狼と香辛料 (Ookami to Koushinryou, Wolf and Spice (refferred to as Spice and Wolf in the UK)), is an anime I first saw at the Leeds Anime Society. I was mainly entranced by it’s storyline that wasn’t set in Japan, but old Europe, and the fact that it uses early economics and trading as a continual baseline. ¬_¬ Yeah that may sound dull and boring to you, but shush, it was great. So not only did I manage to find a copy of the game (that I didn’t know even existed), but I found a special edition box set. I just checked the Spice & Wolf website to find it has a price of 7,770 yen (£54.33), however I paid a measly 2,940 yen (£20.56). I’ve just opened the box and found a ‘Horo voice in a bag’, an audio CD, and of course the game itself. Not bad.

My other bargain was partially based on something I bought yesterday (but forgot to blog about). There are two Higurashi (yeah I know, lately I haven’t shut up about the series) games on the DS which I’ve been wanting to get since I first noticed them back in September, but they were just too expensive. Well yesterday after dropping a 13.8kg box of books at the post office (which will take about 3 months to reach the UK), I found a copy of the second game at a reasonable price (with a 200 yen coupon I had) of 2,280 yen (£15.94), so scooped it up.

Fast forward to today where I find the special edition (Angel Mort) boxed version of the second game for a meagre 1,890 yen (£13.22). The cheapest I’d seen this edition was in the region of 5,000-6,000 yen (£34.96-£41.95), so let’s open her up and see what she holds inside …

We have the game (of course), a framed Shion & Mion card in an Angel Mort stamp card (might take a while for me to read what it says inside >_<), 2 Angel Mort coasters (one written in English: “Dear Customer, Welcome to my cafe. How lucky you are to have chanced upon this place. A place that will make your dreams come true. Have you found your favourite angel? If not, don’t worry. Keep visiting us, and you’ll find your one and only. Please enjoy yourself to the full. We are here to serve you. From, shop owner”), 2 sticker cards, an Angel Mort flanel/hand towel, a paper Angel Mort apron, and an Angel Mort Drama CD. Quite a haul really. You can see a picture of what’s inside on this forum page, though for some reason they got an extra amulet thingy.

So in buying this I was left with the predicament of having two of the same game. My choices were simple. I could either keep both games, try and sell one on to a friend (or eBay), or try and take the more expensive one back to the shop. Despite not knowing how refunds were conducted in Japan or if any etiquette was needed on my part, I opted for the last option.

After quickly looking up the vocabulary for returning something to a shop 返送 (hensou) and refund 払い戻し (haraimodoshi), I headed to the shop (open 24-7, or as is said in Japanese 4-6 (四六時中, shirokujichuu, open around the clock, 4 x 6 = 24)) with the game, the receipt, and what I hoped was the same carrier bag.

Normally in the UK getting a refund isn’t a very simple process. Well, I guess it is (as long as you’re not a prick to whoever’s serving you), but normally the shop will want you to fill in a form, give your address, wait for a manager and so on and so on. With this in mind I was somewhats apprehensive about the whole thing, especially as I still take a good 10 minutes or so writing out my address. When I approached the counter I explained that “I bought the game yesterday as a birthday present for my friend, but he already had it so I wanted to return it” (my usual blatant returning product lie ಠ_ಠ). The staff member then popped to the back and returned with another member of staff. She then checked the amount with me and returned my money with a smile. No paper to fill in, no signatures to sign, that was it … done.

I think I’ll be leaving these two games for the plane trip back, but in the mean time, here’s what I bought today (these will be added to The List at some point, along with the ones I bought that day we went to the Mother Cafe.

• DS Games
• ひぐらしのなく頃に絆第一巻・想　エンジェルモートお持ち帰りBOX
• 狼と香辛料　ボクとホロの一年　初回限定版

• Music CD
• Moment by Vivian or Kazuma

• Sound Novels (games)
• うみねこのなくの頃に　第一話 (also came with a very funky metal bookmark
• うみねこのなくの頃に　第二話
• うみねこのなくの頃に　第三話 (I already had this, but couldn’t remember which of the three I didn’t have)

• Manga
• Genshiken – book 6 (series complete)
• Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei – books 10 to 16 (series complete … for now)
• The Meloncholy of Haruhi Suzumiya – book 5 and a one off special anthology
• Love Hina – book 0
• Akihabara Ichiman Chanel (1 off)
• Higurashi – the remaining books from the 罪滅し編 (tsumihoroboshi hen)
• Higurashi – the remaining book from the 宵越し編 (yoigoshi hen)
• Higurashi – コンプエース編 (comp ace hen)
• Higurashi – Book 1 of 5 of the 語咄し編 コミックアンソロジー (cohanashi hen comic anthology)

Everyone loves a sale right, especially ones with lots of variety and end up saving you a lot of money, right?

WRONG!

Today I learned the hard way that when you buy things cheap, lots of things, so much that you fill a (large) back pack and are still carrying things in carrier bags (pretty nicely made paper carrier bags) you actually end up still spending a pointless amount of money. Only difference is you have a lot more stuff … heavy stuff … stuff that’ll sting you in the arse once more when you’re trying to send stuff home and have to pay an arm, a leg and a left bollock just for the cheapest and slowest delivery. Rant over, moving on.

I’d walked past the まんだらけ (Mandarake) store in Shinsaibashi once before, but didn’t have time to go in. I’ve been in the Umeda branch a good few times so thought I’d have a fairly good idea of the layout, which in turn figured out to be completely different, and much larger than I’d anticipated.

