Toyo's Japan Trip!

[宇佐見 蓮子@C94]

[spoiler=Part 1: Osaka]
Well, after 6 hours of the worst plane flight ever endured by a human being, I landed in Kansai International Airport and was immediately informed that my baggage was still stuck somewhere in Malaysia, and that it wouldn't arrive until 9 PM tomorrow. Basically, I have no clothes, or any other basic amenities for 36 hours. Thankfully, Malaysia Airlines (somewhat) redeemed themselves by giving me $60 for screwing up the immigration process.

Weather is... Arguably nice. I haven't been called a terrorist and nobody's come up to me and said I'm their long lost daughter, so overall I'd say the trip is going swell. Today I'll just have a sightseeing trip around Osaka, maybe buy some clothes with the $60 I got, and try some local food that hopefully won't make me puke.

Onwards! First stop, Shinsaibashi, Osaka's premiere shopping street. I got there at 10 AM, so there was very few people there and the shops were all still closed. To be honest, it wasn't too interesting. Most of the shops were very expensive branded stuff, but there was a reasonably priced clothes shop so I'm not naked for tomorrow.

Shinsaibashi done, I took a 2 minute train ride to Nipponbashi, Otaku (almost) heaven. It's like Shinsaibashi, but replace the GAPs and Hush Puppies with brandless otaku stores. Nipponbashi is huge. Very huge. It took me 30 minutes to get from one end to the other. However, the place itself was very nice, so I didn't feel tired. Many pachinko places are scattered all over, as well as several arcades. I found a pachinko place called Daitoyo! I'm not even kidding!

[spoiler=Shops to go:]
Jungles - Very good anime store. Sells a lot of figmas, nendos, PVC figures, cosplay and some dakimakuras as well.
Bic Camera - The big one just right of the station. Sells a lot of electronic stuff and some anime DVDs if you look hard enough. Vocaloid CDs and some blu-rays are there too.
[/spoiler]
Also, there are a lot of claw machine stores with anime merch as prizes, but I'm not interested. First store I went to was Bic Camera. Waaay too expensive. Persona 4 the Animation DVD was almost $50. Then I just randomly went into any store with anime pictures on it to find a Suika figma. And, er, well, didn't find it.

And thus, after a 1 hour walk back to the station and several subway trips, I checked into my hotel and had a hot shower. My legs hurt like hell and my arms too. Tomorrow, Kobe. Home of the best meat in the world and, er... What else?

[spoiler=
Touhou Merch Watch Day 1:]
Figma: Reimu, Sakuya
Nendo: Reimu, Marisa, Sakuya, Alice, Cirno, Yuyuko, Youmu, Sanae.
[/spoiler]
[/spoiler]

[spoiler=Part 2: Kobe. WARNING: Pics.]
Osaka done, time for Kobe. Which means a beautiful ocean view, great mountains and high-quality beef. Sounds like a lovely day. I arrive at Shin Kobe station at exactly 12 past 10, and-OH GOD THE RAIN IS SO HARD. Seriously, it was raining all day and I was a baka for not reading the forecast. This meant that the ocean view is, er, fog and the mountains are straight-up inaccessible.

Told you it was raining, you baka gaijin - Japanese weather forecasters

Oh well. There's always Motomachi. 10 minutes (by bus) away from the station, it's Kobe's equivalent of Shinsaibashi. And by equivalent, I mean exactly the same. Same stores and all. Still, I found a nice 100 Yen ($1) shop and bought Japanese seasonings, so it's not a wasted trip. Also, this is where I got the Kobe beef, and by god is it nice. Even the low-key restaurants taste really, really good. Paired with Japanese rice, it's just heaven.

And here we see Spiderman, sexually assaulting a building. With the way Japanese girls are right now, I'm not surprised.

Next up, the ports. The travel brochures show a wonderful skyline paired with majestic ships in the horizon. Except, when I got there, replace the 'wonderful skyline' with 'thick gray fog' and 'majestic ships' with 'absolutely f***-all'. So, after that waste of time, I went to Kobe's Chinatown. Disappointingly, the rain turned from 'hard' to 'torrential'. Even the Turkish Ice Cream Man looked sad. Maybe he's bitter about the fact that the weather has taken over his job of trolling.

Either God's unfinished dildo or Godzilla's body pillow. Either way, it's a lot less impressive than the Tsutenkaku or Tokyo Tower

That's not me under the pagoda, of course. I was too busy getting shouted at by a store owner for standing in front of his shop. True story.

Sigh. Turns out Kobe is a waste of time anyway. Lets just stop at Shinnomiya, which is another shopping street. Hopefully I can get some sake and drown my boredom as I wait for the last train for Osaka-IS THAT A GAMER'S*?! *squee*

*GAMER'S = Otaku shop chain in Japan. Sells a lot of games, manga, anime, CD and even has a card shop.

----------------
OTAKU TIME
----------------

For those interested, the Otaku stores in Shinnomiya are located in the 2nd and 3rd floors of the Center Plaza. There's a lot of 'em, so keep an eye out.

