Day 59 - Okayama, and Bill's Sayonara

Last night I managed to persuade everyone to watch Blues Brothers, my favourite film of all time, and they loved it. I was pleased.

I managed to get up at 8 this morning, and was out of the house early, got to Shin-Osaka by half nine, got my Railpass sorted, only to find that the first Shinkansen I could get (I'm not allowed on the super-fast Nozomi trains with my Railpass) to Okayama wasn't for another 45 minbutes, which I could have spent sleeping. The Shinkansen is really impressive, we were rocketing through the countryside at incredible speed - the inside is more like a plane than a train, with enormous reclining seats, and individual porthole style windows for each row. Okayama was really nice, I went there in order to see the Crow Castle and the garden, both of which were impressive. The garden was full of little ponds, waterfalls, islands, teahouses etc., the only problem was that it had a lawn (the first one I've seen here, there isn't much grass about) which had clearly not had enough water, meaning that the ground was a shade of arid yelloww, instead of the lush green that was intended. The castle wasn't too big it had 6 floors, but the top one was only about 4 metres square. I realised that this sightseeing had only taken me to about 3 o'clock, so as I meandered back to the station I tried to find out if I could go to Shikoku and see the Naruto whirlpools, but it seems impossible to get there in less than a day. I came back to Osaka on another Shinkansen (less nice, HIkari instead of railstar) and came back to the flat. I fell asleep, only to be woken at half nine by Les ringing to inform me that I should come over to Eric's place, as they were going out for Sayonara drinks for Bill. We went to a tiny bar called Y's in Shinsaibashi, owned and staffed by a really cool friendly guy called Masa, whoc gave us all free shots as Bill was leaving, and knew loads of the guys by name. There was a baby in there, can't have been a year old, being passed around all the girls with much cooing while its parents boozed and smoked away. The baby was encouraged to play bongos with Bill, which it did with an entirely impassive face. I have a picture of said face on my phone, which I shall put up ASAP. I ended up discussing sexual politics with an australian called Christy for hours (she is a terrifying girl, I've never been so afraid). A good time was had by all, it was an awesome little bar. I said my goodbyes, and found that I'll really miss a lot of these guys, it makes me wish I had more time (and a purpose) here.