Day 28 - Osaka
Trip Start
Nov 03, 2005
1
28
29
Trip End
Dec 07, 2005
Where I stayed
Osaka, Japan
Friday, December 2, 2005
Dave and I got up nice and early for some stupid reason - stupid because nothing was open for a good hour and a half. Luckily Yoshinoya (the food joint I lovingly remember for my window bashing days) was 24 hour. For a fast food noodle place, the quality was great. I don't know why we didn't try it sooner on our travels.
We played the last few games of Azumanga Puzzle Bobble and Taiko Drum Master we'd play in Japan (for a while a least). We did the rounds at the anime stores, and then met up with Mike for a curry lunch. We stopped by the curry restaurant we'd passed dozens of times on our way to Den-Den Town. Dave had corn curry udon, Mike had katsu curry rice (still the best) and I had cheese curry rice, which was surprisingly delicious.
Since it was our last full day in Japan, it was Mike's last chance to buy some AV for a friend back home (yeah, that's what they all say). So we took a trip to the largest AV store we'd seen in Nipponbashi. We brought Dave along, expecting him to provide a few recommendations on what to buy. At first Dave was quite taken aback at being labelled an AV connoisseur, but it wasn't long being he was eagerly throwing DVDs Mike's direction. Mike had to tell him numerous times, "look, I'm not going to buy the bloody cosplay one!"
Meanwhile, I was outside assuming the others had done a runner on me because it would have been a bit of a lark to say that they'd left me behind in a 9-storey AV store. So I wondered...which was a good thing, since I found a cool T-shirt store. It really ticked me off to find so many cool stores on the side streets of Den-Den town - on our last day in Japan. It's one of those travel mysteries that you find all the interesting things just before leaving a place, as if the place was trying to entice you to stay.
I figured the other two would have liked to be told about the T-shirt store so I raced back to Hotel Taiyo (about a 15min run away). Finding no one there, I left a note for the others and raced back to the store (since I was scared it would close at 4:30pm) to buy a GITSSAC T-shirt and a mug. Getting back to the hotel I found Mike. Mike and I went back to the store (I was getting really tired of going back and forth by that stage) so that Mike could buy something.
We'd lost Dave, so we ended up dropping in on Mai Relax to book a foot massage for Mike the next day. Haruna-chan and Asuka-chan (with the cute little kangaroo we gave her last time, attached to her maid's apron) were there. It was great to see them again after travelling a full circuit around Japan. I think we must have impressed them by the change in the amount of Japanese we were both using. Back at the hotel, we wrote up a long speech (in Japanese) for Mike so that he could regale the tales of our journey to the lovely Mai Relax girls when he went for his massage the next day..
Dave eventually showed up, wielding an impressive HARISEN - yes, he finally procured the fan thing you use to whack people on the head with - at a cosmetics store (as to why it would be there is beyond me) just down a few streets from the hotel. I bought one too (¥800) since it seemed a very Osakan thing to have, but I had to cut my session of hitting Dave short, since the cardboard was getting damaged. Dave also finally got the "Asse" brand chocolate he'd been desperately trying to find again.
Mike was anti-going-out-for-dinner and for sentimental reasons stuck with cup noodle, so I dragged Dave out to try some Yakiniku (another food to tick off the list). Lousy food by previous standards, but not quite as bad as that Yakitori rip-off meal. However, we got to meet some Japanese rugby players there, and witnessed some more of the colourful Osakan dialect. Then we stopped for some gyoza (dumplings) at the place we had our first meal in Japan.
I slept comfortably that night, content that our Japan experience had covered much and more of what we'd originally planned.
