Again, apologies for the lack of entries. This trip that I'll be talking about totally happened about three weeks ago! It's amazing how quickly the time has gone by already. Anyway, this time around, I'll be talking about Denden Town, a small area of Osaka completely devoted to electronics and anime. If you are familiar with Akihabara in Tokyo, Denden Town is very similar except that it's much much smaller!
This time around, I went with Patrick, his friend Ian, a newfound (and now somewhat close!) friend Sarah, and, as per usual, the partner in crime, Kaylie. We woke up pretty early in the morning (considering that we had been up late with karaoke the night before) and walked the half hour walk over to Makino station, meeting up with Patrick and Ian along the way. It was a beautiful, sunny day. I actually rather like the walk to and from Makino station for some reason. It goes along a river and so there's all kinds of nature to see, and at night time it's a very peaceful walk. Plus, it's not NEARLY as long as the walk to Hirakata-shi station.
Here's a sign that is posted along the way to Makino station advising children not to get too close climb over to barriers to the river below. "Abunai!" or "Danger!" - Kappas will...do things to you.
This is the main intersection right outside of Makino station. Every 15 minutes or so, this stretch of road completely shuts down to allow for trains to pass in and out of the intersection. You can see all the cars and bikes beginning to accumulate!
Anyway, we made it safely to the station, went one stop and met up with Sarah at Hirakata-shi. Then we went back to the platform and hopped on over to Kitahama station, where we needed to switch to the subways. Unfortunately, we screwed this up and ended up having to pay around 220 yen extra to go a few more stops down the line -- but at least we didn't get lost! ...Yet!
We surfaced into in the busy Nipponbashi area of Osaka and immediately had no idea where the heck we were. This is always the fun part. I always imagine a lot of Japanese people watching the gaijin (foreigners) surface into the upper world, taking in our puzzled glances as we desperately try to find any sign of guidance. But alas -- we generally end up wandering in a direction until we realize we are wrong. For some reason, I got stuck with the task of asking for directions. There was a really happy looking elderly security guard/guide type of person on one of the streets, so I kindly asked him: "すみませんが、Denden Townはどこか知っていますか。” (Sumimasen ga, Denden Town wa doko ka shitteimasu ka = Excuse me, do you know where Denden town is?) It wasn't exactly the politest way to ask for directions, but he pointed us in the right direction.
Good thing too -- we were going the complete opposite direction.
Not wanting to spend the effort (or the money) on finding Japanese cuisine, we mutually decided that we were all going to eat at the nearest McDonald's.
A Chicken Fillet-O! It's my usual. It took me awhile to figure out how exactly to say that I didn't want any mayonnaise. For future reference, the word is "nashi." Japanese McDonalds is actually really good! The food is always made to order, so it's always fresh. I've never once had a bad dining experience at a McDonald's yet.
This is the infamous Shaka Shaka Chicken, one of Japan's dollar menu items. Since it is only 100 yen, it is a popular snack/lunch item for the college student strapped for money. What it is is that there's a chicken patty inside that sort of tastes like Chicken Selects Strips. You put a packet of powdered flavoring inside the top of the bag -- lemon, black pepper (my personal favorite), or cheese. Then, you "Shaka shaka" it! Shaka Shaka is supposed to be the sound the chicken makes in the bag when you shake it. I will miss this when I come back home.
Kaylie getting her eat on. Oh, those cups we're drinking out of that look like smalls? Those are the Japanese medium size! I explained how we have Super Size drinks in America to my friend's speaking partner, and she was absolutely shocked.
Sarah being Sarah :D
With food in our stomachs, we ventured off to explore the territory! At first we just kind of looked at all the stores so that we could pick out which stores we wanted to visit as to not spend all of our money in one place. When you enjoy anime a little bit too much, it is very easy to blow a small trust fund in this kind of place, so we had to practice self-restraint. Pretty much, for anyone who has been to an anime convention, it was like having 20 dealer rooms. Yeah.
Here's a sign labeling that we indeed had arrived in Denden town!
A look down from a pedestrian bridge at the bustling activity.
The landmark Gundam store! I can't say I know much about Gundam (a mecha anime that is very popular and has many different revivals), but the store itself seemed pretty cool! It made we want to watch some Gundam!
