Alright, it’s time for a couple of days in Osaka!

I flew in last night and today I woke up after a great night’s sleep.

I’m staying at my brother Ben’s place and he’s been kind enough to give up his bed and sleep on the couch.

In true Canadian fashion we both went back and forth offering to sleep on the couch of course.

I’ll be staying here for 2 full days before flying back home.

Yoga visit

First of all, nope, I didn’t do yoga.

Are you kidding me?   My body does not bend in those ways.

I did, however, visit a yoga studio today.

Ben’s studio!

Yup, he owns and runs the Vancouver Sky Studio with his ex-wife here in the Yodoyabashi area of Osaka.

Today was the first day for the latest group of people who had signed up for the studio’s instructor class.

They all sat in a circle in the middle of the studio and did a typical “tell me about yourself” introduction.

I sat to the side and tried to listen in.

Of course it was all in Japanese but I had the conversation mode turned on the Google Translate app on my phone so I was able to pick up bits and pieces of what people were saying.

Technology, eh?

By 11am, he was all done and it was time to get on with the day.

Nara and their famous deer

The town of Nara is about 30km east of Osaka and, thanks to the amazing rail network here in Japan, it’s easily accessible from Osaka.

It’s just a 45 minute ride on the comfy Kintetsu line for 680yen ($7) and, before you know it, you’re in the city that is ruled by deer.

I’m not kidding.   That place has tons of deer just roaming around the streets like they own the place.

And, I guess, in a way they kind of do.

This city is famous for their deer and tourists and locals alike swarm here to visit them.

Despite it being a Monday afternoon in April, there were tons of people here including multiple school groups on their field trips.

Man, I never had field trips like this when I was in school!

A conveyor belt of yummy goodness

Anyway, before the deer though, there was the matter of sushi.

Yup, this boy needed some sushi in his belly and, wouldn’t you know it, there just happened to be a place right next to the train station that was listed on my Find me GF app.

Sorry deer, you’re just gonna have to wait.

We walked in and in typical Japanese fashion, were greeted friendly by the staff and shown a seat along the conveyor belt of yummy goodness.

Yeah, there’s just something about different plates of sushi making a trip to your seat.

I will say that 8 of those plates didn’t make it past my seat.

Oh my God!   I love sushi!   And they even gave me a bottle of gluten free soy sauce to use.

Was it cheap?   Nope.   Did I care?   Also, nope.

We were only there for about a half hour and somehow I managed to down 24 pieces of sushi.

Alright, my belly was full and it was time to go find some deer…

Deer!

It didn’t take much to find them, that’s for sure.

We didn’t walk more than 10 feet on the main road until we saw one just strolling along on the sidewalk.

You know, like deer naturally do.

I spent so much time trying to get just the right shot of the deer that I didn’t even notice that was a whole family of them in the little park on my right.

We followed all the tourists up the road leading to Nara Park.

Of course it took awhile because, ya know, the tourist in me wanted to stop every 5 seconds to snap another photo.

We came upon a booth where a lady was selling bundles of crackers to feed the deer for 100yen ($1) a piece so I bought two bundles.

There was 10 crackers in each bundle but they were so big that you could split each cracker into 4 or 5 pieces.

What I’m basically saying is I was gonna fee alot of deer.

So, as we walked up the street, I tore off a piece of cracker and feed one to every deer I passed.

The problem with feeding deer is that their friends also want some so if there was a little group of them together, they started following me so they could also get a cracker.

I couldn’t break off the pieces quick enough.

It wasn’t really a big deal until we reached the park.

There were tons of deer here and they sensed the smell of the crackers in my hand.

Pretty soon I was being followed by, I kid you not, a dozen deer.

And they were kinda getting aggressive – they wanted those damn crackers!

When a couple of them started to chomp at my backpack and on my tshirt, I just started throwing whole crackers on to the ground behind me as I attempted to flee.

It was a symphony of chaos and ridiculousness and I love it so much.

Oh, and sincere apologizes to that little group of Japanese girls I ran behind trying to get away from them.

