Now a few posts earlier I was lamenting the exodus of people from Ogaki, but thankfully Sarah was just moving to Osaka, and not out of the country. And even more fortunately, Osaka is only a couple hours away by train, which makes it an easily doable weekend trip. So I decided to head down the second weekend in September, essentially just to hang out, but Sarah’s stories of a lunch buffet that included gelato didn’t hurt matters, either. So I hopped on the train and made it to the Nakatsu subway station where I met Sarah. We dropped my stuff off at her place and promptly headed for the lunch buffet. It was solid walk, but I think that’s necessary before such gluttony. There was a decent spread of proper food, but the real attraction was the 6 or so flavors of gelato, which were also all you can eat. I quickly found that the passion fruit flavor was easily my favorite, but the black tea flavor was also really tasty, and the yuzu (citron) flavor was decent, if not a little weak. I of course ate too much, but it was yummy… and crowded. There wasn’t much room to work with anyway, so getting to the food was a chore at times. I think one of the things I’ll notice most when I’m back in the states is the sheer amount of space, especially in stores. Aisles with elbow room, for starters.
One of the neighboring stores is advertising... puddung cake? I think I'll pass.
We wandered the mall area of the same building a bit before heading over to America village, which is sort of the kooky, hippie district of Osaka. And we got a healthy dose of the kooky.
Exhibit A: This girl's outfit.
This area also features lanky robot lamp posts. Eerie, yet kind of awesome.
We sat down on ledge in the little center square/park area and a few minutes later, some guy comes past in a huff, turns, and then sets his backpack down next to mine, saying “sorry, excuse me”. Then, like clockwork, he starts asking us questions in English. Okay, another random dude wanting to practice his English a bit, nothing too odd there. But there was something off about him…especially when he asked the random question “Do you know David Bowie?” Well, yeah, I know of him, he’s got solid music, blah blah blah. “Oh really?!” And then he proceeds to pull out and show off a new David Bowie T-shirt and a Bowie patch for his backpack. Okay, buddy, you like Bowie…a lot, settle down. At some point he asked where in America I was from, and when I answered Wisconsin, he reacted as if he knew where it was. I highly doubt, considering he responding with “Oh, so you know the Battleship Wisconsin, right?” “Umm…no?” He couldn’t believe I didn’t know and then proceeded to tell how it was the most powerful battleship in the world at its time, and that it was at Pearl Harbor or something. At which point he started talking about Pearl Harbor, and used hand motions to mimic the bombs dropping…complete with explosion sound effects. Really, dude, really?! I truly think there was something a little off in this guy’s noggin, so I just took it stride and didn’t really say much in return, but I couldn’t help thinking how ridiculously offensive it would be if it were the other way around. Something tells me it wouldn’t go over so well if started talking to some random Japanese person about the war and then start acting out the dropping of the a-bomb with sound effects. After that awkward bit of conversation, he finally decided to leave.
Of course, it wouldn't be America in Japan without a mini version of the Statue of Liberty.
Not too long after that, another guy asked if he could sit next to us, and starting talking to us in English. His English, along with his level of sanity, was a marked improvement over our last random encounter. We ended up speaking a mix of Japanese and English, and learned that our new buddy Shun lives in Tokyo and works as a highway engineer. Damn, so not only is he sane, but he actually pretty dang smart. He was complaining that Osaka was boring compared to Tokyo, which I guess if you are used to Tokyo, any place seems slow/boring in comparison, but really? Osaka is no slouch, and Tokyo sure as hell isn’t the be-all-end-all. He offered to get us a beer from the convenience store when he went to grab a snack. We politely declined, had some semi-decent conversation, and then Sarah and I decided to peace out before another random person came to join us.
We then stopped at a Village Vanguard store, the same eclectic store chain where I picked up the Pia-no-Jac CD a number of posts ago. This time I was taken in my the genius marketing of a beverage called Curiosity Cola. Yes, I felt like a giant tool being sucked in by such an obvious ploy, but couldn’t help purchasing it out of, yes, sheer curiosity.
It ended up being tasty, with a bit of ginger flavor mixed in, so no regrets. We stayed awhile in the store, mainly listening to various CDs at their listening station. Sarah checked out the Disney rock and punk cover CDs, none of which she cared for too much. I stumbled upon a solid techno artist by the name of De De Mouse.
I realize techno isn't everyone's cup of tea, but I'm throwing in a link anyway. No video, just audio. It's a long song, but listen at least to around the 2 minute mark if you want a idea of what his sound is like. Sadly, my favorite song isn't up on Youtube to link, oh well.
After this we headed over to a park and plopped down for a break, just doing some people watching. It was getting dark, and we were getting hungry, so we wandered back to Shinsai-bashi, where they have a giant covered shopping arcade. On the way there we passed by an unfortunately named curry joint.
No guys, this is not at all what you think it is.
Since one good all you can eat buffet deserves another (and we wanted pizza), we went to, that’s right, good ol’ Shakey’s Pizza and Buffet. Sure, they had their share of odd Japanese style toppings, but they put out plenty of “normal” pizzas, so we gorged ourselves on those. Also, it was by far the cleanest, brightest Shakey’s I’ve ever been inside. With our stomachs bursting we headed back to Sarah’s apartment. In her infinite wisdom, Sarah picked up an old Super Famicom (Super Nintendo) shortly after moving to Osaka. Even more importantly, she had Super Mario Kart! So…that was pretty much Saturday night, racing through to Gold Trophies in all 4 cups on 100cc mode. Good times, that game never gets old.
We grabbed some breakfast the next day before deciding to head out to Den Den Town, which is Osaka’s electronics district, to check out the used game shops and see what we could find for her Super Nintendo. We stopped at one place, but it was somewhat overpriced and we didn’t find a ton. We grabbed lunch at a Chinese restaurant and then headed out to another store Sarah said was cheaper. There we stumbled upon some gems. Namely, Sarah picked up Super Mario RPG on the cheap, and I found Hook, which is based off the early 90s Peter Pan movie of the same name. I remember playing it at Mary and Joe’s once a long time ago, so it has some nostalgia value. I was pleasantly surprised to find the game holds up well over time with some solid platforming action. Maybe not quite as difficult as it was for me back then, seeing as I beat the game back at Sarah’s place in around 90 minutes. But those were 90 minutes of fun, and the game cost only 300 yen, so I really can’t complain.
We also found The Very Hungry Caterpillar in Circle K/Sunkus!! He's the mascot for their autumn "Delicious Bread Lifestyle" ad campaign.
Sarah also purchased a game called Little Master, simply because it had an endearing angel-winged kitten on the cartridge label. We played that for about 3 minutes before decided it was crap. Again, only 100 yen, not a big investment. Then Sarah started in on the gloriousness that is Super Mario RPG. Sadly, it came time for me to catch the train, but we stopped at a curry place nearby the station for dinner first. This curry was a much deeper brown than any Japanese curry I’ve had before, and had a distinct flavor that I really can’t liken to anything, but it was good and I’d definitely go back. It’s honestly the first J-curry joint I’ve gone to that isn’t Coco Ichiban (giant chain). I’ve also decided if I ever become a rap artist, that is going to be my name. J-curry, recognize. Sadly, it was then time to part ways. Not for long, though, as I’d be briefly stopping in Osaka the next weekend.
*Update: It turns out there actually is a Battleship Wisconsin that existed during WWII, and it was actually one of the last and most advanced built by the Navy, so the guy wasn't talking completely out of his arse. He was still batshit crazy, though.
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