Mandarake had the first of the day’s wonderful sales in a 105 yen sale, with a huge section cut down in price. On top of this they were also having a 3 for 2 sale, meaning (if my maths is right) the manga was 70 yen each (48p). By horrible (ish) coincidence I found a ton of Higurashi books that I didn’t have, so swiped them up at a bargain price. I saw “swipe”, but that was nothing compared to one guy who stretched rapidly across an aisle grabbed a book and shouted “ゲット” (getto, Get) in celebration. Honestly this is something I’ve only seen in anime and manga, so I’m glad to see it really happens.

After (almost literally) buying the whole sale sections supply of Higurashi mangas, we went to the stores own cafe on the same floor as the sale and the cosplay section, yes this was a cosplay cafe. Not technically a maid cafe, especially compared to the one we went to last time, this time it was a Mother Cafe.

To be honest with the way various websites are talking about them, you’d be forgiven for expecting a lot more “mothering”. When I went to the top floor and saw it I thought it was just the name of the place, and that the staff being in maid-esque (more like house-cleaner than your traditional maid) attire being due to the fact that they were right next to the cosplay section. It wasn’t until we’d sat down, ordered, were half-way through our melonade (melon soda) that I noticed a small sign acknowledging (that’s an ugly word isn’t it) the waitresses as ‘mothers’.

We did have a really friendly conversation with our ‘mother’ about a variety of topics. Ranging from how long we’d been in to Japan to why I’d bought so many frickin’ Higurashi mangas. It turns out she was a fan also. Both my friend and I agreed that before going back to the UK next month we want to pop in and see ‘mom’ again (whether or not it’ll be the same one we won’t know), but above all that I was thankful that she didn’t say that my Japanese was good (that’s the key to wipe my memory of any and all Japanese language skills I have).

From here we walked down toward Nippombashi, and after stashing my heavy-ass purchases in a coin locker at the train station, we headed off towards Den Den town. After a while my friend headed back so I went on around a huge selection of anime shops, manga shops, game shops, electronic shops, doujinshi shops, and shops I wouldn’t take my nan in. Yes folks I made sure to get a hellova good nose around today and went in many shops for the first and last time.

This is where things began getting tricky for me in buying manga that I didn’t have. Off the top of my head I could only remember a few holes in the collection, such as volumes 7 and 8 of Yotsuba, but, as I mention in the list, Higurashi is a pain in the arse and trying to remember which I have and don’t have is like trying to memorise the distinct features of 101 dalmations.

My original plan was to take a photo on my phone of what Higurashi’s I had, and check the list via my phones (meagre) internet connection about the others. Part one worked just fine, and in Mandarake I referred to this so that I didn’t buy more than I needed (wanted). The problem was checking the others. When I tested it last night it worked fine but today my phone just wanted to be a whiny little toe stub, not getting online at all, leaving me in the dark when I didn’t know whether I had a certain issue of Genshiken (I didn’t). I then hit a snag with my Higurashi plan when I realised with the 17 (or so) books I’d bought earlier now in a locker, I had no clue which I had and which I didn’t.

Buying only what I was certain I didn’t (all at prices in the margin of 100 to 200 yen or so) I conceded that I would make one final trip to Nippombashi soon, real soon. But not tomorrow, because I’m seeing Rie Fu in Nishinomiya Gardens … hopefully.

Today’s Shopping List

• DVDs
• Brave Story (2 disc edition)
• Heroes vol 1 (in Japanese of course)
• そのひぐらしのなく頃に (Sono Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni) – What appears to be a fanmade movie based on the Higurashi series. I don’t want to say it’s poorly made because I haven’t watched it yet, but the box seems very cheaply done >_<

• CD
• ひぐらしデイブレイク (Higurashi Dei Bureiku) – Original Sound Track (this is the soundtrack for a doujin game called Higurashi Day Break, based on the fames Higurashi franchise. I did see the game today, but that was a bit too costly)

• Sound Novel (games)
• ひぐらしのなく頃に (Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni)
• ひぐらしのなく頃に礼 (Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni Rei) (for those who are wandering what happened to 解 (kai), I’d already bought it)
• うみねこのなく頃に (Umineko No Naku Koro Ni)

• Art Book
• Erementar Gerad “Red” by 東まゆみ (Azuma Mayumi – Azuma being a family name)

• Manga (aka the big chunk)
• げんしけん (Genshiken) volume 2
• よつばと (Yotsubato) volumes 7 & 8
• 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 (Suzumiya Haruhi No Yuuutsu) volume 3 and a special edition of volume 4 that included a Haruhi figure
• Higurashi – both books from the 綿流し編 (watanagashi hen)
• Higurashi – both books from the 祟殺し編 (tatarigoroshi hen)
• Higurashi – both books from the 暇潰し編 (himatsubushi hen)
• Higurashi – both books from the 鬼曝し編 (onisarashi hen)
• Higurashi – book 1 (of 4) from the 罪滅し編 (tsumihoroboshi hen)
• Higurashi – book 2 (of 2) from the 宵越し編 (yoigoshi hen)
• Higurashi – from the previous anthology (where I had two random books, 12 and 13) books 2, 3, 4, 8, 10, 11 (out of 17 … *sigh*)
• Higurashi – (from a case-based anthology) books 1, 3, 4, 7, 9 (out of 19 … *even larger sigh*)
• Higurashi – (from a 4-panel based anthology) book 4 (of 14 … T_T)

Damn that Higurashi >_<

Good evening everyone and welcome to 春分の日 (shumbun no hi, Vernal Equinox Day), a national holiday here in Japan where people visit graves of departed family members and holding family reunions. And since I could do neither of the above, how did I spend my day eh?

Well to start with a nice lie-in was had (no food on holidays, you know the drill by now) as well as a day off from Uni. This in itself seems quite rare, as we normally (as exchange students) go in on most national holidays. Some of my Leeds friends at other Uni’s in Japan always seem somewhat shocked that we still have to go in during the Spring break.

