大阪と台風、bk to Tokyo, typhoon season

大阪から戻ったら台風で大荒れ。
さんざんテレビは大騒ぎしたが、幸いにも都心はさほどでもなかった。

大阪は噂通りすごく暑かった。けど、なかなか良かった。

旦那と上の子がUSJに朝から出かけた2日目は私と下の子は、神戸在住７年目の大学の頃の友達と大阪駅で会った。

前回会ったのは確かお互いの息子が1歳の頃だから、6年経つのだけど、懐かしくもあり、何も変わらない感じもありで、でもやはり懐かしく、
彼女の二人の子のお迎えの時間までは飛ぶように過ぎた。

日頃バタバタして学生の頃の友達となかなか会えないが、やはり昔からの友達は気心がしれずいいなぁと実感。

近々他の大学の友達にも会えたらなーと思い久々に連絡。

大阪は１日目新幹線で午後到着後、ホテルでひと休みした後、御堂筋線で心斎橋と道頓堀へ出た。すごい数のお店の通りから裏道に抜け、クラブと飲み屋と怪しいよくわからないお店と割烹等の店が乱雑に立ち並ぶ中を歩きながら有名なグリコの前に出た。早速、夕飯にお好み焼きとたこ焼きを食べた。結構歩いてみんな夜はグッタリ、次の朝はゆっくり起きた。

２日目はUSJと新世界。USJが猛烈に暑くくたびれたが、通天閣まで頑張り昇り、ビリケンさんの足をなで、お約束の二度漬け厳禁串揚げで夕飯。旦那がどうしてもたこ焼きを食べたいというので梅田駅前、阪急梅田近くの新梅田食堂街にやっている小さなたこ焼き屋さんで持ち帰り。エキマルシェでしっかり食後のデザートも購入。

３日目最終日はチェックアウト後、ジャックの会社で顧問をして下さっている大阪在住の方と新大阪で約束。お昼に美味しいお好み焼きをごちそうになった。午後２時半過ぎに新幹線乗車、途中富士山を拝み東京へ戻った。

ホテルは中之島という大阪駅（梅田）からシャトルで１０分ほどいったところに泊まったのだが、周りがオフィス＆ホテルしかないようなところなので夜が静かで良かった。川がすぐ近くに流れていて、ブロードウォークが整備されているので次回いくことがあればそこをあるいたり、船に乗ってみてもいいな、と思った。

でも次回いくなら大阪城の近く滞在もいいかなー。

大阪のお好み焼きとたこ焼きは本当に美味しい。

生地が違う。関東にない牛スジのお好み焼きも美味しかった。
大阪は東京より文化が濃く、コンパクトにまとまっていて、物価も安いし、食べ物は美味しい。たまに訪れるのに良いかも。

来年のお盆休みはどこいこうかな〜

国内は移動が楽だし、治安がどうのとかの心配が少ないから、子供が小さいうちは国内旅行でいいかな、とここ数年思い出した。

友達に会いにフランスやコロンビアやハワイにもいつか行きたいな、と思いながら、それを目標に老後の貯蓄をしてくのもありかなーと。

さ、明日はもうback to schoolでんがな。

下の子は一歩先に昨日から保育園に行きだし、初の友達の家お泊りがあった上の子は今日から学童復帰。

通常モード再開。

Osaka, Shinsekai

Typhoon after typhoon as we came back from Osaka trip. Osaka was sunny and very very hot.
Food was fantastic (okonomi yaki and tako yaki, two types of non sweet pancakes from western Japan, popular snack food in Japan).

We walked around a lot, till pretty late everyday in Osaka.
Osaka is located in west of Japan and they speak with Kansai (western) accent. What I or my families speak is called hyojungo, a standard Japanese, and then Kansai ben is what they speak in west. To me, Kansai accent is a bit like California accent if hyojungo spoken in Tokyo was considered New York accent. Osaka has its own distinctive culture. Also, people seemed more friendly and open
than Tokyo.

Toru took Koki to Universal Studio Japan on 2nd day of our stay.
Hiroto and I went to see an old friend of mine from university
who moved to Kobe (next to Osaka) seven years ago due to her
husband's career. She now has a 4 year old daughter and 7 year
old (same age as Koki) son and has a house near a bridge called
Akashi Bridge which connects theJapan mainland, honshu, to
Awaji Island which is famous for growing olives and moderate
temperature.
Hiroto and I said good bye to my friend around 2:30pm and
joined Koki and Toru at USJ around 3:30pm. It was so sunny and
so hot that there was 30m line in front of a vending machine.
It was a good idea that I bought 4 bottles of water to bring in.

Last time we took a trip out of Japan was in 2011. Since then
Toru and I speak about going overseas again, LA or Hawaii, or
possibly South France where our friends are, but anyhow
we have not been able to make it out of Japan.
Now with Hiroto being a baby, it makes things a bit more difficult.
It is certainly doable, but it is just easier to travel inside Japan
as Japan is one of the safest countries in the world where you
don't have to worry about robbery or safety.
Plus, traveling by a car or a train is just so much easier with
small children (an of course easier on a wallet as well).

Toru mentioned maybe Guam next year? but hmmm I dunno.
There are so many places in japan to see, so I am leaning
towards another domestic trip.

We'll see.

Koki's back to school tomorrow.
Hiroto already went back to his day care after long 14 days
holiday (yes, that is considered LONG in Japan. Many people
only take 4,5 days, crazy, no?).

Koki made a debut to a sleep over to his friend this Monday.
He took his favorite blue elephant with him so he could sleep.
Result? He had so much fun, wants to do it again!
He wants to bring his friends over next time.
Maybe when Toru is around, on a 3 day weekend or something.

Although he struggled to get his summer load of homework,
he is still having so much fun being a 7 year old boy in summer.
Children are talented at making an ordinary into fun.

初お泊り、a sleep over!