Adventures in Nagoya!: Osaka Day 2 (Foundation Day)!!

Today's Foundation Day! A national holiday in Japan. Which is why everyone and their grandma was out in Dotonbori last night. And there were a bunch of school aged kids around this morning when Rana and I went to breakfast.

Ugh our futon things were sooo uncomfortable. We both woke up multiple times during the night, especially when these American girls next door moved in at 3 am and talked so loudly! I think tonight I'm gonna have to fold my futon in half to make it more comfortable because my back and butt hurt so much last night haha. And the pillows are only a sack full of beans, so I just used my coat.

Rana and I left around 9 to get breakfast. We asked the guy at the front desk if there was a Denny's around, because we were craving pancakes and apparently Denny's here does have pancakes, but he told us there isn't one nearby. Although, he did point us in the direction of some breakfast restaurants, so we headed that way.

We ended up stumbling upon this coffee house THAT HAD PANCAKES!!!! So we both got the fruit pancakes because they sounded really good! And they were freaking adorable!! And the pancakes tasted sooo good, not fake like IHOP pancakes. They had a little thing of syrup for us to use as well.

They were a little more than we would have liked to pay, but I think that's because of all the fruit, which is expensive.

After we were done eating, we stopped by our hostel to ask the dude up front if there was a grocery store nearby so we could get breakfast for tomorrow. Turns out there was one right next to our hostel! So we went in and looked around.

I got a bunch of four bananas for 78 yen! Best deal I've seen yet!

Then we went up to our room so I could drop off my bananas. It was just about 10:30, so we headed to the station to meet everyone else. Well, they ended up texting us at 10:30 saying some people were still sleeping or showering so they weren't ready yet. Rawr.

We passed Heather, Rashaa, and Jose, who were going to the Osaka aquarium. Rana already went last week with her grandma, who lives in Osaka, and she told me the $23 entrance fee definitely wasn't worth it, so I had decided not to go.

So Rana and I headed out of the station to explore more around our hostel area.

(We found another closed in mall!)

(We saw dudes playing Go and Shoji)

(Heart lock things! You put your name and your significant other's on the lock and then lock yourselves together. I've read about these in Korea and other places)

(The zoo)

Then everyone texted us to come over to their hostel, so we did. On the way, we accidentally turned down the street before the street their hostel was on, and this Japanese guy started shouting "abunai!" at us, which means dangerous. He told us there were a lot of bad people who drank a lot down there lol. But then he walked us over to Hotel Kaga!

Rafa met us at the door, and at first they weren't going to let both of us go up, but he convinced the lady to let us up haha.

So we chilled in Devon's room while the last few people got up and showered.

And then we were finally off!! An hour and a half later than we had expected.

We only had to ride one subway station and then we got to Nippon Bashi, which is like the Osaka version of Akihabara.

(The guys freaked out over this place because it was 5 floors of model action figure things)

First we went in this arcade.

(We went around to sooo many freaking UFO catchers throughout the day today haha. Which is fine because I think they're super cute)

(I've never seen someone testing a UFO catcher! She kept moving this huge sword around in it and then trying to pick the sword up with the claw to make sure it was possible.)

(Fail Engrish. I saw some good ones the past few days as well like this girl with a sweatshirt that said "GROPE" really big across the chest lol and then a necklace and "blacelet" shop haha)

The entire 5th floor was dedicated to purikura with costumes to dress up in for it too (like the place where the guys and I did purikura in Sakae). It was obviously geared towards girls. Like look at this beautiful hallway that led to the bathrooms!

(Also there was this flip table game lol)

Then we had to go to this two story Gundam store all the guys wanted to go to. Booooring. The only cool part was that they had a pink Gundam lol.

Then Rafa, Ben, and Rana broke off to get something to eat. We had all stopped at Lawson's earlier and I had gotten a rice ball and melon pan, so I was okay foodwise. So Devon, Cam, and I went to some manga and anime shops. I bought an m-flo CD for only 50 yen! After a bit, Andrew and Jaya came and we found them and continued going to shops with them.

We were in this huge ass 5 story anime merchandise building called Melon Books when Rana, Rafa, and Ben came with the people who went to the aquarium earlier. So we were all together again!

(More Engrish - "flog" lol)

So the first thing we did after we left Melon Books was go to get food! Yay. I was so freaking hungry. If ended up being just us girls who got food: Rana, Devon, Heather, Rashaa, and me.

We went to a ramen place, but none of us got ramen haha.

(My yummy rice and gyoza. I'd been seriously craving rice, so I was happy!)

When we got out, we met up with Andrew and Jaya, who were heading back to their hotel because they were feeling sick.

Then we went to McDonald's to get the guys. Only Cam and Jose were there. But they led us to Ben and Rafa, who had gone to get pancakes at this coffee shop. They were sitting outside with blankets next to a heater, waiting for their pancakes haha.