Today I’d arranged with a couple of Japanese friends to go down to 日本橋 (Nippombashi) to look at the second hand manga shops and other anime related goodies. Like me, my friends arrived earlier than we agreed to meet so we could head off earlier. I love it when people are punctual ^_^.

After arriving at Nippombashi we headed in the direction of Den Den Town to first grab some food. Suddenly we came face to face with a barrier and a guard directing foot traffic. After crossing a road to where we wanted to go, we noticed a sign over a bridge saying that ‘something’ (not being able to read the kanji) was happening that day. According to my friends there was some kind of festival on, but even they weren’t entirely certain, suggesting it could be an Otaku Festival.

Sure enough the moment we turned the corner the street was jam packed with cosplayers, photographers and maids among other people. Voices could be heard over loudspeakers aswell as the excited calls of shop staff as they tried as hard as they could to entice people in to make a sale or two. After having a very brief nose around, we headed to the nearest McDonalds.

After chowing down we headed off down the road to the A-Too Media Recycle Shop, my favourite shop in the area. For my friends, this was the first time they’d gone to Nippombashi, so going in a shop that had manga starting at 10 yen (just over 7p at today’s rate) appeared to be a real treat. I too was astounded by the number of books that had been put down into the 50 yen and 100 yen sales. Picking up 7 books from the 100 yen section and a set of 6 books for 300 yen I headed for the till.

Now, either this shop was having an amazingly generous sale, they undercharged me, or both. Let’s just do a little math shall we? 7 books at 100 yen is 700 yen, plus the 6 book set for 300 yen, totalling 1000 yen (convenient number). Now when I was at the counter I heard one girl (there were two at the counter serving me) mention that the 100 yen books were now at 50 yen. This in itself was pretty sweet, so let’s change the equation. 7 books at 50 yen is 350 yen, plus the 6 book set for 300 yen, totalling 650 yen, right? ブー (buu, wrong (audible noise like a buzzer)).

I paid a total of 410 yen (£2.97) for my 13 books, giving an average price per book at just under 32 yen (23p) each. Get in! Checking the reciept later, they’d charge me just 60 yen instead of 300 for by 6 book set.

Shopping List: The 山田家 (The Yamada-ke, The Yamada House) books 1-6, 涼宮ハルヒの憂鬱 (Suzumiya Haruhi no yuuutsu, The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya) books 1 and 2, and げんしけん The Society For The Study Of Modern Visual Culture (Genshiken (a word made from an acronym of) The Society For The Study Of Modern Visual Culture) books 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8. There is of course one big problem with buying manga at the moment at that has a lot to do with the fact I only have 2 months (ish) left, shipping this stuff home is going to be a heavy and expensive PITA.

After having a nice look around the area and in some other shops, we then headed to nearby Namba for some more nosing. One of the biggest differences between the two places was the vast difference in the kind of people that seemed to be in the area. Sure, both were full to the brim, but whereas Nippombashi was packed with people dressed in outfits of characters from Ace Hono to Zodd The Immortal, Namba had a more “commonly dressed” crowd, the two barely seeming to notice the fact that they’re right next door to one another.

Vistiting Namba Parks again was a nice little experience. We didn’t really go with a set plan or list of things we wanted to see, meaning we could freely wander around. Heading up through the restaurant section we were treated to a display where a chef was showing how cold soba noodles are made from dough. One person from his restaurant was then giving samples out so we could have a taste. Personally I’ve never been a fan of soba, but these were quite nice. I took a video of him cutting it with great care and attention, so that’ll be on the photo and picture blog soon.

After this we headed up to the top floor where there was a garden area. Performing on a staged area was a clown from America (I think he said his name was Dave or something). Don’t get me wrong, when I said clown I don’t mean he was some tosser arsing about, I mean he was actually performing clown-like things (well, we only got to see his finale, juggling knives on an elevated unicycle). Also fair play to the guy, his Japanese was pretty damn good (he slotted in English every now and then, but it seemed to work), so good in fact that it wasn’t until the end that he said he was from the States that I’d have believed it. Good show Dave.

Throughout the rest of the garden were handprints people who had achieved fame in Japan. We had fun comparing different people’s handsizes to our own and I felt a nice sense of acomplishment that my hand could compete with writers and athletes to name a few professions.

Parting ways in Umeda, I headed to Matsuya for my usual holiday meal of Curry-Rice.

To quote professor West’s lecture notes (to give you a very brief intro):

The Shunie-houyou 修に会法要 or Second Month Memorial Rite is an act of repentance keka 悔過 before the temple’s deity – Juuichimen Kannon 十一面観音. The priests, acting on the people’s behalf, carry out rituals of repentance for their sinse.

It takes place in Nara at the Nigatsudou which is a sub-temple of Todaiji. The Nigatsudou was established in the early 8th century by a priest named Jitchuu. There are many legends associated with the Nigatsudou and the Omizutori ritual and three of them are directly connected with Jitchuu.

The first great thing about this trip was that it was taken into account that people would find it inconvenient to travel all the way to Kobe, just to head back in the direction they came from. From the meeting time, I could easily have had breakfast and met up at Okamoto (on some previous trips I’ve had to skip the meal to make the meeting time, regardless of the fact we had to wait for late pillocks), but since we were going through Umeda station, I met the group there after having a nice extra bit of sleep and a casual walk.

This trip was joined by a few guests, which considering the small class size, didn’t make too much of a crowd. Joining us were another Konan exchange student, a fellow Leeds student who’d made a trip of her own down from Tokyo, and three students (British, Singaporean and Japanese) from Kwansei Gakuin University. Heading from here to the 御堂筋線 (midousuji sen, Midousuji line), we soon found ourselves on our train journey to the former capital of Japan.

