Saturday

Saturday started ok. We slept until 9:00 and then checked out of our hotel at 10:00. Chris’s test wasn’t until 1:00 so we had plenty of time. We took a taxi to the test center. It was only about a 3 minute drive, we really didn’t need a cab. But, it took us right to the door so we didn’t have to look around for it. We stepped into the elevator to go up to the 7^th floor where the testing center was. However, when we pushed the ‘7’ button, the elevator binged loudly and a Japanese message came out from no where. Huh? So we stepped out of the elevator and a security man came out of his hidey hole. He looked upset and told us that we couldn’t go to the 7^th floor yet. It was closed! They closed the 7^th floor. Weird. I didn’t even know you could turn off certain floors.

We still had our luggage so we decided to go to our second hotel and drop it off. However, we were not supposed to check in until 6:00 pm. Poop! So we just rented a locker and put all the stuff there. Chris isn’t allowed to have anything but his passport in the test room so he had to get rid of his stuff. We dropped the luggage off at the train station near our hotel and then went to find lunch. We went to….McDonalds!! Hah. We were not in the mood to look around for something to eat and we wanted something quick.

After lunch, we went back to the testing center. Instead of trying again, we decided to sit and hang out at Starbucks for a while. We killed about an hour before the test and at 11:50 headed back to the test center. Now, I want to point out here that I scoured the internet trying to find out what Chris needed to have and ALL it said was his ID. That’s it. So anyways, when we got up to the testing center there was a big sign that said: “Check-in will start at 12:20. You must have your Passport, center ID, and Confirmation number.”

Buh? Confirmation number? I was SO MAD. Chris, of course, had a confirmation number. It was just sitting in his inbox in his email account. Ah. That’s bad. We had 30 minutes to find an internet café, get the number, and get back to the center to check in.

Let’s just say, we booked it out of the center. We went to the Ramada Inn across the street to see if they had a computer we could use/rent/whatever. People are supposed to speak English in hotels and you would think a big American chain would have English speakers. But, of course, they didn’t speak English OR have any computers. However, they pointed out an internet café which was 10 minutes away. It’s 12:05 at this point so we take off. We don’t run, but we do walk super fast trying to get to the café and back. We get to the café and died a little inside as it took the ladies at the counter longer than needed to set us up an account. We ran to the computers, copied down Chris’s number and test center number as fast as possible and ran back out.

No charge for the internet. At least that’s something. So we took the subway back to the center (it was right by a subway exit, we didn’t realize we should have taken the subway instead of walked to the café. We hurried up the stairs and got there at 12:35. Phew! Chris signed in and tried to calm down. Poor guy, we were so stressed out and then he had to take a super important test. Good job. I am the WORST planner in the world. I think Chris will get to make plans next trip. Hmph.

I left Chris at the center around 12:50. You see, I wasn’t allowed to even wait for him in the center. They are super strict about it. It’s dumb! I decided I wanted to see the ‘Floating Gardens’. The problem was…I had to FIND them.

Too make a long story short, I spent the next 2 hours walking. Not standing. Not sitting. But WALKING. WALKING WALKING WALKING!!!!! Gah! I get upset just thinking about it. It took me 2 hours to find the gardens because I can’t read a map to save my life. I have no sense of directions whatsoever. Boo! Anyways, now for a little too much information. Most of you are my family, the rest of you are my friends so you can deal with my TMI.

So I made the horrid mistake of wearing ill-fitting pants. The problem being that the pants were too large for me. The hem was tattered and started to rub against my upper legs (sorry, for some reason, the word ‘thigh’ bothers me). Also, since the pants were too large, part of my legs touched each other. So two hours of walking with rough hem rubbing against my legs and what not, I ended up ‘injuring’ my legs. They were severely chafed. Boo. Not bleeding, but pretty close too it. I was walking kinda funnily. It really hurt.

So anyways, back to my trekking through Osaka. I was so hot and so upset by the time I finally saw my big building that I wanted to cry. I got there…and I heard…FIESTA! Seriously. It was Mexican Day. What a mood picker-upper. It was so cute. It helped. I almost bought a taco, but I didn’t want to upset my tummy. Hooray.

So I spent my 700 yen and went up to the ‘Floating Gardens Observatory’. It was GORGEOUS. It was so high! I could see everything. My only regret is that it was really hazy and hard to see. It’s tough to decide whether or not walking two hours was worth the view. I did enjoy the building. It was very interesting and a great view. But sometimes, just seeing a view alone is kinda melancholy. I probably would have enjoyed it more with Chris. But what can you do? By the way, there were totally no gardens, hanging or otherwise, at the hanging garden observatory. It’s just like the ‘subway’ in Osaka is not really a subway because it’s primarily above ground. Dumb! Maybe I don’t understand what ‘subway’ means, but I always thought they lived underground.

So after the I left the building, I limped back another 30 minutes and went to the internet café. Turns out, it was a free café. You could use the internet for free for an hour a day. So I sat down and decided to give you a riveting entry whilst in the middle of the trip. I was using a Japanese computer so it took me another 30 minutes to type out the entry. It was a long and good one. Then, I tried to hit the button to submit the entry and publish to my blog…and I deleted the entire entry. *twitch* I was so upset. I left the café and wandered a bit before I headed back to the Starbucks. It was about 4:15 at this time so I wanted to be near the testing center for when Chris got out. I figured he would be close to done. I also wanted to sit down and rest my sad and very ouchy legs. However, when I was almost there when I got a text message. Chris was done! Hooray! He texted me with his scores. I shant share them with you, because it’s not my business to share, but he did very well. “Kicked it’s ass” one might even say, if one were want to swear.

No sitting down for me, but, it did mean I could meet him at the train station and we could go to our hotel. It was early, but we figured they might let us check in early or we could at least sit in the hotel lobby and wait. So we headed over and they did let us in early. We immediately lay down and took a loooong nap. I think it was about 3 hours, but very much needed.

That night, we headed back to the amusement district of Osaka (called Umeda) and we had…Subway! That’s right! We finally got turkey sandwiches! And they were SOOOO good! Yummy yummy! We then headed to a big toy store and looked around. It was an awesome toy store. So interesting! We ended up buy a deck of bridge cards (they are small and thin and good for card tricks), Word Up! (you know, the game like scrabble except you build on top of words, it’s great for English class and fun to boot!), and Japanese Fluxx! I don’t know who has played Fluxx with me, but it is one of my favorite card games. Getting the Japanese version is that much awesomer. Again, I got it with a mind to play with my students. We wanted more games and stuff, but we decided to stick with just those (we almost bought regular scrabble, rummikub, and a few others but held off).

And thus, Saturday ends with a peaceful sigh.