Final Osaka Time

woke up in fukuoka around 8am and had myself a small breakfast of toast and eggs, and then went to the train station to pick up my bags. i had thought about walking around town, but my energy was sapped and all i wanted was to not have to travel - so, i called up cindy (who had already headed back to beppu) and got my train back to osaka. on the way i alternated between sleeping and reading Shogun.

this time in osaka, i had a hostel reserved, and a few train stops from JR Osaka, i walked into J-Hoppers. a nice,. quaint hostel. nicer than some ive stayed in while traveling europe, but nowhere near as nice as K7S Kyoto (probably the best hostel ive ever stayed in. that, or the hostel joel and i stayed in while in lima). i did some laundry, checked some email and took care of some showering. once again, i found myself lacking any motivation to sightsee or do anything. i thought about going to a museum or to Osaka Castle, but i just couldn't gather the energy. so, instead, i took a little nap and then headed over to the gay area, where i took a few hours at a video game arcade, playing who knows what, but having a blast watching others play. the video games in japan are miles ahead of the states - there is some fantasy type action game where the play is controlled by playing cards placed, and moved about, on a large lcd screen. it's intense, man. for dinner, i went to a conveyor belt sushi shop - 25 people seated around the sushi chefs, and dividing the two is a conveyor belt circling the bar stuffed with plates of sushi, sashimi and nigri. each plate ran 130 yen - i had 11. quite good - beats the heck out of the conveyor belt shop in midtown. this fish was fresh. i watched it being cut and rolled before my eyes. fun experience.

following dinner, i went back to physique. did i find my favorite local osakan gay bar? hideki was there, and i also met another bartender (off duty) named taka (he is 38 but looks 25, and did university in wisconsin). that makes three bartenders i know at physique - hideki, taka and brendan (the guy from the other night mans the bar on saturday night). i also spent time chatting with a way cute guy named Kai (?) who works for a cable company and doesn't much like his job. he lamented how much he'd like to visit the states, but doesn't have the money. him, hidek, taka and i talked movies, pop culture, the japanese language and boys. we talked about the value of individual versus collective identity (values of american versus japanese culture). i wondered if the collective nature of japanese culture is beginning to change with today's youth generation. i would think it's hard to predict until they actually get older, but there seems to be more youth staking their own ground and being different from the generation before them. kai was a very shy boy, and totally blushed when i told him how cute he is. very charming to see. we closed down the bar at 1am and i said my goodbyes, got a goodnight kiss from kai, and went to sleep. taxi home followed by some snack food from the corner store (rice ball and cold noodles).