The views alone from the trains were outstanding, and seeing a wide range of great 景色 (keshiki, scenery) from city-scapes and wide countryside to old building foundations, gave me a welcome change to my usual view from my usually poor view from my dorm window.

On arriving at Nara we all split up for an hour to grab some lunch. I say split up, but what I mean is everyone headed into the huge shopping centre adjacent to the station and I buggered off in the opposite direction. The side streets I initially walked down were full of a variety of shops, houses and happy faces, and since the weather was on our side (though a tad breezy) the walk felt even more enjoyable.

Walking past a local NHK TV station, I soon found myself at some parkland near the “Governer’s Official Residence” so took some nice photos (of the parkland, not the residence). How did I know it was that? The sign on the front in English kind of gave it away. I found the exterior walls to the ground to be quite interesting. They were white and had a ‘dark substance’ growing from the damp water residue falling from above, but from a distance these marks resembled a forest in Winter. To be honest when I first saw it on my approach, I was unsure if this was an actual painted mural on the walls, and it was not until I was close up I saw it for what it was. Perhaps that’s why it wasn’t cleaned off.

Walking back towards our meeting point I came across some wild animals that were roaming free in the park, with people going up to pet them and feed them specially sold biscuits. Very cute and friendly these hornless 鹿 (shika, deer) were, that parents were allowing young babies to approach them, though most often the babies and young children ran away terrified. Not wanting to be late to meet the group, I only stopped to take a few pictures before being on my way again.

Here’s a video clip from Lucky Star of Tsukasa Hiiragi getting the 鹿 treatment!

Arriving at the meeting point twenty minutes earlier than the scheduled time, I headed into the shopping centre and picked up some batteries and snacks from a 100 yen shop for later on. I also popped into McDonalds for lunch, had a nice walk around and still made it back five minutes before anyone else.

Walking back in the same direction as the cute little furry animals, we stopped off for a few moments of petting and feeding (the deer, not us), along with more photographs. To say that these deer are everywhere would be like saying that I can speak English. As we walked along the road during the day to get to where we needed to, you could almost put a guarantee on having at least one deer somewhere within your view. And yet at the same time I found it impossible to get sick of them. They seemed to bring a nice feeling inside, the kind you can only feel after really having your fill at your favourite restaurant in an all you can eat style and someone you don’t like footing the bill. It’s really something to see a deer bow towards you (I often found myself bowing back without realising). The deer here are reveered as sacred messengers from the Gods, and this is shown in their obviously unique personalities if by nothing else. I’m tempted to make a return visit to Nara just so I can have a day relaxing and watching the 鹿. Oh and because I know someone’s going to ask, probably Simon, yes I did see one having a poo.

Before arriving at Nigatsudou we made a couple of stops. First was the 奈良国立博物館 (Nara kokuritsu hakubutsukan – Nara National Museum) to look at the exhibit about Todaiji, Nigatsudou and the Omizutori. After the late people had caught up, we then moved on for a visit to the Todaiji itself, an amazing temple that again I could have spent ours at just admiring it. Also visiting Todaiji was a very large group of school girls,the manner of which again seemed very familiar to that particular Lucky Star episode. Ironically one of the stereotypes of a group of school girls here is the ability to sound shocked in unison. Well this was something that I used to consider pure cock and bull, until it was confirmed by my own ears “heeeee”. Watch this clip to see the kind of thing I mean, it happens at about 7 seconds.

As we approached Nigatsudou it became clear that it was going to be a busy festival as more and more people started to appear. We were getting there two hours before the festivals scheduled start time of 7pm in order to get a good spot, which we were very successful at. After which some of the group had gone off for some food, but as more people came it became harder and harder to keep ‘their spots’. It seemed as if a text I sent to them got through and after much carefully executed ‘shoving’, the group managed to make it back, though were soon scolded by one man for being too loud (to be fair, I think they could easilly have been heard from the back of the group of thousands of attendees).

As the festivities began and the lights went off, everyone was asked by one official not to use flash photography, to which the poor guy was ironically blinded by flashes. Throughout the night flashes were seen to go off, whether accidentally or not is something I don’t know, though my cameras flash setting did pop on once or twice before my battery supply diminished.

The festival itself involved the carrying of huge fire-lit torches up a staircase on one side of the temple (by one priest) and holding it at a great distance from a platform over the viewing crowd, of which we were almost at the front. The torch is then either shook or spun so that ash and embers fall towards the crowd. It is considered very lucky to have this ash fall on you, meaning my fire-scented backpack is now incredibly fortunate. This is repeated another 9 times, by which time I was thankful that I was wearing a hat.

Leaving the temple was where the real adventure began. Finishing at 7.30 (only half an hour after it started) we slowly and carefully made our way down the steep hill we were standing on, a hill that’s awkwardness could be compared (though not very well) to the Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake location. After reaching the bottom and checking to make sure if everyone was there, we checked the time. There was a train coming at about 8 o’clock, it was 7:35.

The race was on.

Everyone knew the drill; keep up or get left behind. Marching on like a team on a mission (finally, a group walking at ‘my speed’) we overtook groups, families, 鹿, small children, taxis, anyone that was an obstacle. We were also going a different way back so it was crucial to keep up with our proffessor, though the calls that could be heard in the distance shouting “sensei!” soon caught up. For a stretch we joined the road, the path being clogged with walkers, and even made an adrenaline swimming road-crossing which some students described as a “24 moment”. As we got nearer the station, another burst of adrenaline shot through some of our veins as we turned our ultra-powerwalk into a run, arriving at the station 5 minutes or so before the train was due to leave.

