Japan Day 9

Today's Tim Quotes:

- C'mon, man! That's a word you learn when you're a kid. "Hey Mom, can I have some ice cream?"

- Holy crap! I haven't eaten with a fork in awhile!

Today we intended to set our for Okayama Castle, but things didn't go exactly as planned. After waking up and getting washed and dressed and everything, we went to Cafe Onsaya. Unfortunately, the weather was terrible. Rain was pouring down and it was the coldest day we had experienced in Japan so far. I had some bread before we left, so I just had a cup of coffee. Tim ordered mango juice and chiffon cake. Patrick had tea and toast. We then set off towards Okayama castle. We passed a Mister Donut on our way and it turned out to be right around the corner from the hotel! We were about to catch a street car to the castle, but we ducked into Biccamera for a bit to take a look at headphones and other various electronics. After leaving Biccamera, the rain was still coming down, but we decided to walk to the castle since it was only 1.5 kilometers away.

Tim had read about this old shopping area in the Lonely Planet guide, so we walked down there to keep dry. Shortly after entering the enclosed shopping street we found an arcade. We stopped in for a bit to play some Shining Force Cross and see what else the arcade had to offer. After killing some time there, we continued on our way to the castle. There was a new shopping area that we decided to check out first, just in case everything was closed after we were done at Okayama castle. Unfortunately, we found too much to do in the shopping arcade and got distracted almost all day.

First of all, we found a store called Animate. Basically, another geek shop. Comics, DVD's, figures, etc. We must have spent close to two hours looking around. Though there were many, many things that I wanted to buy, the limited space in my backpack and the thought of lugging more stuff around detracted me. Tim and Patrick ended up buying a couple of small things each. As we continued down the shopping arcade, we foiund another hobby store called the Albion. This one specialised in figures and had a very good selection. By this time, we were all getting very hungry, so we set out looking for a soba restaurant that was near by. It was recommended by the guide, so even though we passed many other restaurants on our way, we kept going. However, we couldn't find this restaurant, much to our chagrin. After much searching and a stop in a near by department store, we finally settled on a chain restaurant that specialised in udon dishes. Since it was near the man street and it was nearing 5pm when we finished eating, we just decided to go back to the hotel. The rain was still pouring down and it was freezing cold. Okayama castle would remain a mystery to us.

Tim went straight back to the hotel, but Patrick and I stopped at Mister Donut for some donuts and coffee. The waitress who served us was well versed in english and gave Patrick and I each a Misdo (Mister Donut abbreviated) points card. This was awesome because last time we went to Misdo, Tim was given a points card but neither of us were. Actually, Tim had been given a couple of points cards while the two of us were neglected. We're now going to try to get enough Misdo points to get some free coffee mugs! The rest of the evening was spent at the hotel relaxing and trying to read Japanese gaming magazines. All in all, the day was kind of a bust, but we're off to Hiroshima tomorrow and the weather should be much nicer. :)

Also, I have a Flikr account now with more photos from the trip. http://www.flikr.com/photos/somanton/