As you know, my travel plans were somewhat altered when my ferry from Busan to Fukuoka got cancelled the other day. Instead, yesterday I flew from Busan directly to Osaka.
From first minutes it felt great to be in Japan again!! Boy, how I missed this country!
My trip from the airport was long and tiring. In the subway I went in the wrong direction twice – which probably shows how dead my brain was at that time. Luckily, I realised my mistake quickly enough in both cases. Still, it took me two hours to reach my AirBnB hotel in central Osaka.
The friendly hotel manager could see it all written on my face, because the first thing he did was to offer me an ice-cream. God bless his heart!!
Me chewing happily on a green-tea ice-cream after a long and exhausting journey
My current accommodation is pretty cool: I can see the historical Osaka Castle from my window! It's just across the river from our hotel:
The Castle in daylight…
…and at night.
I like my little apartment: it has a private bathroom and all other necessities and appliances that I need. The manager and other guests are all very friendly. Tonight we are having a pizza party for one girl who's leaving tomorrow. And we're planning on going out together for dinner sometimes this week:
I was chatting with the manager and a group of guests from Taiwan and Hong Kong this afternoon, telling them about Steemit (once again, a bunch of my Steemit cards was handed out), which led to us talking about Bitcoin and other crypto. It generated interest and lots of questions, as these topics usually do. Who knows, maybe one of them is even reading this post right now. :)
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Here's what I've done so far on my first day in Osaka:
I woke up late (that's after 9 am local time), having enjoyed a long and restful sleep. I took stroll to the metro station and circled a few cafes and restaurants, until I settled on one that I knew from my previous stay in Japan. It serves excellent coffee, so rich in flavour, and a delicious sandwich with ham and sausage.
After that I went to a nearby mall and did some shopping for new clothes that I needed. I always have trouble buying pants in Sweden – I usually need to bring them to a tailor to shorten them for an extra fee. While the normal length of pants sold in Japan is just perfect for me!
Me trying a new Star Wars cap in front of mirror. In the end I settled on a blue one.
Afterwards I was going to walk in the Imperial park across the river and snap pictures of the castle. But as the sun began glaring in earnest and the air was rapidly heating up, I decided to take it easy and go exploring in the late afternoon, after the heat has somewhat receded.
So I went back to the hotel and enjoyed my modest lunch (I wasn't that hungry yet after the late breakfast):
That's when I met the other guests, talked about Steemit and crypto, got invited to the pizza party tonight, and did my laundry in a coin-operated laundromat tonight. Now I'm just chilling in my room, writing up this post and working on the finishing touches of the interview with 