Ironically, I didn’t want to get this train but was too caught up in the moment to think about it. I knew we’d be getting back too late for dinner at the dorm, so my plan was to munch at McDonalds. Some people had to get on this train to meet families for dinner and so on (insert saracstic smily here), so a few of us, professor included, stuck around to make sure the straglers caught up.

On the way back I remembered something about the train pass that we were travelling on; it wasn’t my normal pass. It was a one-day travel pass that allowed travel between Kobe and Nara, meaning I could get off and on and change routes if I wanted. In other words, I could use this for some pointless free travel, well, for that day anyway. As we pulled into Nippombashi I said adios to the group and went off to see what stores were still open in Den Den Town (hoping to pick up the next couple of books from Yotsuba& cheaply).

I’m not sure if I was shocked, surprised or dissapointed to see that most shops were closed (this being at about 10pm), but when you think of a place nicknamed the Akihabara of Osaka, you generally have certain expectations. This being the case there were some shops (besides your usual 24 hour convenience stores) that were still open and appeared to go on through the night, though none had what I wanted. Walking past the maids and hosts I made my way back to the station.

I remembered a new bookshop (not really new, but one we’d only been in once about a week ago) in Umeda and since I had my little ticket for (almost) unlimited travel, headed north. I wasn’t really shocked that it would be closed, but I was shocked by the number of ‘pretty boys’ I’d passed on the way to get there. Obviously some of these guys were working for host bars, trying to get people in, but others were there for their hobby; nampa.

Nampa, to put it very simply, is where a guy hangs out on the street and tries to meet a girl with the intention of ending up in a love hotel. Apparently people have dedicated themselves to it with the same degree that someone would take up a sport, though it’s quite funny to think of girl-hunting as the new football.

I’d heard a few things about it from friends who’d been on the receiving of a few ‘invitations’ so thought I’d obverse for a few minutes outside the Hep 5 building, apparently a Nampa hotspot. Groups of well (and not so well) manicured men stand in line to the side of the path facing in. When one of them spots a potential (pardon my wording) ‘catch’ from a distance they make their way towards them. With all the power and lines they can muster, they have but a few moments to try and convince the girl to spend some time with them. Actually this reminded me a lot of the charity collectors (and so on) who dot themselves down high streets in the UK (I wonder if they’d collect more money if the night involved a trip to a love hotel). Of the few attempts I observed before heading off, not only was no one successful, but it appeared that one girl insulted the manhood-size of one nampa practioner – BURN!

With this I headed home back to good old 天神橋筋六丁目 (tenjimbashi suji roku choume, where I live). Before going to bed I checked my email. Since it had been my birthday recently (when exactly I seldom tell anyone) PKR, an online poker company I sometimes play free games on, invited me for a free-roll tournament involving 112 people. A few hours later I finished in 9th place and was awarded a $10 prize for my efforts.

Truly a wonderful day.

Oh, and I found 1 yen on the floor!

This has been by far one of (if not the) longest journal entries I’ve done, and if you’ve got this far thanks for staying awake. Please leave a comment to let me know you’re still alive! I’ll congratulate you with a little tune – Congratulations by Cliff Richard (gotta love the Austin Powers outfit).

10074edb5a8d56dc0cf5ca07ae43bf9f

Actually to be honest there’s not really much to add >_<. If you're heading down to Osaka and want to go, it's every month on the 21st ... in the region of Nippombashi!

Yeah it's a short one, but besides studying (and getting feeling like I've rapidly developed narcolopsy) I've not really been up to much. So to sing us out, here's the Japanese version of Hakuna Matata

Today was my friend’s 24th birthday. Due to some tradition we heard on a trip to Kyoto, because he’s turning 24 it’s not a lucky year for him, especially for marriage. Whether or not he’s planning stuff like that is something I don’t know, but I’m definately glad to be turning 25 this year. Not that I’ve not had many sporadic luck moments as well as kicks in the gooch.

The plan was to meet in Umeda with some other friends and head to a maid cafe. Yes folks after cutting yesterday’s blog short …

“Oh, and yes Nippombashi has maid cafes … no, I haven’t been in one … yet. ¬_¬”
quote from Valentine’s Day Cock Ups

… we decided to celebrate my friend’s birthday in style.

However, doing a quick Google search indicated that there seem to maid cafes in Umeda, which was a bit of a pain. I don’t want to go on record by saying for definate that there are none at all, but we couldn’t find any. With that in mind we made a change of plan and decided to head back to Nippombashi.

I left the dorm first in order to make a trip to Softmap to buy my friend’s birthday present, unbeknownst to him of course. The DS game I intended to buy for him was ASH: Archaic Sealed Heat, which appeared to be a simple RPG, of course in Japanese. However I never made it to Softmap.

Following my usual routine of walking to Umeda in a new way, at a traffic light I, like everyone else, was approached by various people in vary elaborate Chinese clothing. She, and several colleagues, were handing out flyers for a traditional Chinese dance show that was happening in Umeda. She then took this as an opportunity to practice her Japanese skills as it appears we were on roughly the same level. As time passed and various elements of English and Chinese slipped into the conversation as well as us being joined by one of her friends, I had to try to break from the conversation so I wouldn’t be late to meet the others. I wouldn’t have time to go to Softmap.

Arriving at Umeda station I was a bit annoyed to see that only two of the other four were on time. After waiting for almost an hour, we were soon joined by everyone and on our way.

Arriving in Namba (after deciding to walk to the ‘maid area’ from there), I swiftly led the group of 5 (myself included) men from 5 different countries on a mini walking tour of the area, as I followed my own footstepsfrom yesterday. After doubting myself on a couple of corners and knowling walking in a circle, we found ourselves in the area where maids were handing out leaflets for their respective businesses.

