Adventures in Japan

My dogs are barkin', but mostly my knees don't work quite right

We walked A LOT yesterday. About 10 stops on the subway's worth. And then some. Partly because we're too cheap to ride the train, and partly because it's fun to explore. On this particular expedition we passed through what appeared to be Osaka's toy and Christmas decoration district. Just about every store we passed was selling one or the other. Eventually we made it to Den Den Town where we spent quite a bit of time looking at fancy cellular phones and staring blankly at any sales staff that asked us questions in Japanese. Unfortunately we forgot Ty's camera, which is a very useful information gathering tool. So we kinda browsed around and wrote a few things down, but we knew that we'd have to make another trip.

Also in Den Den, but almost entirely unrelated to electronics, we at at Mister Donut (a uniquely Japanese Chain). I guess their big thing is a teething-ring-shaped donut that they call a "pon". I have no idea what that name is supposed to mean, but the donut itself is second only to Krispy Kreme in terms of melt-in-your-mouth goodness. Mister Donut also serves a lot of dim sum type snacks. It's an interesting combination. One you'd probably only find in Japan. Or maybe Holland. They're weird there.

Once we left Den Den Town, we were back into unexplored territory. That's where we found festivalgate, a theme park/mall type thing. We'd had almost no idea it existed, but there it was. It's got a roller coaster running through the building. It looks like it could be fun, but we didn't actually see it running. I think festivalgate may be associated with the adjacent Spa World, where you can soak in pools with themes from around the globe. Or something like that. Also in that general area is UniQlo, what very well might be the find of the day. They sell clothes kind of like what you'd find at the Gap (but nicer), they carry Western sizes, and the clothes are CHEAP! I'm now much less worried about the fact that doing laundry here seems to be destroying our clothes.

We topped off our big day with karaoke, which was surprisingly fun. I wanted to go in with an open mind, but I couldn't help but expect not to like it. Singing really isn't my thing. But like I said, surprisingly fun. I think it helped that the drinks were free, and of course I had good company. The guys from Orange House are great, and they picked entertaining songs. At least, that's what I vaguely recall. Next time we karaoke (if there is a next time) I won't make the mistake of drinking shochu after a lot of whisky and see if maybe I remember more.