we have arrived in order

after several flights - for me, from PHX->LAX->Narita (Tokyo)->Itami (Osaka) - and just under and hour sweating it out looking for haynes and the hotel, I arrived.

and I was the last one in, so we have arrived.

haynes waited the longest, avoiding a brief downpour by ducking into a dubious basement, down some wet stairs into a tiny bar—Mystery Trip Bar (a Beatles' themed bar) and drank a Carlsberg from Denmark (their only beer on tap). after 5 minutes of sitting silently, he announced his presence with a question asking for dinner suggestions. the statuette, yet chatty, folks and bartender began to communicate as best they could in English about local restaurant names and traditional Osaka food. in walked a woman who spoke the best English, with a Aussie accent, and after 45 minutes of conversation haynes felt comfortable enough in asking the bartender for a glass of Buffalo Trace, discovering that it was hands-off, as it was the bartender's personal stash. then he returned to the hotel and dean and loryn showed up 5 minutes later - a half hour before me (at the airport) but an hour 15 before me (at the hotel).

after all this advice of places to eat, I arrived, showered and haynes decided to bring us on a journey to a location that the NYTimes had profiled - a failed search (probably because of our pronounciation) but a good tour of Osakan nightlife, to include the debauchary and (lower)half-nakedness of a man-filled "whiskey bar," the Shel Silverstien-esque statues of mustachioed-men (the unverified location of the place) and everyone's favorite, the Glico Running Man advertisement near the Ebisubashi bridge.


no photos up yet, but soon some will appear (except for the naked men) at http://www.flickr.com/photos/haynesriley/