Yes, when you go to Osaka, you can't just say you're in Osaka. You gotta say you're in OSAKA!
Because, in OSAKA, things here are not like what they are in Tokyo. People here too. They’re a little crazy, a little mad sometimes (eg. saying byebye to Felicia in his underwear), and really a whole lot of fun.
I suspect that it’s probably because Universal Studios is located right in Osaka. To quote John Mayer’s song and sound a little off my chair, Universal Studio’s body is a wonderland. A total explosive, wacky funland loaded with over-enthusiastic park attendants who are frankly, kinda “Chucky-like”. They don’t spare any smiles, and instead of reading out instructions, they exclaim it out. Yup, it don’t get any better than this.
But of course, let’s not get carried away by such man-made fun. There are other things in Osaka that are quite fantabulous as well, such as the mega-huge mechanical crab in Dotonbori as well as lots of convenient shopping places near our hostel, such as America-mura.
Which brings us to the person who said byebye to Felicia in his underwear. That person is the owner of the hostel, which in fact is an apartment flat that he ingeniously converted into a “hostel”. We didn’t know that before we booked the hostel, but only found out when we entered and saw a nice, cosy apartment filled with beds, and of course, Masa, the Japanese guy with long, curly hair who was to be our host in that hostel. He wasn’t in his underwear then, and he was normal-looking. But he subsequently did do funny things (nothing about harming us though) that made us roar out in laughter when we shared about it. Maybe I should devote a short post on the hostel stay, just to have a bit of fun.
Oh, and also the time we went for our first (and only) church service in Japan. How memorable. After arriving at Osaka, we went straight to the pastor’s house with our backpacks. To our dismay (and some of us needed to pee), there was no one in the house. The pastor was a Japanese pastor, but his church was linked to Colleen’s. However, he didn’t pick up his phone, and his neighbours didn’t know where he went to. After about half an hour, Colleen sms-ed her Singaporean pastor (who was supposed to be in Japan too), and we walked back to the nearest subway station. In a twist of events, the pastor called Colleen. He was back at his place. So we all walked to his house, met up with him, and then he led us to his small church (a small building with 2 storeys, and the “chapel” was as big as 2 HDB living rooms). So, we walked up and down, up and down with our heavy bags that morning. We also learned about the Japanese perspective on Christianity, which is pretty bleak, due to the long traditional Buddhist and Zen culture in Japan, but let's not give up. Let's keep Japan in prayer alright!
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