十八、十九日: 京都とCOMME-CA

Day 18

Today, we woke up fairly early because we were going to head over to 京都 to meet up with one off Shuu's friends. We headed out around 10:50am and arrived in 京都 around 12:10pm. *We made the mistake of taking the 普通 train, so it took almost an hour* We arrived in 京都駅 and met up with his friend and her friend. We had planned to eat at マクドナルド but the place was packed and I wasn't too into eating there, especially after the メガタマゴ XP Instead, we went over to this place that specialized in making オムライス. It was really, really good. It was the first time I had ever had it. I had a hard time talking to Shuu's friends because of two major things. The biggest one being, I didn't know what to say. As most people know, I'm really... unsure of how to act around new people. *A key reason to why I have a hard time meeting new people* The second was that I was afraid of making mistakes with my 日本語. It's one thing to be able to read and write, but it's another thing to be able to speak. Coupled with my deteriorating knowledge of 日本語 and my fear of making a mistake and making myself look foolish, I kept mostly to myself. *Towards the end of the night I started to feel just a little bit more confident speaking* After we finished eating we headed to do some カラオケ. It was fun, but the lack of indie songs made it a little harder to sing the songs we wanted. None the less, it was fun. Afterwards, we explored the area and went down the main shopping street that kind of reminded me of 竹下通り. After a while, Shuu's friend's friend had to go home so we said good bye and we continued to look around. We went to a 書店 and a guitar store, before ending the night at a KFC. We talked for a little while longer, then decided to head home. When we got to the station we headed to our platforms, took some pictures, and said out final good byes. It was a really fun day. Probably the most we've done while here in Japan. We headed back to 大阪 on the 特別快速 and it only took about half an hour.

Day 19:

I had waken up early with the idea that maybe we would go out again today, but I wasn't sure I wanted to take the chance again. I went out the door around 1pm to go out and shop for some of my friends and coworkers. I went to the COMME CA mall- store thing that was in front of the 大阪駅 and spent a few hours there. I went to the JUMP store in there, along with UNIQLO and the electronic store. It was actually pretty fun. After I had finished with my shopping, I headed back to 谷町. Something that not many people know is that I like being around people. I like to see how people interact with others and to the environment. This whole time I've been here in Japan has been great. Ever since I had taken Sociology, my thoughts about studying people have been magnified. A great place to study in on the 地下鉄. Just the behavior and everything you see is interesting. Anyways, after that, I got back to the apt. To my surprise, Shuu was still sleeping. :/ I contemplated going out again, but I decided against it and hung around till he woke up. Essentially, that was my day.

We have one more day of free time here in Japan. I don't know how it will be spent, but I'll be sure to write about it soon. Until then...

*On a side note, I've noticed that a few of my friends have been saying that I don't seem to be really excited when I talk about being here. Well, for one, I use to live here. I know what to expect, I know what's around me. [This was most common in 東京. In 大阪 it's a little different b/c it's a new place] Second, I've pretty much done what I wanted to do and that was just to get here. I do enjoy being here in 日本, however. Being here instills the idea that I want to keep traveling. I'm going to keep going with my teaching degree and continue to try traveling. I've only seen so much of the world and I want to be able to see all of it. That's my goal and that's what I plan on doing.*

十四、十五：何もと何か

Short entry for today :P

Day 14:

Well, nothing really happened today. :/ I had waken up early b/c I thought we might go out and do something. To my horror, the shower didn't have any running hot water. O_O Yeah, it was very short and very cold. XD Anyways, after that, I went to Family Mart to buy some food and snacks for the remainder of the day and the nest few days. Then, I sat around try to think of something to do. Around 4, Shuu finally woke up and the remainder of the day was spent watching TV and planning what to do the next day. We had planned to go to 心斎橋 the following day, so it was just left to what we would do the remainder of that day. We decided to try and find a カラオケ place. We went out and along the way we found this place that had a giant DVD sign on the door. We figured, "Hey... why not?" We went inside and found out that it was nothing but cheap dirty movies *most under $10* and sex toys. It was very lul worthy. I took pics. XDD

*Beware: Don't touch anything. You might catch the AIDS*

*Obviously this place is making business*

*I lul everytime I see this pic*

Just a few seconds down the street, we found the カラオケ place, but it was shady and the building itself was really shady. Plus, it was closed. :/ We ended up just walking about and trying to figure out a place to eat. We settled on this お好み焼き place that was attached to the place we are in. It was pretty good and the CHU-HI's they had were really good. The only downside is that at a お好み焼き place, you make your own on the grill in front of you, which is what we had, but they made it for us and just place it on the grill, while it was heating :/ I was a little disappointed, but it was still pretty good. Afterward, we bought some snacks b/c the food really wasn't enough and headed back for the night.

