The original reason for the trip to Osaka this time was to attend my friend Junko's going away party. It was the first night and it was great not only to see Junko again, but Miho had contacted an old friend of mine from Orlando, Wataru a.k.a. Sonic, and he made a special trip to Osaka for the party. It was also nice seeing my other Osaka friends Angus, Anderson, etc... Things got really sloppy by the end of the night starting with whiskey 'shots' that were really nearly full glasses and ending with some of Miho's jackass friends breaking beer bottles in the street, committing misdemeanor trespassing, and taunting police. They were boneheads but it was all worth it to spend the evening with Miho, Junko, Sonic and some of the others.
Himeji
Early the next morning Miho and I arose and started on our day trip to her hometown, Tatsuno, and Himeji in Hyogo. We were greeted by her mother at the perfectly rural train station (the ticket gate wasn't in operation and there was nobody to check my ticket) in Tatsuno. It was cool seeing Miho's home and being in the place where she grew up because I don't get that chance with many of my friends. After we had an afternoon snack her mother drove us back to Himeji to tour the Himeji Castle. The castle was beautiful and as an added bonus we saw some nutty dude walking a cat around on a leash.
Shikoku
The next day we got up early and departed for Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's four main islands, in a car we had rented the night before. Our first stop was Naruto in Tokushima on Shikoku's north eastern tip. It is famous for these amazing whirlpools created in the Naruto Strait. Our next stop was in Kazurobashi in southern Tokushima prefecture near the border with Kochi. It has this really old wooden bridge with gapping holes that one can easily fall through. We headed back to Osaka exhausted without having eaten Sanuki udon in Takamatsu which we had planned to do.
Wakayama
Once again we headed out early, but this time for the splendid beach town of Shirahama in Wakayama. Shirahama beach is unique in that all the sand was brought in from Australia. It was sweet being back in a beach community with the smell of the ocean all around; loads of memories from Florida, Sicily, Turkey, Brazil, etc. came running through my head. I even got to see a nice rack of tits provided by some topless drunk chick. After the beach we headed to Sandanbeki, an extremely tall set of cliffs jutting up from the rocky shore, which is most notably known as a desirable suicide location. It was cool but creepy. We headed back to Osaka tired, but still managed to get out to meet Junko one last time for dinner, drinks, and karaoke.
And the last day was spent piddling around Osaka for souvenirs and chilling with Miho. She is such a great hostess. It was a great vacation.
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