Rana stayed with them, and the rest of us went to another UFO catcher place.

(The inside of the UFO catcher place)

When the guys were done with their pancakes, we headed to this underground mall, in Namba and looked around some stores. We were all really tired and just wanted to sit haha.

(Pink car with pink wheels I saw and fell in love with!)

(Parfaiiiitttsss!!)

(Chick bread!)

(Chicken bread!)

(Illuminations on the ceilings)

While we were walking, I saw this Valentine's Day event where you can take a picture with these two American models who I thought were holding chocolate or something.

(There's a girl between them haha)

They were pretty cute, so of course I wanted to try it! I told everyone I was going to go do it and then I ran down there. Right when I got down, a third guy who was taking a break from the modeling and just showing people around, spotted me and asked me in English if I wanted to do it. I said I did and asked how much it was, and he said free!

So I got in line. He told me I could pick who I wanted a picture with and what pose I wanted them to do haha. Of course I wanted the one like in the picture above. Oh, and it turned out it was bath salts, not chocolate, so Rana didn't want to do it anymore haha. But Heather decided to.

The line was short and moved fast. When I got to the front, this Japanese lady asked me which bath salt I wanted. I chose the pink one. Then I went over to the guys. All my friends were standing on the balcony above watching and laughing and taking pictures of me, so it was really, really hard to keep a straight face! And I couldn't. I was shaking with laughter the entire time!

(Hahaha)

Then the guy who had helped me at the beginning ran up saying he wanted to be in one too haha, so we took another one!

They asked me where I was from. I told them and said I was studying in Nagoya, though, and they told me they were from Tokyo. They talked to Heather and me a lot, so I think they were happy to be able to speak English for once, lol.

I got this ad with my bath salt. It kind of freaks me out.

Then we all headed outside to go to Krispy Kreme to sit down in the warmth, because, believe it or not, there was no area to sit down in the whole mall!

(Pretty illuminations outside)

(THE DONUTS! I was saving room for dinner, so didn't get anything, but I had a piece of Ben's green tea one (the green one pictures above). It was kinda weird but good)

And then we finally hear from Andrew and Jaya, who decided to skip out on dinner because they didn't feel well, so we headed out of the mall to Dotonbori.

(Cool building sign)

I wished we'd gone to eat earlier instead of sitting around, because the line was super long when we got there.

We went to a famous okinomiyaki place the kids who go to Georgetown's Japanese teacher had recommended, called Mizuno. It was also praised by the New York Times!

While we were waiting, Rashaa and I went to the bathroom in a nearby arcade. While we were there, everyone split in groups, so when we got back we were in the second group.

But we all ordered at the same time and we were let in right after the other group. Although we had to wait about 10 more minutes to be seated. But we got awesome window seats! And we were right behind the other group.

(Waiting outside the second floor for our table.)

(Our table! Look at dat view)

(We could see the second floor of the arcade Rashaa and I went in)

(Our table with our okonomiyaki!)

(Rashaa and me waiting for our food. My hair looks like a hot mess...)

And then they started making our okonomiyaki!! Ours was already made, they just out an egg on it and then added sauces and green spices. But then we saw them making the next order!

I got a modernyaki with the seafood mix (shrimp, octopus, scallops, and something else, and even though it didn't say so, oysters!) I hate oysters.

(Mine is the closest one)

Ahh the surprise oysters were so squishy and grooosssss!!! And they had nasty dark stuff in them that looked like poop!

(Ew)

But anyway, the okinomiyaki ended up being fucking amazing! Ahhhh I could eat it every night. We finished it too soon. When we finished, the other table had been done for a while, so they were ready to go.

We walked over to the bridge overlooking the river with the giant Glico man sign and took a group picture there. The guy who took our picture was really funny. He talked to us in broken English, asking us where we from and stuff. Then he mumbled some stuff in Japanese and shouted "EXCELLENCE!" It was hilarious.

After that we walked around some more. Devon, Heather, and Rashaa got crepes.

I'm waiting till Harajuku before I buy a crepe, because that's where the legit crepes are.

When they all finished their crepes, we headed back to the station. I was taking a picture of this big pink Valentine's display, when this Japanese man with a small group of other Japanese people, came over and made a motion for my camera. I gave it to him, figuring he wanted to take a picture of me with the display for me. Then I had Heather come be in the picture with me so it wasn't awkward.

Then one of the guys in his group came to pose in the picture with us! And the guy was all like hey! And then he started to take a picture of himself with my camera, until one of the ladies in his group grabbed the camera and took our picture and apologized in English to me.

All my friends were watching and cracking up the entire time haha. It was an experience. Heather basically died of laughter!

Then we rode the train back to Dobutsuenmae, which is our station. Everyone stopped in Lawson's to buy beer and stuff. Rana and I were really tired, though, so we just headed back to our place and went right to sleep.

~*~ PICTURES ~*~