Japan Day 8

Today's Tim Quotes:

- There are beautiful Japanese girls everywhere. We can't touch them, though.

- Moe moe kyun~! (This is kind of an in-joke. It makes sense if you've watched K-ON! Image of what he's talking about here: http://http://girlamatic.com/files/2009/08/mio3.gif)

Tim: Om amnamn no mamndabom.

Anton: I didn't understand anything you just said.

Patrick: He said that he's "afraid to bite down." ... This should be your Tim quote for today!

Anton: That's going to sound very wrong.

Sadly, it was finally time for us to leave Osaka. It was a very cold morning and it had started to rain a bit when we left the hostel. Again, we went for breakfast at Mister Donut. It was a bit of a walk, though. About 20 minutes away from the station. Totally worth the trek, though. As we were walking, Patrick kept jumping into every convenience store we passed looking for a certain magazine. So, Tim and I got to Mister Donut first and ordered our food. There wasn't space enough for all three of us at a bench, so Tim and I sat down at a two person table. There was a gentleman sitting at a table next to us and he politely offered up his seat when Patrick arrived. As thanks, I offered him a package of tissues that I had on me, and he struck up a conversation with me. His English was quite good. He gave me his business card and asked where I was from. I told him that I was visiting from Canada and he began telling me that his daughter was currently in California. A really nice guy. I'm telling you, people from Osaka are just friendlier! I don't know what it is.

After our delicious donuts, we headed back to Shin-Osaka station. I stopped along the way to grab a couple of photographs of some interesting grafitti. Unfortunately, I didn't get too many other photos today. I kept forgetting my camera in the room everytime we went out. In any case, we got back to the station and went to get our tickets for the shinkansen (bullet train). When I turned around, Patrick was gone! Since we were already in line and people were waiting behind us, we couldn't really go and look for him, so Tim and I ended up getting tickets on a seperate train car. It was a silent car, mostly for those traveling long distances and who want to sleep. It was a short trip to Okayama, and it seemed like it was even colder there than in Osaka. It took us a moment to find our hotel, but we found it and got checked in. We thought that we were going to have a western style room this time, but again it was a traditional Japanese tatami room. The inn keeper was a very friendly man, though he spoke little english. He seemed to be having a good time showing everything in the inn. Especially the toilet for some reason. o_o

After getting settled into our room, we went out to explore the area a little bit. We started walking down this old shopping arcade and saw some interesting shops. There was a cafe called Onsaya with the menu written entirely in english that grabbed my attention, but we kept walking. I decided I would come back to it later. Soon we found a small comic book and hobby shop and looked around there for a little while. After that, we stopped at a curry shop for lunch and then went back to our room to warm up and relax. We spent a good deal of time watching television including this anime called Heroman that takes place in the USA with an invading army of space aliens. Some kid named Joey, who looks like a girl, but is actually a guy, controls this Heroman robot or something ... I wasn't really paying too much attention. Anyway, we finally decided we should go out and get some dinner.

Since I was still pretty full, I decided to not eat dinner just yet and headed towards that cafe from earlier. Tim and Patrick went to Yakiniku (grilled meat) restaurant to eat. As I walked down the shopping arcade from earlier, it was pretty dark. I thought that maybe the cafe would be closed. Fortunately, it was open! I walked in and was greeted in Japanese by a young woman wearing a ska t-shirt. I ordered a cup of coffee and sat down. At $4 for a cup of coffee I thought it a bit expensive, but it was worth it for the atmosphere. A warm, homey atmosphere welcomed me into the shop. I wasn't sure where I should sit down; the wooden bench along the counter of the kitchen, one of the antique sofas in the centre of the shop, or the round wooden table in the back corner? I finally decided to sit on one of sofas since it looked so soft and inviting. Cool jazz was playing over the vintage speakers placed haphazardly above the room. Posters of blues, soul, and jazz legends adorned the walls. There was a piano against the wall behind me where performing musical guests had left an autograph or message scrawled in black sharpie. A rolling bookshelf was placed against the small green wall that divided the room. Onsaya cafe reminded me very much of a place from my hometown called The Spill, yet it had an atmosphere all its own. Shortly after I sat down, a young man served my coffee. It was excellent. It was not the typical type of American coffee I had been ordering at Mister Donut, but a much stronger Japanese style of coffee. I decided that I would have to come back tomorrow to explore the second floor.

Shortly after my coffee, I headed back to the yakiniku place to meet up with Tim and Patrick. My timing was impeccable, as they had just finished up. We stopped at a 7-11 to grab some snaks and then went back to our hotel room. We then turned on the TV and waited to see if we could find a channel that would be airing Durarara!! tonight.