*If they ever sold this in the US, I would buy cases upon cases of this drink. It's that good*

Day 15:

Well, today, we were supposed to go to 心斎橋 but instead, the day was spent *like most of the days here* just kind of hanging around the apt. Shuu was awake earlier than usual *before me* and was using the computer. I turned on the TV and, low and behold, ラストフレンズ was on. *It's this drama I was watching in Tokyo about some people who have some serious issues* It turns out, they were having a marathon of all the episodes leading up to the final episode that evening. Yeah.... We ended up staying in all day watching the drama and waiting for the finale. XDDD After that was over *around 11pm* we decided to try a カラオケ adventure again. Shuu was a little hesitant b/c the trains shut down at midnight and he was worried that, if this plan failed like the last one, we would end up walking back again. That was a bad thing because the カラオケ place this time was in なんば. It's not that it was far, it was just we didn't know how to get back from there. : P I didn't really care b/c I just wanted to go out and do something. So, after riding the trains for about 15 mins, we arrived in なんば and the カラオケ place *it was called ジャンから* was just about a min from the station. We decided to do the free time, which is pay a set price for however many hours the place has for カラオケ. The free time slot was from 11-6 am and we had just gotten there around 12am. So....

We カラオケ'd till 5am. XD It was definitely an experience. It got really intense towards the end of the night. The songs were getting more hardcore and the screaming was almost non-stop. XDD We finally decided to bail and we headed back to 谷町四丁目 to buy some breakfast and sleep. We went to 7-11, where we got some money for the next few days and bought some instant 沖縄そば. It was very awesome. I stayed up till about 6am and decided to bail for the day.

So, I'm not sure what's planned right now, but I'm still wanting to go to 心斎橋 and 京都, and so forth. So, since it's only about 6pm now, maybe we'll head out and do something. I'll update with our adventures again later. So, until then.... Later!

三と四 + Bonus [五]

*Yummy peach drink with Peach chunks!*

So, I figured it's about time for another over view of what happened on Day 3 and 4

Day 3

The day started usual enough. We woke up around 1pm and were trying to think of things to do. Shuu was looking on a music site to see what concerts we could attend in the future and saw that there was one concert the same day. Being me, I asked "Well, who is it?" Turns out, it was a band called 遺伝子組換こども会 *an アングラ系 band that was really cool to listen to* and ゴールデンボンバー *Not sure what the hell they were XD*. I hadn't heard of either of the bands prior to that day, so I was a little anxious, but not completely ready to go. The live was at 6, so we decided to head out around 3:30 to ensure ourselves that we got to the area just in case we got lost.... again. Sure enough, we did get sort of lost. *We ended up bailing on the train and just walking to the next station* However, we made it there and with one hour left to spare. When we got there, it was very apparent that:

1.) We were the only guys there.

2.) We were the only foreigners.

It was very awkward; especially the wait. That was probably the worst part. However, 6pm came around and it was ready to go inside. We paid for our tickets *2800 yen a piece* got our 配布 *concert CDs* and useless drink tickets, then went inside. The place was very, very small. I think there was only about 50 people there.

