This weekend was full of stuff. First off on Friday I finally found where the Orion constellation is in the sky. He is slightly tilted and brighter. I can see many more stars here. You can clearly see his hilt, bow, head, and more. The night sky is glorious when there is no moon.
First off I left for Osaka late on Saturday. I have to drive 35 minutes into the local city, Gobo and the park my car and walk 30 minutes to the station. From there I bought a $35 ticket, one way, to Tennoji Osaka. This ride took about an hour. I hopped on the subway and headed for Cosomo square.
What is at Cosmo square? Something follows me everywhere, the Art of Star Wars exhibit. I think this was my 3rd or 4th time seeing the exhibit. Some of the items I have seen at least 5 or 6 times from all the Star Wars shows I have gone too. This was a great exhibit though. Arriving late I only had a little over an hour. No photos allowed, but I managed to take a quick pic of the inside of Anakin's Airspeeder, because it was the only thing I could get away taking a picture of. It was great to see all of the Star Wars stuff again. I love the huge Star Destroyer model. I think that they are having a halloween costume party on the 31st. I should go.
After words I caught the cloudy sunset on the Osaka bay and then headed to Nanba, electronic city, and tons of shopping. I didn't buy anything, just looked at the coolness big Japanese city.
I never figure out my way home before I head out of the Train station. Last time was great. I got the quick train and was home. This time all the schedules changed and I didn't know where the fucking super train was so I got stuck riding the local train that stopped at every stop from Osaka to Gobo, which is like 50 stops. So two hours and some change later I made it back to Gobo. However the local train was half the price as the super train.
Both times I came back on the train there has been some lady trying to help me. The first time, there was announcement the at Yuasa you can transfer to a train to Gobo. But the next stop after Yuasa, on the train I was already on, was Gobo. So this lady, trying to be helpful, told me to get off at this stop as we were stopping at Yuasa. Mind you I have been riding next tor for about an hour now without even looking at each other. She must have sen my ticket that said Gobo on it. She told e to get off and helped me with my bag at to the door. I was thinking that this wasn't right, but I wasn't going to contridct a native who knew better than I. The next thing I know I was standing on the Yuasa platform staring at the sign that said 'Yuasa.' There was no transfers or anything on the way to Osaka from Gobo on the same train line, so way would there be on the way back? Before I finished my though I felt a tuggin on my arm. I turned and it was the same lady, and now she was pulling back into the train and saying 'sumimasen and gomenasai.' She pulled me all the way back to my seat. I was like 'OK.' Sure enough the next stop was Gobo.
This time on the way back I was in the station. The area where I bought my Super train ticket last time was closed. This train stops like 5 times. I didn't know what to do. I go take a local train and stop like 50 times and hope that I get home. So I went to the machine to see what it would say. I pressed the 'English' button and it started blaring some English woman's voice with a british accent. I hesitated for a second and some lady next to me was trying to ask me in Japanese if I needed help. I kind of just started grunting or something and said Gobo. She knew Gobo. I had seen on the schedule that a local train was leaving in 5 minutes. I found the price on the train chart, 1680 yen. I put in the money and got the ticket. The lady was gone. I was like ok. Everyone was walking through turnstyles with a sign above it that said 'white backed tickets.' I looked at my ticket and it had a black back. I looked now and I saw the lady on the other side montioning me to come through. Sure enough the 'black backed ticket' worked. She grabbed my and we started running. Down the stairs and into a packed train. PACKED. I could barely fit in said. Ok safe, whew, right? No. After listening to the announcements on the train I found out that train was going to split in about 5 stops and the first 3 cars(1-3) were going to Kansai International airport. The rear 3 were going to Wakayama City, which is where I needed to go. I looked aorund and saw a signt hat said '6.' So I thought that I was in the last car, but there was a car behind us. Confused I kept listening, then the train made a stop and then I saw the same lady standing on the platform motioning to come out of the train. She showed me a littl drawing she made. Six cars. The first 3 going to Kansai and the last 3 going to Wakayama. There was an X in the first car. She pushed me into the second car and told me make my way back. It took two more stops but I made it to the '4th' car. Then home.
On Sunday I drove to Rinku Town for some shopping. I wanted to shoes to leave at my elementry school. I heard there was a mall and a Diesel store. I did not expect to see an outdoor mall that looked excatly like somehting I would see in Iowa or something. It reminded me of Gurnee Mills because most of the stores were outlet stores. The mall had a total America design to it and many of the signs were in English. I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone. I saw a few white people there too.
