Osaka – Day #1

Aloha, peeps!  We arrived in Osaka last night after a very nice visit to Hiroshima!  While in Hiroshima, we got to spend time with our relatives Erika, Tadao, and Satomi, and also with Carla’s brother Steven and his wife Carol.  We all had lunch at our favorite restaurant, Nanak, before our performance at the Phoenix Hall at the Peace Park.  Once again, the streets of Hiroshima were packed … I heard that this festival attracts over 1.5 million people every year!  Now if we could only get a few of them to come to Hawai’i too! :-)  If you’re ever in Japan during Golden Week, you have to come to the Flower Festival in Hiroshima … you’ll be totally blown away!  My cousin Tadao brought us a large bag of special Hiroshima rice, and we stuffed it in Alex’s rolling guitar case to make it easier to carry.  It worked well until we got on the train and tried to lift it into the overhead bin – it weighed a ton!

Our poor bass player, Mark, was not having a good day yesterday … he made some little kid cry when he accidentally knocked him down, he almost left his passport & wallet behind in our room, and he lost his train ticket when we arrived in Osaka!  I guess we’re all starting to feel a little fatigued from the trip …  at least I don’t have jet lag anymore!  As soon as we checked into our hotel we went to eat ramen and gyoza (of course!) and then grabbed a couple of French donuts at Mister Donut .. yumm!

Aloha, “D”