were aiming to head to the Doutonbori district, Osaka’s famous nightlife district with its giant crab and running man, but once again got lost and found ourselves in an enclosed set of criss-crossing roads. There was one road lit up by several lanterns. That’s pretty, Trevor told me, I want to take a photo. We walked through and realised it wasn’t the pretty he was thinking about. There were houses with display windows. In each display window was a pimp standing on one side and a prostitute sitting in the middle. Each prostitute wore a different themed costume: a nurse, a high school student, an anime character. It was entertaining to look at for a while until we realised we didn’t know how to leave. Let’s get the hell into that bar over there, I told Trevor, and we went in and a drunk guy with a moustache and a beard and a blue vest-thing and a white bandana treated us to some hot sake and we drank and he made us sing Beatles songs like Let it Be and Hey Jude and we said, Hey why the hell not, and he loved it and we loved it and the woman bartender loved it and clapped and we all had a good time, and for a good two hours we had forgotten we were completely lost in a suspiciously quiet red light district. By the time we had come to our senses we drunkenly stepped out of the karaoke bar after the guy in the blue had a photo with us and we wondered around and found ourselves hailing a taxi and we finally arrived at Doutonbori at 2 in the morning and everything was closed, there were people but everything was closed, and there we were, standing in the midst of gigantic, endless buildings and a feeling of good I Don’t Knows, we were in an entirely different world, in an entirely different universe, and for our first night of our free-touring week, we were in Osaka, Japan.
Doutombori
Next up:
A bit more of Osaka, and then Tokyo.
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Comment by Lilla
Enviro Warrior
An Extra Ordinary Life
Dream Herald
Esoteric Bookshop
hahaha Glad you made it okay, sounds interesting?
... the disorientation sounds familiar .. *lol*(*&^?
Hint : Maps are generally useless.
Look forward to more travel tales.
Lilla ...
Comment by Ash
Australian Traveller
Flashes of memories
Sounds like you had an interesting first night in Japan! Keep an eye out for the vending machines - they are a hoot! We had everything ranging from beer to toys on almost every floor of our hotel
Look forward to hearing more of your travels
Ash
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
Make sure you find the toliet place with the huge female heads with gaping open mouths that you piss into when they slide up to your groin from the wall recess...I saw it on Kenny's World,,,very bizarrrio..
have fun Deanish
fog
Comment by Always Eighteen
Always Eighteen: Japan Edition
Glad to hear from a fellow down underer. Hahah thanks for the hint. I bet you've had your fare share of confusion in your travels; I am but a novice.
Ash,
I've been loving the vending machines. But they stopped selling the dirty women's undies 3 years ago, however. Now they sell booze, vitamins, drinks, ice creams, etc.
Mountain Fog,
Mannnn I want to find it! Any idea where it is? There's a lot of intense, intense stuff over here though
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
well, as I said, it was on that TV show Kenny's World, maybe there is a reference to it on th enet, I'll check, but, most likely it was in the Ginza area, as Kenny was allowed in.
I'll try and check it out and let you know!
Kon-ichi-WAH! and Sayonnara!!
fog
Comment by Mountain Fog
Infognito
I have not been able to find reference to the 'heads' you piss into the mouths of, but, they looked like huge female geisha heads, there were several in a row, and the head, four or five feet in height, extends from the wall where it at first looks just like a wall ornament.
Anyhoo, try asking someone in the Ginza area, seems like the place it would be.
Below is a link to Kenny's World site.
cheers and have fun!
fog
Kenny's World site link
Here are some other bizarre places;
Kenny places list