Weekend in downtown Osaka

On Saturday, we went with 桑原さん (Kuwabara-san) at the ヨドバシカメラ(Yodobashi Camera) store semi-attached to the 梅田駅 (Umeda station). Basically, it's just 8 stories of electronics & other cool gadgets. Unfortunately, this tour of the little piece of heaven was saved for later and we just ate breakfast at the bakery next door (with longing stares into that store).

Here's a picture of our nice tour guide, Kuwabara-san. =D


Our first stop was 梅田スカイビル (Umeda sky building). It was so amazing! It was super tall and the building had a hole in it. o_0 Anyways, too bad a quarter of the roof was closed. Also, for just viewing the roof, 空中庭園展望台 (kuu tyuu tei en ten bou dai - Floating Garden Observatory, we had to pay 630 円 (even with Kuwabara-san's coupon). Though it was kind of pricey, I made every yen count by taking pictures with every sign that had English (and proceeded to not heed its warning).

I don't know why this model was in the observatory, but here is a model of old Osaka.


David-san, looking at downtown Osaka from 140m above.


sign reads: EMERGENCY (DON'T TOUCH)


sign reads: TELESCOPE FOR FREE


Then, we went to a big shopping mall with a ferris wheel on top for lunch. They have this cuisine which they think is western, but really isn't. The dish is called ドリア (doria), and it is basically pasta-like sauce with rice on the bottom (instead of pasta in it). This dish was super yummy though. It's one of my favorite dishes here.


Group Picture:


Then, we rode the ferris wheel that was on the roof of the mall. From the ferris wheel, you can get another good view of downtown Osaka (but this time, it's moving!). It was super fun being in a car with Ava-san and Young-san. Anyways, the guys didn't want to sit with us because they knew we would be obscenely loud and obnoxious. Boo. :( We had fun though, right Ava-san? ;) *note: me and Young-san may have been screaming for a quarter of the ascension to the top. =D





Then, we took the subway to 心斎橋 (Shinsaibashi), a district in downtown Osaka that has a small area called "America town." I wonder if this is really how they view us Americans... For starters, there were many love hotels (found 3+ in the area) and there were a lot more goth people waltzing around than usual. Also, there's this other fashion trend where the girls would be super tan and have very "unique" makeup on (resembling a clown--meant to be descriptive, not rude). Anyways. we tried to get Engrish shirts there, but it was too expensive and not as funny as we had expected.

Wear this to dress like trendy Americans?


We also passed by 3+ love hotels in America-town. It was the first time I passed by one (not just seeing on via monorail/bus/train as I whizzed by). That was interesting...

Our next stop was 道頓堀 (doutonbori). This district is famous for カニ (kani -- crab). Yummy! I took a picture of the hug moving crab signs there. Kuwabara-san also took us to this really nice place in doutonbori that tries to recreate the 1920s atmosphere. There was a skit inside the recreated "town" of the 1920s that we watched. Too bad our limited Japanese skills stopped us from comprehending. Luckily, the skit was for little children, so it was really flashy and the superb acting kept us entranced nonetheless.

This is the place we went to. I'm not sure its exact name and I'll have to confirm that later.


When you go in, they give you this card you use instead of money (that is tallied up at the end of our stay). Here is how it looks like:



In the 1920s setting place, we ate a large dessert! Okay, it wasn't as large as the one that costs $200 USD (feeds 10+), but it was decent. Kuwabara-san told us that he went with 8 other college guys and ordered the "Fuji-san dish" which took them 2 hours to finish. xD


Here's the show we saw inside the place.



See? Big mechanical crabs, everywhere!


And places that sell blow fish!


On our way back to the station, Kuwabara-san found me what I was looking for--a square watermelon!!!


Afterwards, we went back to Yodobashi Camera where me and Ava-san refrained from going crazy. We promised ourselves that we'd go back again another time, as two hours is just not enough to look through the entire store! We only managed to go through 2 floors? Well, almost three, but we had to skip the stationary section on the third floor from bouncing off the walls in excitement. I didn't take any pictures of this place, because I was too busy drooling at all the HI-TECH stuff on sale.