GAMER'S didn't disappoint. It was fantastic. Unfortunately, the only Touhou PVC there was Derpy Sakuya and melting Cirnos. Uhg.

It's so bad the camera doesn't want to focus on it. Shame on you, Japan.

Moving on. Like Nipponbashi, there are a lot of claw machines with anime merch as prizes, but they were horribly inaccurate and is less profitable than throwing your 700 Yen to a pig. Along the way, I came across a Persona Q propaganda device hellbent on making me buy a 3DS.

Join us. Your resistance is futile. - Atlus & Nintendo

Must... Not... Sell... Soul... To Atlus.... Right, anyway, Japan stuffs. Some interesting stores along the way. The most interesting ones were a store that sells only Jojo merch and another that sells Famicom, Super Famicom and Gameboy games for under 10 bucks, among other things. Hmm... What kind of merch does this store sell? Maybe some interesting Nintendo retro stuff-Nope. Just a massive, hydrocephalic My Little Pony plush.

NOPE.

Ugh. Another good store for Anime merch is Volk's iirc. It's not just an otaku store, as at least 80% of the store is Gunpla and other assorted toys. Still, the merch that were on offer were A grade, if a little expensive.

[fangirling intensifies]

And then, finally, the holy grail, Comic Toranoana. If the thing you're looking for isn't here, then you'll only find it in DoujinStyle or Mandarake. Rows and rows of doujin and games. Turn around, and you see a bunch of Nendos and Figmas. Heaven. Wallet, I'm sorry, you're gonna be much thinner by the time this is over.

That's all Touhou. Ain, I'm sorry you're not here.

In the end, I shelled out 3500 yen for 2 Doujin CDs, one of which I had been looking for for almost 6 months. The nice lady at the counter also gave me an Okuu keychain to match the Cirno one I got, so now my messenger bag is literally the stupidest one on Earth. Outside Comic Toranoana were several gashapons. I got a chibi Miku keychain and a Kogasa pin.

Whew. That was truly fun. Time to go back to Osaka. Tomorrow is Kyoto. I'm very much looking forward to it. Very, very much so. Stay tuned~☆

[center]
All of these combined is less than $40. I'm in lesbians with Shinnomiya[/spoiler]

I also have some other pics, including a store called Aix, a boob mousepad and miscelleanous weird Japanese things.

[Maeriberii Haan]

Ew, Malaysia Airlines.

[·Toot]

lol cool. You should do the Jvlog thing.

[Kyng]

Very intrigued. Will read regularly.

[宇佐見 蓮子@C94]

Finished day 1. Maybe today won't be as interesting, but stay tuned~

[Aix]

Take pictures, baka.

[宇佐見 蓮子@C94]

Take pictures, baka.

Sorry! I completely forgot about pics. I'll take more in Kyoto and Tokyo, promise!

[Darj]

This is interesting. I will keep an eye on the thread.

And I hope things get better for you soon.

[宇佐見 蓮子@C94]

Part 2: Attack of The Kobe is now in the OP. Please read warmly~

[Maeriberii Haan]

fuk u

-Man, you should've waited before going to Kobe. Missing the view due to rain sucked hard.
-Fall into Nintendo's temptation Toyo~
-Foreground Eclipse is damn nice.
-Mental note: I need to plan my next Japan trip better than you.
-Waiting warmly for when you find a shop named Ain/Risa

[mitchermitcher]

Should've gotten some stuff by FELT as well..or Shibayan...but still, damn that's nice.

 

Ya gotta tell me, how hard was it to just walk up to the counter with what you wanted to buy? Once while I was there, I went in(Not Toranoana but this other one called Animate...that was full of fujoshi), and despite the shit ton of things I wanted, all I bought was a small Narukami Yuu nendo ;_; And the chick at the counter gave me a weird look...Hell I don't even look that foreign. Sorry for bloggin', curious on how another foreigner feels

 

Next time I'mma make sure to head to Shinnomiya.

[宇佐見 蓮子@C94]

It wasn't that hard, really. The fact that I was wearing a hoodie and looked sufficiently Japanese probably helped.

[Aix]

 a store called Aix, a boob mousepad

I must see this.

[宇佐見 蓮子@C94]

I must see this.

Here you go bbz:

[宇佐見 蓮子@C94]

I just boarded the last Shinkansen from Hiroshima to Osaka, which will last exactly 88 minutes. During that duration, this thread will be an AMA. Ask away, YCM.

[Maeriberii Haan]

Give me something, ok?

[宇佐見 蓮子@C94]

That's a request. Plus i don't want to huddle around akihabara with huge bags of touhou

[Maeriberii Haan]

Oh, ok then.

 

What's happening today btw?

[宇佐見 蓮子@C94]

Bad scheduling. Went to Itsukushima and that's it. I'll try to make today's post as interesting as possible, but I don't think it's gonna be as good as Kobe.