This is where our day of complete confusion began. None of us, including our Japanese friend (for the record we were from England, Japan, America, Germany and Colombia) had been to a maid cafe before and had no clue how to spot ‘a good one’. After a little bit of fannying around I eventually went to go and ask one of the maids. It turns out that not all the people giving out leaflets for the area were from cafes, as the one I’d asked worked for a ‘maid massage parlour’ instead.

Meanwhile, one of the group was also enquiring with another maid, this time one who did work for a cafe. With a smile on her face and full of enthusiasm she took us down an alley and into a lift. When the doors opened we were greeted warmly by two maids who were already bowing. After being shown into the main room we could see various maids with various groups keeping up the enthusiam.

This is where we hit a stump. My group of friends and I clearly had no idea of what to do and what was going on as some of the girls did a short song and dance routine for us before joining us in our seating area. Added was the fact that none of us had ‘maid cafe experience’, and only one of us spoke Japanese to a fluent level; he also struggled to explain what was going on in English at times, but kudos to him for giving it his all.

From what we could all work out it basically comes down to this. When you’re there, you can buy a range of food and drinks (hence the ‘cafe’ part), but you can also pay for certain extras. Fella’s pull your eyes back into their sockets and pick your tongues off the floor. Services included them sitting with you for conversation, playing games (of which Uno seemed to be the popular choice) and having a photograph with them. Obviously for their own protection taking photos of the girls is forbidden.

Not really wanting to spend too much money we settled for a photograph, the cheapest service on the menu (yes, there was a menu for services on the back of the cakes menu). Unfortunately this led to another problem, and one that I don’t really know the outcome of. The cost of a photo was 800 yen (£6.04) for one polaroid. However, depending on how many maids you wanted in the photo the price went up. I’m not certain but I think it was also more expensive depending on your group size. We ended up with a photo with two maids and our whole group.

After drinking up my ‘Melonade’ (officially called Melon Soda, but Melonade sounds better don’t you think?) and casually distributing my cake to my friends (it was made of cream >_<), we let the girls know our intention to leave. Before being allowed to make our exit (after paying the bill), we were given another performance of singing and dancing.

The atmosphere of the maid cafe that we visited seemed to be very welcoming, but at the same time kind of tense. It could well have been down to the fact we were all first timers, the language barrier (good ol' scapegoat), and the fact most of the group towered over the girls height-wise, but it could also be that because we didn't fully understand what maid cafes were all about, the girls may have had trouble communicating in the subtle ways that they might have done with their regular customers.

I wouldn't chock this down as a bad experience, but I won't say that it was a great one either. I think once the girls had left us to our own devices after the photo we were able to relax a little more. Ironically it did feel at one point like we were the one’s ‘on show’. Walking back we did pass another style of maid cafe (which time forbade us to stop in), where it seemed to be a typically normal cafe, where it just so happened that the staff members wore maid outfits. Maybe next time.

On the walk back I wanted to make a detour. For you see I got in touch with home last night and I was right in that I was asked to bring back a Japanese version of Monopoly. So after heading back to the table top store I mentioned yesterday, which it turns out was a part of the huge toy shop it was in front of, I parted with 4500 yen in exchange for the Osaka version of the game.

Looking on the back Osaka Monopoly has a lot of the features I’ve come to associate with the city I love (obviously), such as the Glico Man replacing Mayfair as the most expensive land, £220 Fleet Street being replaced with the HEP Five at 220 “man-yen” (£16,588), and the ever faithful Old Kent Road swapping ironically with the Osaka Business Innovation Centre. Old favourites just as Free Parking and Go To Jail are still there in their original forms, and we were having a bit of a joke about how Jail should have been Kamishinjou.

After arriving back in Umeda I took a quick trip over to Softmap to pick up my friends birthday present. I have no idea if the game’s any good, but if it is I might grab one for myself at a later date.

In Japan the tradition (in a nut-shell) is for girls to give chocolate to boys. There’re two kinds of chocolate depending on who you’re giving it to, and I don’t mean with nuts or without … although reading between the lines it probably does. First is 義理チョコ (girichoko) which you’d give to someone you feel you have a social obligation toward. This might be your boss, teacher, dorm manager, but not only people ‘socially higher’ than you, you might choose to give some to your friends and so on.

On the flip side to this is 本命チョコ (honmeichoko) which you’d give to your boyfriend, lover, husband or a boy that you fancy. Don’t worry girls, boys will come to return the favour next month on White Day, and for guys who got no chocolate, we can all get together and celebrate the Korean Black Day in April, but more on those days as they come.

My plan for today involved a trip to 日本橋 (Nippombashi) and Denden Town. If you remember my previous blogs it’s an area that’s known as the 秋葉原 (Akihabara) or Osaka, with plenty of manga and anime related stores, cafes and … stuff. So we headed downstairs (in the lift) and were greeted by the dorm manager. His wife had bought a small piece of chocolate for all the dorm residents (male dorm don’t forget). How kind of her; clearly this was girichoko (especially since it was her husband who gave it to us).

This wasn’t the only chocolate I received this year though. During the week some of my friends who frequent the Ajisai room had brought in their own home-made chocolate and biscuits and shared them around. Delish!

As usual Nippombashi was tons of fun and rumaging around the second hand book shops I found plenty of cheap manga, starting as low as 10 yen (about 8 pence by today’s exchange rate). As per usual DVD’s are expensive, though some stores here were considerably cheaper than the status-quo, and walking past the doujinshi covers you could see the usual ‘dripping’ images. Funnily enough afterwards I was talking with another friend about whether doujins are rated on some sort of ‘drip-scale’ or ‘dripometer’. Don’t get me wrong however, I did spot some of a non-sexual nature, and had I been interested in the series may have considered buying.