Thoughts:

こども会 was really cool to listen to. That day was the first time I had ever heard of them and they were pretty good. The skits that they did were pretty funny as well. The final skit at the end was also really funny. Awkward. But funny. They're one of my top favorite bands now XD ★★★★★

ゴールデンボンバー was..... uhmmm..... yeah. They were something. They had a few good songs, but the thing about them was that only the vocalist and the guitarist did anything. There was a bassist and drummer but they didn't actually do anything but pretend to play the instruments. :/ The bassist, however, had a really cool outfit, so he's forgivable. XD The gag with this band was how the vocalist would kept saying "無料配布" *Free CD* every time the guitarist would finish his "solo" *which was basically handing out mini x-rays of the vocalists broken shoulder, drinking a blended McDonald's meal, having "sex" w/ a blow up doll, drinking pudding/ lemon juice concoction, and drinking a giant pudding thing XD* They were seriously weird. But, they were amusing. So, props to them. ★★★★☆

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Day 4

We were supposed to go to the Euphoria concert, but we had found out the day before that I wouldn't have enough money to cover the whole thing. *Shuu had run out of money and I was spotting him till we could find an ATM that would accept international cards* Turns out that same day, I had done some research and found that not only did the inner city Post Offices have ATMs that operated in the weekends, but the 7-11's also had international ATMs. What killed us was the fact that there was one only 5 mins away XD. So, after getting our money, we grabbed something quick to eat and did our Oki thing where we ate in front of the store.

*Normal bottle of orange juice... or is it....?*

*YAY!*

The experience was pretty cool, until a cat decided to invade our space and watch us as we ate. Seriously, it just sat there and watched us. It was very creepy/ annoying. We hurried up and left. Since we finally had money again, and had missed the Euphoria concert, we decided to just go カラオケ in 池袋 Instead, we ended up CD shopping again for another 3+ hours XD

*What I got on the second + first day of CD shopping*

After FINALLY finishing that, we decided to カラオケ. We went to Big Echo, which is the popular カラオケ chain in Japan. We had initially decided to just go for 2 hours, but it ended up being a 4 hour deal XD Short version of the event. *Lots of screaming and lots of water XD*

Some bands we did were:

Ayabie 彩冷える
Dir en Grey *Vulgar and Prior*
Hime Ichigo 姫苺
An Cafe *before they became lame*
D
Phantasmagoria
Enter Shikari
Avenged Sevenfold
Maximum The Hormone

After we finally finished, we went to the counter to pay and found out that we had seriously miscalculated the price for カラオケ. The bill was 9,400 something. *$90 O_O* Simply put, we'll be sticking to the hours we stated from now on and try to keep away from Big Echo. <- We later remembered that the chain itself was really expensive. Later in the evening, we decided to grab something to eat *it was like 2 am now* so we went to なか卯 *The place from the other day* I wasn't all that hungry since I had bought some 弁当 from Family Mart a few hours before. When we got there, I was feeling a little daring decided to try something new. [Note: Whenever I try something new, it almost never goes right. XD] I had seen this program on 納豆 earlier that day was thinking "Hey.... Not a lot of people like this stuff. I wonder why..." I only half regret eating that stuff. It smelled awful and it tasted equally bad.

*It actually looked a lot better before I added the Soy Sauce XDD*

After that experience, I had to buy some candy and something to drink to get the taste out of my mouth. XD

*Mmmmm.... Green Tea Ice Cream*

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=BONUS=

*Japanese KFC Teriyaki Chicken Sandwich*

Day 5

Yesterday, we decided to try our luck in finding flower records *This rare CD store that has a lot of 配布 from bands* Getting there wasn't that bad really. In fact, it was really easy to find. The problem wad the store itself, which was the small room, packed with boxes of CD and stuff. It was very, very, very packed. It was hard to move and it just seemed like you shouldn't be touching anything b/c either 1.) it's dirty or 2.) it will collapse on you. XD Apparently, there were a few rarz there, so Shuu bought one thing and I bought another and we left. To make up for the experience, we went to Like an Edison *another CD store, which wasn't all that spectacular* and the last Closet Child in Tokyo. [Note: For those of you who don't know what Closet Child is, it's a CD store that sells a lot of awesome/ rare CDs in Tokyo and has been raping our wallets for the last 3 days XD] After leaving there, with yet another bag of CDs, we headed to a ラーメン place to grab something quick to eat. Shuu got 醤油ラーメン *Soy Sauce Ramen* and I got おもちラーメン *Mochi ramen* After that, we headed back and that was basically it.

And now, we come to today... What will we do now...? Will update again later!