Hideyoshi's Castle, Texting Ōsaka Girls + My Family Reunion in Japan

Today, I really connected with my Japanese roots. After seeing Eikichi, Megumi again (always great), and then meeting my sobo's sister Shizuko + her daughter Chie for the first time at our hotel, Eikichi, Megumi, LB + I walked around Ōsaka + eventually ate okonomiyaki for the first time at this famous place in the middle of a mall. Fuck, it was amazing! After lunch, we took the subway to Ōsakajo (Osaka Castle), pushing our way through gaggles of stylish, cute, texting Japanese girls before finally climbing inside the castle, inside of which is a museum. We drank sweet, non-alcoholic sake + inhaled the panoramic view from the balcony of the castle outside. Pretty dope. But it gets better . . .

Then, we took a take to the Umeda Sky Building, which is this amazing futuristic-looking building where you take an elevator to the top, ride several escalators further up that look + feel like just part of Space Mountain + then you walk up even more stairs until you're at the very top of the building. The view outside was these things in this order:

1. Fucking amazing!
2. Fucking insane!
3. Fucking cold as shit!

After taking a tea break, we eventually left The Building of the Future + took the subway to Kishinosato + met up with everyone at Shizuko's apartment. And I have to say, I really love my Japanese family. I really do. This was the first time we've been reunited. Ever. And it felt amazing, sitting with my family, talking to Shizuko + Chie + Eikichi in Japanese, playing with Eikichi + Megumi's puppie Linchan (who bites like a scorpion), eating Makizushi, sipping on sweet sake, drinking ocha, learning the tea ceremony from Shizuko on the room with tatami mats, playing a John Lennon duet on the piano with Chie, just being there with LB + connecting with my family in Japan. It helped me understand who I am, where the Japanese side of my family comes from + where my grandmama lived for much of her life. I feel like I understand my life better, as if the Asian side of me has become real now, not simply a cultural fairytale of rice + high-tech gadgets that I've been told since I was little. Today, I feel like I literally saw the future.