Northern Osaka

Today, we journeyed to northern Osaka; prior to now, most of our adventures have been in the southern part.

We had a few key destinations in mind, as well as a few random stops we made at places that looked interesting.

One of the main ones was a second hand Manga shop called Mandarake. It had great selection, although I didn't know most of it

I found a few familiar titles though; Death Note, Bleach, One Piece, and Naruto. They are in Japanese though, so not really something I'd buy recklessly.

I did end up buying the first volume of Lucky Star however. The picture on the wiki linked (at time of writing), was the exact cover on the one I got.

Also, a random manga with an unusual title, and what looks like X-Men meets South Park. I have no idea what either is about.

We had lunch at a local restaurant, which served the same kind of "pancakes" that Matt had the other day, a dish called Okonomiyaki. I had a cheese one, Matt had a shrimp and bacon one, Bram had one with ground beef and bacon. Mine was very heavy, and it required help from both the other guys to finish.

Getting ready to eat.

Our meals, in various stages of being cooked. They provide a bowl of ingredients, and cook it right on the table. You can do it yourself, or ask them to do it; we elected to do the latter.

The rest of the day was spent wandering the town and checking out various stores that caught our interest or piqued our curiosity. A large part of that was spent in various arcades, as it almost seemed that Osaka has more coin-operated machines per square foot than Nevada.

The Project Diva section of the arcade. There were three machines, and a line of people waiting to use them. There was also a TV that showed one machine, and a massive overhead screen that showed another. Matt had to wait in line to use a machine.

A few classic games. The right is my attempt at arcade Tetris. Not bad, but I had trouble because the blocks were not rotating in the direction that I was used to.

A banner advertising one Game Station (arcade)

Matt playing Typing of the Dead. This game aims to teach typing skills by forcing you to type out words to kill zombies before they eat you. I can't even tell if this was a legitimate attempt to make educational software more interesting, or a brilliant parody of stereotypical rail shooters, or perhaps a combination of the above.

We also tried to find the Pokemon Centre in Osaka, but this sign was the closest we came to finding it.

It was a good day today. Looking forward to tomorrow.