After my friend headed off home I stayed around for a walk and a wander. I was actually surprised how close Namba was to the area and ended up eating lunch at a Matsuya near Namba Parks. Though 95% of the time my self-navigatory skills are spot on without the use of a map, the cloudy day and the fact I’d spun in a few circles nosing around and exploring this new area meant I had no direction which way was North, and thus was a bit muddled. However (as all great men say at some point in their lives) I was not lost, I could have turned around and gone back the exact same way I had come from (something I usually find odd that people don’t do when they are ‘lost’), but prefer the fun way of walking and hoping until eventually passing out.

Thankfully I didn’t faint, but instead found a familliar sight in the distance. It was a large arcade (sega arcade I think), that I’d passed on the way. Keeping this to my right hand side I kept on walking and soon found myself on familiar ground.

On my way I found myself drawn to a particular retailer. The small table-top store was selling Monopoly … Osaka Edition! Now I can’t remember if my familly (we’re competitive when it comes to Monopoly) had asked me to buy one in Japan, but me here staring the the Osakan version of Monopoly took my by complete surprise! The only thing stopping me from buying it was the price of 4500 yen (£33.97 by today’s exchange rate). Even now I’m still umming and ahhing about it. I guess I’ve still got some time left here so I don’t need to make a rush decision about it.

To get to Nippombashi it cost me 230 yen (£1.74) on the underground, but me being me, the stubborn money saving twazzerk, thought “nuts to that” and walked home. Quite ironic when you consider my Monopoly incident. The walk (which according to google is just over 3 and a half miles) took somewhere between 1.5 and 2.5 hours. Due to complications with a watch and a phone call, I really don’t know.

It was actually on the way home that I made my biggest cock-up of the day, possibly the week (or longer >_<). When things are put ‘on sale’ in Japan, they might be marketed by a number of prices rather than the one you actually pay. To be fair this isn’t something that’s exclusive to Japan, just think of the times in shops you’ve seen £10 in huge letting next to something expensive only to look at the very small ‘off’ next to it. Well todays balls up was quite simple. I saw a sign saying 800 yen (£6.04) and jeans. Due to an unfortunate split in one of my pairs of bottoms I’ve been left juggling between a few pairs as of late.

Anyway, after nosing through the rail which was out the front of the store, I eventually found a pair that matched my size. Smiling like an idiot at the thought of picking up a bargain, I take my new jeans into the store and head for the desk. Something struck me the moment I entered the shop, and it wasn’t the low signage by the door. This was a nice looking shop, the kind where it looks like all they need to do is sell one thing in order to cover all their overheads, the kind of shop I never (like to) enter!

Being served by two very well dressed well mannered young men felt somewhats off-putting, me standing their in an old work-uniform coat, a University club jumper and jeans that … well, they’re almost as holy as the Pope. When it came for me to pay I stuttered and stammered. I had misread the sign outside, and the jeans were 800 yen off, not 800 yen. A total of 2800 yen (£21.14) for the jeans was paid, 2000 yen over what this idiot had thought they were. To be fair (trying to justify stupidity is something that can seldom be done well, but I’ll give it a go) even at 2800 yen, compared to other shops I’ve been here they were pretty cheap. A lot of people may say that Uni-Qlo is Japan’s cheapest clothing store, and about as close to Primark (oh beloved Primark) as you can get, but in my eye it’s still expensive. Perhaps it’s all these years of buying Tesco and Asda jeans that have conditioned my mind.

Oh, and yes Nippombashi has maid cafes … no, I haven’t been in one … yet. ¬_¬

So the day (yesterday) actually started with a bit of a lie-in. The Suntory Yamazaki Distillery was further towards Kyoto, so the train to get there conveniently went through Kamishinjou. This meant that whilst everyone was meeting at Okamoto for about 8:15, at that time I was having breakfast and kicking back a bit, before meeting the group on the train at 8:58.

The Suntory itself was quite impressive and I did learn a fair bit (thanks to the English audio guide, which by the way was done by a Japanese woman who had clearly studied English in the UK … thank you ^_^) including whiskey being totally clear when it’s first made. The tour was shortly followed by a tasting session and many parodies of Bill Murray’s “For relaxing times, make it Suntory time” speech from Lost in Translation.

After the Suntory we all went to a little jazz cafe for a snack and drink. I had some Earl Grey tea (for what I believe is the first time in my life … take that stereotype!) and what was called a Milk Crepe. Delicious as pancakes with milk-sauce are (and I mean that literally, it was damn good), it was a little tricky to read the katakana on the menu; mi.ru.ku.re.-.pu. So at first I didn’t know whether I was getting a Mill Crepe (which sounds quite nice), or whether I was going to be subjected to a Milk Rape, a thought that scares me. When it came though I soon discovered it was a joyful combination of the two.

On the train back I found out that some students were going to be doing an all-night karaoke in Umeda. It sounded good, and if I went to Umeda straight from the train I was on, I could hang out in Umeda, do a bit mroe exploring, and take some more pictures. That being said, I’m uploading some more pictures right now. Today’s ones are the animal pictures in a park in London. I also wanted to get some more pictures from up the Acty Building. I’d been up there before, but the weather wasn’t great so didn’t take any pictures.

After a hell of a lot of walking around, exploring the city, and a few phone calls, I met up with some friends (other than those I was to meet for karaoke). Soon we arrived at a destination that wasn’t originally on my ‘list’ but sure is now; a Pokemon Centre. Though it’s true I lost interest in Pokemon after a the number of monsters surpassed 151, it was still an interesting place. In essence it was just a large pokemon shop, but it also had areas set asside so people could play, trade cards, and generally mingle.

