Week 21

A pretty good week this week. Had a nice balance of being busy, relaxing, and having fun.

As planned, last Monday I got up fairly early and headed off to teach at a kindergarten for the first time. It went as well as could be expected and I didn't mess up too badly. The kids were really cute and super excited to meet me. Now that I've done this gig once I won't be as nervous for the next one. I even had a chance to stop home and take a nap in the afternoon before I headed off to my regular shift in the evening.

Tuesday was a bit rainy so I cleaned the apartment in the morning before having some friends over in the afternoon to play video games.

Wednesday morning I met a friend at the local JR station and took the loop line out to Universal Studios Japan. Although I've lived in Osaka for three years this was my first time visiting one of the biggest attractions in the city. I was kind of surprised at how busy it was for a week day; though far and away the longest line was for tickets to go in the front gate. I went with friend who had also not been before. We took our time and worked our way through all the main attractions. I think my favorite ride was Spider-man, though I also liked Back to the Future. Both were "4D" rides where the "car" you sit in moves a bit but stops short of being a full roller-coaster. Other things we saw included Jaws, Jurassic Park, Terminator 2, the Water World show, as well as various street dancers. We had lunch at the Jurassic Park restaurant (ribs) and a late afternoon snack of 'blooming onion' and a beer at a bar in the "New York" area. In the seven hours we were in the park we did just about everything big and even had time to ride the Jurassic Park ride twice.

Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday morning were all fairly normal work days.

Sunday evening I invited some friends over once again and we finally got to the end of the video game we've been playing for the last six months.

This morning (Monday, the 21st), with a little help from my noisy neighbors, I woke up in time to catch the total solar eclipse which occurred at 7:26am local time. Looking out from my balcony it seems a lot of other people were out early in the morning stating at the sun too.