The ride on the bus from Kaihin-makuhari to Osaka was about 10 hours! Even though it was a night bus, we were hardly able to sleep at all. The heater was on really high, so it was very uncomfortable especially in the back of the bus. Also, the seats had little leg room and of course the people in front of us reclined their seats all of the way back, making it even more comfortable. I couldn’t be too annoyed though, it was my own fault for being cheap and not taking the Shinkansen and I guess it could have been worse.
Ten hours later we arrived in Osaka and immediately went to our hotel for some much needed rest. Our plan was to stay in Osaka for all four nights and take the trains to Kyoto for day trips. After resting for a few hours of resting we wondered around the streets near our hotel to get used to the area. In the evening we went to the center of Osaka and found Dotonbori road. Here we enjoyed some takoyaki, beer and many other street vendor foods that Osaka is famous for. Because it was February, it was not crowded at all, but there were still enough people around to make it exciting.
. This was something that we have been wanting to do since we first arrived in Japan. The reason it took so long to finally go is because it was always a busy season, we had other plans, or we couldn’t get the time off of work at the same time. This week though, was both Marta’s and my Birthdays
. Marta’s on the 11th and mine on the 12th. So, we took a few days off of work and celebrated by visiting the places we have wanted to go to the most. 
would have been fast and fun, but to save money we decided to take a night bus
, which was over half of the cost. The trip started out a little rough because I was waiting at the wrong side of the station from where our bus arrived and we almost missed it. Luckily, they called and asked where we were and waited for us until we found it. What a way to begin
.
In December we were lucky enough to have a few of our friends from Oregon, come to visit us. They were only here for 6 days and we wanted to show them as many things we could with the amount of time and money that they had. We did a lot of different things like; karaoke, arcade games, sushi, Disneyland, and shopping at Daiso ( 100 yen store.) When I told my students about the things we did, they thought these were strange things to do with a guest, as a Japanese experience. Maybe they were but, our friends had a good time. Their favorite being, Disneyland. This was also our first time too and it was nice because they had Christmas decorations all over. Our friends favorite part was listening to all of the Disney characters talk in Japanese. I think the rides at DisneySea are better but, the Christmas theme was very enjoyable too. We stayed all day and left at closing. I think we got to do almost everything.