Today's a recovery day. It's also easier since I have to change hostel (result of doing things at last minute). So, I'm exploring Denden Town near Nipponbashi.
After saying goodbye to my Korean bunkmate (Nam) and the tall front desk girl, off to drop off my stuff at Bonsai Guesthouse. Easy to find, but the place gave me bad vibes at first. The security's a bit heavy; guests had to be buzzed in and front door is code-locked 24/7. But the staff's pretty friendly. One of the front desk girls made some small talks with me and suggested that I check out Nakanoshima, where the city hall and some historical buildings are. The very first bank in Japan is also there. I figured my schedule's light today, so may as well. Plus, a good-looking girl suggested, so it's hard to refuse.
Nakanoshima was nothing special, but I found a coffee shop across the canal from city hall that made a great people-watching spot. And to savor some more GTL. Some people were also doing a photo shoot or a video at the nearby park, looked like it's for running stuff.
The main event of the day: Denden Town, Osaka's Akihabara. As a closet anime fan, much like Kirino from Oreimo, I need to go there. The journey was like a pilgrimage - vague directions (from the internet), getting lost, not really know what I'll find there. However, I have high hopes.
Although small, there're plenty of distractions along the way - game centers, food, and one-of-a-kind places (e.g. NMB48's HQ). Dropped too much money at various game centers. Watched an impressive rendition of Dance Evolution arcade though; check this out:
[Video of funny Asian guy dancing]
I was comforted by what I found: Denden Town has the Akiba air, but w/o the in-your-face commercialism. This lets people more freely explore the myriads of shops around, which seems to be a lot more hobby and card game shops than Akiba. Even Animate (the main anime chain store) has huge selections (floors) of cards, nendoroids, cosplay stuff, etc., besides just books, CD/DVDs, and anime porn.
I visited every shop that I had a wimp of interest in, which was every other shop. I even found the old console game shop that my friend Gavin patroned a few year backs. Also found some full-size Dragonballs and punched Mario in the face, yea!
Oh, there're maid cafes. The girls were out, hard at work trying to pull in customers. But the talent's lacking here. To be fair, I spotted a few cute ones, and Akiba's talent had gone down dramatically from what I saw a week ago (enough for me to say aloud, "Damn, she's ugly"). And of course, MaiDreaming (a chain maid café) was here too.
I had intended to visit a maid café, but I was still sour from the experience during last year's Club Fuze reunion trip (at MaiDreaming #2 in Akiba; now you know why I hate the place). So, I went to the AKB48 café instead.
To set the record straight, I'm not a hardcore AKB48 fan, but their music is catchy and I've my AKB48 favs. Going there was purely novelty, plus it's more wallet friendly. Not the greatest service, since the waitress almost spilled my 700￥ parfait. And sorry, no pictures... But I got a free AKB48 coaster.
After being misled by Google Maps, I walked a really long way around and arrived at my final destination, Umeda Sky Building. It has a ring shaped observation deck suspended between two towers, and offers a great view of Osaka's skyline, especially right after sunset. What I didn't know is that this place's popular with couples, so I had to swallow that hate. Another scorn to my vacation.
As for the view, it was excellent. Osaka literally transformed as the sky went dark and the cityscape lit up.
On the way back, I found the underground tunnel that took me from outside of the building to Osaka Station. You bastard...
Tomorrow's the last day in Kansai. Onward to Kobe.
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