May 1

Today, we got up and out of the hostle around nine, I think, but for Japan, that’s early. Nothing seemed to be open until ten and eleven, which seemed to be the normal opening hours. We got lost trying to find DenDen Town (Osaka’s version of Akihabara) because we thought the map we were given depicted a larger area. We got a lot of practice in asking directions that way though. Eventually, we made it to DenDen (which is like Akihabara both for its electronics and its otaku stores) but we were still early, so we stopped in a shop to eat udon. We were one of two groups of customers, but the other group (a Japanese couple) for some reason gave us cookies. I couldn’t understand their Japanese, unfortunately.

Afterward, we walked the streets where we went in stores selling all sorts of otaku things, advertising TV’s using Advent Children, 700en 4-gig SD cards, and so on. It was really interesting. I got bumped on the street a lot (it seems to be the way of Osakans; get where you’re going, no nonsense) and Matt said a lot of guys were looking at me, so I was glad I had him and David walking with me. I’m guessing it’s not very common for girls (especially gaijin, which are less prevalent in Osaka than Nagoya) to be on the Akihabara-esque street. Afterward, we went to festival gate to check out the roller coaster, but it was closed, we thought, because of it only running on the weekend and holidays. We spent a bit more time in Shinsekai, where we played a fighting game in an arcade for 50en which went on forever, but was fun.

We made a quick stop at the hostle to drop our belonings and then headed off to Tempozan (on the bay) where we rode the world’s largest ferris wheel. Osaka was really pretty at night. We went into the nearby mall (which resembles Crabtree, or any other American mall) where most of the stores were closing, though it was a Friday night and only 8:00pm. Matt and David did manage to get okonomiyaki and afterward, we walked around the secondary food court, which was really cool because it resembled a Meiji period street. The lighting came from red lanterns and the restaurant fronts looked like wooden buildings lining streets.

Once we ran out of things to see there (and spent a bit of money on t-shirts at the most tourist-esqe business there), we headed to Ebisu-bashi, which looked interesting from the photographs in my guidebook. It was said to be the nightlife central of Osaka, and it really was. In addition to many shops, bars, restaurants, and food stands, there were the more risqué attractions of Japan. We saw lots of callboys (more so than callgirls) on the streets with blonde (yes, they bleach their hair) maines (and spike it too) and shiny black suits that probably cost lots of money. They were chasing girls (and guys) down the streets when they weren’t standing together looking pretty (by someone else’s standard). We saw a lot of expensive cars too. I wasn’t quick enough to catch a shot of the lambo. There were, of course, love hotels too.

We weren’t there for any of that though, but it was intersting to see Japan’s nightlife from the streets. The buildings too were often covered in neon and the river that runs through the district was pretty. We went in a pet shop (I’ve never been to one in Japan) where the prices for cats and dogs were around $1000. I had takoyaki too (at which point I got to talk a bit in Japanese with the seller) which gave us time to look around a more interesting instersection in the area while I ate (in Japan, you don’t walk and eat, you eat in one place). We ended it all with delicous crepes and got back to the hostle.

There, we watched Japanese TV (I found a drama with the guy from Densha Otoko in it) which was pretty interesting. David and I watched a kids show too which was pretty funny just because of the normal things kids do (that makes sense to kids but seems funny to adults). We decided to turn it off and go to sleep when hard gay was the only thing on TV. D: