takoyakiiiiii!

Last weekend we went on a day trip to Osaka. Left really early in the morning and came back late in the evening. Sunday, the only day of the week when I didn't have to wake up at 6am (since on Saturday we had a welcoming ceremony for all the new students), yet I chose to wake up at 5am in order to make it to Osaka by 9am. We had decided to buy a one-day tourist pass so naturally we wanted to get everything out of this purchase. It was a really good deal, though - the pass cost us 2,300 yen each, and it granted us unlimited access to public transport and dozens of popular tourist attractions, and we would've also been entitled to a bunch of discounts at different restaurants and stores, but didn't really get to take advantage of those as the only thing we had time to eat was takoyaki and the occasional ice cream...

I was told Osaka was an ugly city. I disagree.

Ground level view

If my memory serves me right, the first thing we did was to climb the Umeda Sky Building, also known as the Floating Garden, which neither had a garden in there nor was it floating... But I still give it a 5/5 since the view was amazing!

Sky Garden view

From this height it looks bigger than any city I've ever been to.

The next attraction we headed to also offered a cityscape view. When you look at the picture above, it's no wonder that quite a lot of the attractions are located quite high - first of all, there are many places available for that; plus, from the shadows of the high-rise buildings you really don't see too much at all. So gotta get up! Having started with the Sky Garden, though, the next view was a bit disappointing... And also really difficult to get to! At first we couldn't even find the entrance to the tower. There was a sign saying "The entrance is in the back," and when we walked into the back of the building in front of which the sign was placed, there was nothing. When we read the sign again, in Japanese this time, it actually said the entrance is behind you. So, in many cases, although reading the Japanese version takes more time, you should just take that time and read it anyways since the English version probably makes no sense.

Another high spot: Tsutenkaku!

Oh, and inside the Tsutenkaku we made a new acquaintance: Kinnikuman, which in English would be Muscle Man. We just ended up calling him Nikuman, which translates into Meat Man, and is in many ways a much better name than the original one. I'm not sure as to why he has a donut as a mouth but I really like the tattoo on his forehead that says "meat".

Nikuman and Nikuwoman

After we got back down, it was about time that we had some takoyaki! I actually didn't have any specific places that I wanted to see or things that I wanted to do here. Sorry for being an ignorant asshole and not bothering to look up anything before the trip, but when you've got no expectations, you'll just be pleasantly surprised about everything, right? However, one thing I knew about Osaka was that they make the most delicious takoyaki, which are octopus dumplings that can be seasoned with basically whatever. We had ours with scallions and mayo; it was their bestseller so of course we went with that. Not disappointed at all! This was actually my first time trying out takoyaki, and now I've got pretty high standards when it comes to this delicacy. Will only have it like they make it in Osaka!

The sole reason I came here.

Next up: the zoo! I think we'd all been to a few zoos before, but hey, if you get to go free, of course you need to go! A person who gets tired of watching animals being all cute and weird and shit is a person who is tired of life. To save space here, though, I'm not posting a bunch of pictures of different animals (although, as you might guess, I did take a bunch of pictures of different animals), but there is one that I want to share with you - so lucky to have stood in that precise spot at that precise moment.

I knew their necks were long, but...

After the zoo, we were already pretty exhausted (my iPhone counted 30,000 steps and 25km of walking done that day!), but there was still one thing we wanted to do... So we made our way towards the bay area, where there was, to my knowledge, Osaka's biggest ferris wheel. There's a bunch of them around the city, but this one I had actually seen from the plane as we were landing - by the way, that's pretty much a month ago now! Wow. Time flies, huh?

Yet another climb...

Well worth it!

There we were!

Oh, and the luckiest thing that has ever happened to me... I've been wanting to buy a Pikachu onesie ever since I saw a schoolmate wearing one to a Halloween party a few years back. Well, she'd bought it in Japan, and I really can't be arsed to buy such stuff online, so I really just forgot about it until I came here. I've been searching for places where I could buy one here, and actually found a couple of stores around Osaka and Kyoto where they might sell these onesies. I hadn't been to any of them yet, and totally forgot to look around in Osaka, but luckily we just happened to come across one of the biggest stores selling these sorts of things as we were on our way to the zoo. And even more luckily, there was this one left on the shelf, and it was just my size - so it was one of those rare occasions where I didn't hesitate to buy something I really didn't need!

Realizing my childhood dreams of becoming Pikachu. Next level: Raichu?

So that was a great day, although I'm still slightly exhausted as I haven't really had time for a proper sleep after that - school's very busy and since I'd also like to have a social life and meet new people, I've been trying to be active on that domain, too. Yesterday I met my peer supporter who took me to an office where you can send an application to join different clubs and circles that the students have here. I had already decided to join a club where they design and illustrate papers and ads and stuff when I saw a bouldering club on the list! So I sent mail to both of them asking to join... I don't know how I'll have the time to do everything that I want to! Blah. And now I should be in bed already, so good night y'all!