I was scheduled to teach English at C-Flat in the afternoon so yet again I was not able to hang out with Ken and Cam. Fortunately, there was Dave and 3 other lovely ladies to be their tour guide today! And after my lesson I got to hang out with Naoko, an old friend I made in Vancouver when she was still studying in Vancouver.

Before meeting the girls, the three good-looking sweaty guys headed out for a Kansai style lunch to get energized. What else is better than Okonomiyaki for that gigantic amount of energy???

After lunch, the guys met up with the lovely ladies at the Osaka castle! Yes I am talking about the castle build by Toyotomi Hideyoshi 500 years ago (the one standing right now is largely a replica….the oringial one was burnt down a  hundred years ago).  Ken and Cam have never been to the Osaka landmark before so they spent time touring the museum, taking pictures at the top of the castle, and being poked by young Shogun soldiers. I love the friendly way the Osaka locals are showing towards tourists especially those from Tokyo : )

Shitennoji was the next destination on their itinerary. The oldest temple in Japan is just minutes away from the Tennoji station which is also pretty close to the station near Osaka castle, so it saved the Tokyo folks a ton of travel time.  The gang enjoyed a relaxing walk and took some more pictures….before they got tired and had to sit down for a parfait!  Looks good from the picture.

Soon after Ken departed for Itami airport for his flight back to Tokyo. I only saw Ken once this weekend but I will see him again very soon as I will go to Tokyo again in a couple of months!

Next up was dinner which I joined up! I finally met the group at the American Mura at around 7….. we had an awesome awesome dinner. I did one thing that I wanted to do before I die!

And what is that you wonder? I will tell you more tomorrow.