[glg20]

Hello from Osaka everyone!

I arrived in Japan last Thursday and ham having a blast up until now.

I spent 1 day in Tokyo, went to Ginza and the imperial palace area. Ginza was very cool yet I only looked at stuff in the shops since the prices were crazy, 5th ave prices.

The day after that I took the bullet train to Hiroshima and spent half a day at the atomic bomb peace memrial park and museum, a powerful experience.

The next morning I took the ferry to Miyajima Isalnd and spent the night in a hotel on the island. It was an amazing experience that I'll never forget!

Yesterday, I stopped at Himeji on the way to Osaka. The Himeji castle grounds were very nice with all the cherry blossom trees. Lots of Hanami parties. With regards to going into the castle itself I think that it's not really necessary. I was there on a Monday and there still was a huge crowd.

I'm currently at J Hoppers hostel in Osaka. The location is good in my opinion, 1 train stop from Osaka station. Lots of restauarants nearby. Every place that I've eaten in Japan so far was very good, even the sushi packs I bought at the grocery stores.

Today, I went to the Umeda sky building with some fantastic views of Osaka. The Osaka Aquarium was amazing! I stopped at Den Den town which is a geeks dream, especially the Super Toy Land stores :-)

Tomorrow I'm off to Universal Studios and Dotombori districts in the evening.

Using the train system so far in japan is very easy. It takes a very short time to get used to it. I managed very well to get by with some very basic japanese which includes greeting/thank you/excuse me words.

I'm loving every minute here!