We then went off for a look at Yodobashi Camera, the biggest electronic shop that I’ve ever been to. To give people back in Telford a general idea of it’s size, imagine the New Bucks Head stadium, only twice as high, twice as long, and twice as wide … twice as big really (ish). A lot of people at Uni have nicknamed this the ‘cheap’ electronics shop, but to be honest the best I way could describe their prices is ‘meh’. Yeah it’s not horrendously expensive and there’s a humongous range, but I wouldn’t go so far as to call it cheap. That being said most of the people who have refferred to it that way are usually shopping on Daddy’s credit card, and easilly forked out hundreds of pounds on Denshi-Jisho’s (electronic dictionaries) without shopping around. Sod that, I’ll stick with my (old style) Nintendo DS with Kanji Sonomama and a good old book style dictionary. Maybe we should have a Jisho (dictionary) dropping contest and see how many people cry, hehehe. I don’t think we actually bought anything from YC, but it is a cool shop just to have a look in.

A trip to Den Den Town was had soon after, and had I known it was actually the same place as when a few of us went to Nipponbashi I probably would have stayed in Umeda. So for those who didn’t see my entry on Nipponbashi and are too lazy to look for it (don’t worry, I am too) it’s a large area of Osaka that caters for fans of Otaku culture and has been nicknamed the city’s version of Akihabara. Once again I mainly stuck to second hand stores, and after doing Through the Fire and Flames on normal to a small audience, went and bought some cheap manga titles. How cheap? Well the cheapest three I got were 50 yen each (see XE.com for exchange rate).

After we seperated I headed back for Umeda for some more exploring. I was meant to meet with the karaoke group at about 10:30 so took my time in having a good look around. After another yonk of a walk I ended up at Umeda’s 7th tallest building, the Umeda Sky Building. Note that I didn’t walk the obvious A-B or as the crow flies, but by an interesting curve around from the Acty building stopping off at a Softmap (what I would consider to be a cheap electronics shop) … tempted to buy a Wii for roughly 90 quid (second hand of course).

When I arrived at the building designed by Hiroshi Hara, I saw a notice which (I’m pretty sure) said it closed at 7:30. It was 7:50. I approached one of the doors and it opened. I obviously took this as an opportunity to become the stupid foreigner and walked right in. After taking a lift to the top floor, I was presented with no windows but instead an Indian restaurant. Going down a floor gave me a window and a perfect place to get some more pictures of the city at night, if only my camera wasn’t so cheap. T_T

After meeting up with the karaokers to make sure everyone was about, I then did something I hadn’t done since I first got to Japan; went to a random bar solo. I wanted, like before, to find a place that either had no other patrons or very few so that I wouldn’t get the ‘record skipping’ effect upon entry. Ironically on my way I passed a McDonalds and felt the thirst for an OJ. Buying a medium Orange Juice I kept on walking.

After finding a nice little place I kept on walking to find a bin and then intended to head back. The only problem seemed to be that Umeda didn’t seem to have any bins where I was, or where I wasking. After walking for about half an hour and ending up back at Hankyu Umeda train station I finally had a place to put my OJ cup. Now if I’d have bought a can or bottle from a vending machine then I’d have had no problem finding somewhere to put the rubbish, as most venders have bins for cans and plastic bottles.

So heading back to the bar I very nervously walked in, announcing my presence and enquiring if the bar was open; last thing I’d want to do is look like a complete tit by going into a closed place, or worse someone’s house that just looked like a pub! Thankfully it was open and eagerly awaiting someone to come in and buy a drink. Though me and the bar lady didn’t really talk much or for very long, I was thankful that at no point did she say something along the lines of “your Japanese is very good”, as that’s normally the key it takes for me to forget every Japanese lesson I’ve ever taken. After having a couple of (pretty damn good) beers, I was on my way and met up with the others.

Karaoke started shortly after 11 and ended at about 5 o’clock. There really isn’t much more I can add to the obvious; lots of singing throughout the night. For the record I did sing my usual Life is Like a Boat and Clubhouse Sandwich combo as well as an array of othertunes.

After seeing some of the guys off on their way, me and one other person stuck around waiting for McDonalds to open. After polishing off a Sausage (and cheese) Muffin and a Hashbrown (with that ol’ OJ favourite), I too headed home. It was roughly now I wished I hadn’t done so much walking throughout the day as my legs felt so angry with me it was taking all my might just to get my knees to function properly. I did fall asleep a couple of times on the train, but each time waking up as we approached a station, and I don’t remember much about the walk from the station to the dorm except for the fact that a dog was standing up in a car. The only real way I could remember that is because this dog (who we have nicknamed ‘Box Dog’) lives in a box inside a garage and never seems to leave it, occaisionally moving his head every now and then.

When I got back into my room I quickly swept everything off the bed put my head on the pillow and …

THE PILLOW!

That’s something I keep forgetting to talk about! My beloved new pillow! For those of you who are fans of Azumanga Daioh out there think back to when Nyamo buys a new Danish pillow and Yukari tries it out. Yes, that scene! For those of you who have no idea what I’m banging on about, a YouTube video follows this paragraph. Well I too have now bought one of those legendary pillows which has swiftly replaced my sack of rocks with a permanent central dent. It has really helped me sleep better, but it has worked a bit too well. Somedays instead of me getting out of bed at 7 for breakfast I find myself abusing the snooze button more times than it can handle, with it swiftly saying “sod it, i’ll have your breakfast instead of you, you lazy git”. But it can easilly be forgiven. My major plus side is that unlike Nyamo I didn’t pay 10,000 yen for it, but a mere 980 yen … the same price as my awesomely cheap trainers! So here as my way of saying adios for now … here’s an English dub of that particular scene. Enjoy!