Osaka, Japan

My friends here, Fukui-san, Tsuzuki-san, and Oshimo-san, are true Osaka people.

They smile and laugh when they're happy, and yell "Damei" (bad), when they're not happy.
And if they didn't like my behavior, they just reverted to Kansai-ben, the dialect of the Osaka region, and made fun of me.

Hear no English, See no English, Speak no English!

Dotombori

The girls are typical of the people of the Kansai region in that they're loud, opinionated, open, and funny. They know how to have fun, and they love to show you how to have fun.

You'll hear that Osaka isn't much to see. Okay, I admit that it isn't the most scenic city in the world, or even  in Japan. But, Osaka is a great town for eating and meeting people.

And the most famous street for eating is Dotombori. We often went here for food, shopping, drinking, karaoke, or people-watching. The worlds best Hard Rock Cafe is near here, and so is the worlds strangest Haagen-Dazs (moving toilets, a merry go round where you ride on women's laps, and chairs where the legs look like a fat woman's legs).
Harrison Ford filmed a Kirin beer advertisement here, as well (you can always get a laugh by ordering your beer, "Kirin Laga Biru Kudasai", just like Harrison did).

Quite a bit of Black Rain, the Michael Douglass movie, was filmed here.

Japan is full of strange sights, and Osaka is no exception. You know that saying about 100 monkeys with typewriters making a novel? You ever wonder what happens with the bad stuff? Sometimes I think that all the stuff that the monkeys made that's really weird ended up in Japan. It seems that no idea is too off the wall.

Angie's new friend

Osaka-jo