Yodobashi

I was getting this post ready, but then the final stop, Hong Kong, didn't have very reliable internet. Before traveling to Osaka we met a friend and I asked her what she thought was good in Osaka and what was there to do. She said, "people there speak different than from Tokyo, it's Kansai area." I wondered if there were different dialects of Japanese, but before I could ask she said, "They speak too loud. They talk more ... they talk too much."

Ideas for what to do with my VW bus.

I found Osaka to be a friendly town. After awhile I realized that I was the most dangerous looking person on the subway. I needed to establish my public role, everyone seems to have a distinct public role. Every day I saw Salaryman, School Girl, Retirees, hipsters, and shoppers (shopper is definately a role) on subway. All I had to do was whip out my English subway map and review my last pictures on my camera and every body was at ease, ah ...tourist, most likely American tourist.
Interesting thing about Osaka, it's kind of like Bladerunner, only nice and friendly. It's very layered, subways, walkovers, whole shopping malls built under elevated train tracks. And here you see the power of the all mighty corporations and where all the Salarymen work. We rode in on a Hankyu train from Kyoto which came into their own train station, next to the Hankyu department store, next to the Hankyu hotel, the Hankyu business highrise, and ground level shopping mall all sitting right next to the main public subway system. Not to be out done, their friendly rival Hanshin had the same set up basically right across the street with a train station, hotel, office building, department store and shopping mall and to do one better, they had their own baseball team, the Hanshin Tigers, the pride of Osaka. Yes in Japan, the corporate name goes on the team, not the ballpark. I think it's the same with salarymen, once you put on that white shirt and dark navy suit, you ain't changing teams. (Now that I think of it, I never saw a colored shirt other than white under a suit, and 90% of all ties were stripped)


Happy White Day! I had to look this up in Wikipedia. Apparently creating Valentines Day was not enough and so White Day was created for 30 days after Valentines Day.

On Valentines Day, the women give choc. and sweets to all the men in their lives. Boyfriends and husbands get the good stuff, while office acquaintances get "courtesy" choc. 30 days later, the man responses with actual gifts of a white nature, for example, if boy friend, white lingerie. According to Wikipedia, the return gift should to be three times the value of the chocolate gift given.

Very civilized. Soft close lid, heated seat, heated spray water, self cleaning, I think this one had a motion sensor.

Right in between the Hankyu and Hanshin monopoly mega plex was a Yodobashi Camera store. Camera should really be put in quotes, they may have started out with cameras but now sell everything you can think of that you can plug in. Ten floors of electronics and appliances and media and parts are on sale including the toilet seat of your dreams.

I couldn't get an actual picture of this rice cooker because they had someone stationed right next to it, so I settled for its brochure. The mere fact that a rice cooker has a glossy brochure required a second look. The picture I was trying to get was of the price tag. This little baby goes for 79,900 yen. That's approximately $880.00. For a rice cooker. That better be some damn good rice.

Cheap Eats and Lowbrow Snacks

Osaka is a working mens/womens town. People always need good cheap lunch food for those days you didn't have your bento box prepared the night before. 400 yen is about $4.40 US. That's like truck food price levels. However, I don't know how many days in a row I could eat takoyaki balls. I think two days is my limit. Good forms of dietary fiber are a bit hard to come by in the city.

Under all that onion and soft boiled egg and other toppings are Osaka's famous tako (octopus) yaki (pan fried?) balls. Actually a cleaver way of cooking, in ball form. I bought a takoyaki pan, eventhough it breaks the first rule of travel and packing, Don't buy items made of cast iron.


For all you waffle fans, this place has it going on. Fresh cooked waffles with either a choc, vanilla or strawberry cream filling.


This just seemed wrong. Some kind of cream or custard filling, and canned corn in a hotdog bun.




A fruit and cream sandwich, on white bread with the crust cut off. All the packaged sandwiches had the crusts cut off. How civilized.

A Vegan in Kyoto

I was told by Nao that there are not many Vegans in Japan and I was talking to just about the only one in Kyoto. She was running a shop selling tea ceremony ceramics and things. The owner was nice enough to let her put up some of her own work in the window. It was pretty random, I just started walking north and came across her store. btw, a compass is a very handy thing especially when coming out of the subway and you want to know which way to start heading.




Nice stuff in general and then I saw this. It's used to stir and mix the powdered green tea.



Of course, I'm going to make a lamp of some sorts out of it. It's a stunning piece of craft and will make an equally stunning light.


Dinner was completely in the opposite vein but equally as stunning. A long time friend of the clan had arranged this dinner. If they would have let me, I would have brought a sleeping bag and a snuggy.



It's hard to beat your own private room and your own attendant.
This place first opened about 120 years ago and was one of the first to start serving beef in Japan.





P.S. Did I tell you how much I hate Blogger? Blogger keeps cutting out and I lose changes and adds. This might be it for awhile if it doesn't calm down.

At the End of a Long Day

Traveling is just that, traveling from here to there. Figuring out how to get from here to there, and then mostlikely walking from here to there. If I lived in Japan, I could consider not having a car. Let me rephrase that. If I lived in Tokyo or Osaka I could consider not having a car, but I'd still have the coolest scooter on earth. Or if I had this thing to take me around, this would be ok.






Pink Tentacle

Something for Everyone

The rice on a sizzling plater diner is a great business model. The meat comes out raw and you cook it to your liking by the heat of the plater. Some canned corn and a rice cooker and you're in business. The ticket on the wooden plate was bought out of a vending machine by the front door. This place had the U shaped counter and the Japanese equivalent of Flo shouting back the order. The food was up in under 3 minutes. Thank Pearl Cream for the tip on this place.



These turned out to be like cookies with veg bits and flavors in them. Very good.



Again, something for everyone.



All eel, all time. This small dinner served only eel three different ways. Small, Medium and Large.



I guess this guy just didn't want to sell. I can understand, it's hard leaving Tokyo. It's racy fast pace sexy. Kinky and silly at the same time and seems to honor the old and celebrate the new (on weekends only). Of course those salary-men didn't look too supper super happy now. I guess I'll always be a bit more fond of a fun city I don't have to work in.