Osaka-Pissing People Off, Lost Tickets and Broken Sandals

Yesterday, As usual, I got up and went to the common area of the hostel. Normally, there are three types of people in the common area as this particular time. (1) Folks like myself who get up early (2) Folks who stayed up all night partying, and they want you know that you know they stayed up all night (3) and girls talking to their boyfriend at home. This was the case of #3. Some girl was talking to her boyfriend, who I guess was a non-native English speaker, and he was couldn't say the word vague, I guess. He was saying the word veeg. I couldn't help laughing under my breath. The girl clearly didn't appreciate that-as I saw her later on and she ignored me when I said hello.

Breakfast was at 9:00 am, and I left the hostel after that not sure of what to do. I wanted to go to Himeji Castle out of town but I wanted to wait until Monday. The only thing was it was supposed to rain on Monday, and I didn't want to go in the rain. Therefore, I decided to go to the station and take the one hour train ride to Himeji. Himeji was built in 1580, and is supposedly Japan's most magnificent castle. Many other castles in Japan we're reproductions. This was the original.

Upon taking the train to the town, the castle was immediately visible on hill in the distance, and was magnificent indeed. I walked along the main street past many shops and a small flee market to a moat, and then to the castle. I walked through the first building,which was the west keep, and was the residence of the Princess. It was a long hallway, and was quite magnificent. There we're all sorts of displays around. After that, I walked up a hill to the main castle, and walked up the 4 stories to the top floor. I learned the castle had all sorts of defense mechanisms, such as small window ports made for throwing stones, and ceilings that we're high to let the smoke from gun-fire dissipate

After a few hours, while walking out of the castle, I tried putting my sandal back on (visitors to the castle had to take their shoes off), and the strap broke. This pissed me off. Although the sandals we're only about $3.00 in China, they we're the most comfortable ones I ever owned. So I walked around with a broken sandal.

After the castle, I went to the nearby gardens adjoining the castle. There we're 9 gardens, some with bamboo, pine trees and waterfalls. They we're pretty. When I bought a ticket to the castle, I paid approximately $10.40 for a ticket to the gardens as well, but I lost that ticket. So I had to pay $3.00 more for the gardens. I can't say it was really worth it-the gardens we're ok but pretty much what I have seen in Japan all along. It was probably worth the $10.40 combo ticket but not the additional $3.00.

Afterwards, I hobbled along with my broken sandal, found a dollar store in town that sold flip-flops and bought a new pair, and took the train back to Osaka. It was dinner time, and I found a conveyor-belt sushi place-which was delicious. I walked back to the hostel-I thought it would be a long walk but was only 20 minutes. It was only 8:30-so I walked a few miles to the district with all the lights, and took the subway back to the hostel around 10:00.