After a couple of hours wandering through the park we headed back to Osaka.

Japanese Baseball

Now the deer were cute and all but the highlight of the day for me was seeing a baseball here in Japan.

I’ve actually only seen a couple of baseball games in my life and, well, they’re kind of boring.   At least to me, anyway.

I guess I’ve just gotten so used to the fast pace of NHL hockey that it’s kind of ruined all the other sports for me.

By the way, go Canucks!   Hope they go far in the playoffs this year!!!

Little side note to those who don’t live in Vancouver – our team the Canucks was the worst team in the league this year and they won’t be playing any playoff games.

Okay, back to baseball.

Yes, I find baseball kinda ho-hum but I was about to attend a game in Japan!

I wanted to be surrounded by the fans and take in the atmosphere.

As crazy as it sounds, considering I had just spent almost 2 weeks in Tibet and Nepal, attending this game was one of the things I most looked forward to on this trip.

Instead of taking transit there, I downloaded the LUUP app and rented one of the ebikes they have all over the place here in Osaka.

Downloading the app was easy but after I had to agree to the usual conditions, it gave me a 15 question test on Japanese traffic law to complete.

Oh, and I had to get 100%.

I didn’t.

Luckily it just lets you retake the test again.

Wow, I’ve never worked so hard to unlock an app on my phone.

Finally, at just after 5:30, my hair was flowing in the wind as we cruised through the streets of Osaka.

By the way, it’s true, riding a bike is like, well, riding a bike.   You never forget how.

We arrived at the stadium just after the game started and found our seats amongst all the locals.

I was cool to just take in everything going on around me.

There was a huge cheering section over to the right field line that would play musical instruments and chant in unison for each player that came to the plate.

When it was the visitors turn to bat, they stayed silent but the section in the left field with all the visitors’ supporters would come alive with their own music and chants.

Unlike North American sports, the scoreboard only showed replays once the entire game and it was when the coach challenged a ruling on a second base steal.

It do show alot of cool animations but I always go a chuckle out of the animation that would warn the crowd to “Watch Out” on every foul ball.

The problem was that the graphic and accompanying sound would only play about 5 seconds after the ball had hit the stands.

Along with the usual hotdogs and beer, there were plenty of concession stands offering Japanese food so I munched on a steak rice bowl.

As for my phone, man, I drained that battery with all the video I took.

There were times when we had runners on base and I was determined to take a video of the next batter getting a hit and the crowd going wild.

I kept starting the video, watch him not swing at the pitch, and delete the video and reset the shot.

In the 8th inning we had the bases loaded with one out and, boy, did I want a video of a grand slam.

His at-bat went on forever as he kept tipping balls into foul territory.

I must have started and deleted 10 different videos until I finally got one of him hitting into an inning ending double play.

Oh crap.

Anyway, yeah, my phone battery was drained big time.

As for the game, our team actually was in the lead 1-0 through 6 innings but then the dam burst and we ended up losing 7-1.

Gluten free tacos

After the game, we biked across town to a little taco restaurant Ben found that serves gluten free tacos.

We got there right before closing and ordered some tacos.   Ben had a beer and I, of course, had a strawberry margarita.

Ah, classic Japanese food!

The food, despite being not spicy, still had a bit of a kick to it.

Not surprising as it was Mexican food, after all.

What it did mean though was that I was in need of some ice cream!

Any excuse for ice cream, ya know.

We stopped at a McDonalds on the way home and I got a nice, smooth, strawberry shake.

Ah, yes, more classic Japanese food.

By now my phone battery was at a dangerously low 10% which was concerning a little since I needed to use the app on there to return my ebike.

I ended up not taking the chance and just returning it there and walking the last bit home.

By 11:30 we were back home.

Yes, it had been a long action packed day but, man, was it worth it.

Deer and a baseball game.

Where else can you get that combination but in Japan?

Tomorrow is my last full day of this trip with plans to go to Kobe and, of course, eat some Kobe steak.

Can’t wait!