Japan

Times Lost: 5 respectively?
Items Lost: I gave away Mason’s 34371273 granola bars for sustenance for my friends. Does that count?
Near Death Experiences: Negatives- an eerie feeling of safeness.

Osaka

When we arrived in Japan we had a list of places to go, and that’s the extent of our planning. Everything that ensued is just as much of a surprise as it was to us. First up to bat: Osaka. Well known for its nightlife, flashy streets, jam packed with clubs, and other venues. We took the train to Shin-Osaka, where we got off and proceeded to look at a map. We’re looking and looking trying to figure out where we were when we look up and are drawn to a giant red ferris wheel. We decide that’s what we’ll go do. So we go into this mall and hop on a ferris wheel where we see a nearby bowling alley and decide that’s where we’ll go next. We make our way to the alley, but need to go find an ATM. Just a note: ATM’s in Japan are virtually impossible to find for foreigners. After looking are endlessly for one, we decided to take a time out and eat lunch at a cute little café in the train station. We decide our next plan of action will be Spa World, a 24 hour spa with pools, spas, and saunas. When we get the Spa World, we think the area is too eerie. The shops are empty, the streets too quiet, and it just didn’t feel right. I keep insisting we need to go to another part, and finally everyone agrees to try Numba, the more active part. We leave the station and by this time it’s night. We’re officially lost and getting frustrated. We start heading down the street and finally the streets become louder, more colorful, and your suddenly overwhelmed with hotels and other places to stay. We start to go down the side streets where thousands of clubs, bars, restaurants, and other random shops are when Alicen and Ashly want to look at this internet café. Turns out it’s open 24 hours and has different types of chairs and rooms so you can sleep the night. We decide we’ll just stay there. It was immaculate. A tiny little chandelier greeted you at the front, the chairs were leather, the computer brand new, the toilet seats were heated, a shower with curling iron and other various amenities, etc. All in a little comic stand slash internet café. So we leave our stuff there and go wander the streets. We end up at the Penguin Bar where we stay for a round of drinks. Then we decide we should probably go get dinner. Lauren and I get McDonalds, while the others raid 7-11. After we meet up we wander trying to look for another place to go to. Somehow we get suckered into going to a local bar, where a bunch of locals were dancing some extremely weird techno dance. We were just sitting there looking at them like what the hell. We didn’t stay long and decided to call it a night. We were all too drained from wandering around aimlessly and way too excited for the internet- not something we have at our disposal on the ship. So we spent our night randomly in cubicles, sitting in leather chairs, and dreaming sweet dreams about AIM and perezhilton.com.