…I am in Osaka!

When I woke up Friday morning, I had an email from a spec-fic magazine editor about a story I’d submitted. He wasn’t buying it, but he’s willing to work through a series of revisions with me, and see if he likes what I end up with. I’ve taken him up on that. (I know the story needs a little work, but I couldn’t tell you exactly how. It’s very helpful to have a pro articulating where it stumbles.)

So that great news was a great start to my vacation. I sent a reply and then got ready and we were off to the airport.

The flight was rather long. I bought a video game for it, Subnautica, which was recently released for Steam. I hadn’t heard of it before, which is kind of surprising since it’s right up my alley–survival/adventure/exploration, plus the horror of sea monsters. But then, I often don’t hear about a game when it isn’t on a platform I have yet. Too much to keep up with otherwise. I ended up playing it for six hours on the flight.

Customs was ruthlessly efficient, and after some weirdness trying to figure out the train tickets, we were off to Osaka proper. On the walk through town to our AirBnB I was greeted by this lovely sunset over the canal:

My husband and I got settled in and went looking for an ATM. The first place we checked was a grocery store that featured very unique decor:

There was nowhere for the eye to rest; it was as though I’d been effectively blinded upon entering. A PA system was also playing J-pop and, over that, a man excitedly announcing deals on groceries. It furthermore did not have an ATM. We left.

Later, we met up with our friends (we had somewhat overlapping vacations) for dinner and wanderings. I was hitting a wall by then, on account of the 22 hours of wakefulness I’d been having, so I don’t have much to say about it.

Stay tuned!