But it was SUPER crowded! And all of the stores were excruciatingly hot. I guess the otaku (anime nerds) really like sweating or something. I actually felt a little dehydrated during this expedition and had to go buy water! Just the sheer amount of people and the heat in the stores was wearing on my nerves, so I got a bit cranky toward the end of the shopping trip.
Patrick and Ian seemed to be in Denden town more or less for the electronics half of the area, so we all followed them into an electronics store where, much to our surprise, the Olympics opening ceremonies were on! It was during the part where all the countries enter the stadium, and we noted that the line-up was getting close to the U's, so we waited. America came on the TV and we (quietly) cheered and clapped our hands for our team within the store. The Olympics truly are a really cool thing to have happen when you're not at home to experience them. It's nice to have a connection back home! I could honestly say that at that moment, I was very proud to be an American! :D
Anyway, we decided to split up. Boys hitting tech stores, girls hitting anime-ish stores. The first store we entered was a fairly spacious (in comparison) figurine store. You're not supposed to take pictures in these kinds of places, but these diaramas the employees had set up were too much to resist.
Yes -- Eva units have to eat too. It kind of looks lonely....good thing it has a pet bird to keep it company as it eats it's meal.
This Eva unit was slightly more social, for it found gloomy bear and some green haired kid! They were too cute. :P
The stores were multi-floored, and as you went higher and higher in the building, the merchandise seemed to become more specialized.
Floor 3 -- Hello Kitty and Vocaloid air guns.
While walking on the street, we came across this store in which all of the employees cosplayed and then proceeded to shout at everyone walking by to buy very expensive electronics, such as TVs! here's a video!
The only character I could recognize was Piccolo from Dragon Ball Z. I found it quite amusing. XD
We went into about 3-4 more figurine type stores. In the second store, there was totally a 11,000 yen Furby for sale! ($110!) There were other things in them too, but that is mainly the kind of thing you come here to buy. Although...I did find a ball-jointed doll store! I was very excited and thrilled to finally see these dolls up close and personal! If you don't know about asian ball-jointed dolls, they are highly customizable, beautiful pieces of art. Unfortunately, they are very expensive, but I have always wanted one since the day I set my eyes on one. As tempting as it is to get one in Japan, I've got to be good and save my money. Plus, it would be rather difficult to bring one home.
I found a few things that I wanted to purchase, yet didn't want to get yet since my scholarship spending money had not arrived yet. We're definitely going to be making a return visit to pick up that kind of stuff.
Anime fans -- if you want to be hip in Japan right now, Axis Powers Hetalia is what you need to be watching, reading, and listening to. There is SO MUCH merchandise in manga stores for this series, it's ridiculous! Aside from One Piece, I think Hetalia is the second most represented fandom that I've seen so far in Japan. I've watched the first 38 or so episodes (each is only 5 minutes long!), and it is a pretty good time, so I would recommend it! The above picture shows some of the character song CDs. It seems that Germany's CD had just come out, so it was pretty popular.
Again -- Hetalia is everywhere. This was a diarama set up in one of the manga stores.
As for what I got -- I got a few souvenirs for friends, but this was my favorite purchase:
It's a shirt of Chopper from One Piece! There is a Sanji shirt I want as well that I will probably go back for. The nice thing -- it fits!
Next up -- the Plum Blossom festival!
This time around, I went with Patrick, his friend Ian, a newfound (and now somewhat close!) friend Sarah, and, as per usual, the partner in crime, Kaylie. We woke up pretty early in the morning (considering that we had been up late with karaoke the night before) and walked the half hour walk over to Makino station, meeting up with Patrick and Ian along the way. It was a beautiful, sunny day. I actually rather like the walk to and from Makino station for some reason. It goes along a river and so there's all kinds of nature to see, and at night time it's a very peaceful walk. Plus, it's not NEARLY as long as the walk to Hirakata-shi station.
Here's a sign that is posted along the way to Makino station advising children not to get too close climb over to barriers to the river below. "Abunai!" or "Danger!" - Kappas will...do things to you.
This is the main intersection right outside of Makino station. Every 15 minutes or so, this stretch of road completely shuts down to allow for trains to pass in and out of the intersection. You can see all the cars and bikes beginning to accumulate!Anyway, we made it safely to the station, went one stop and met up with Sarah at Hirakata-shi. Then we went back to the platform and hopped on over to Kitahama station, where we needed to switch to the subways. Unfortunately, we screwed this up and ended up having to pay around 220 yen extra to go a few more stops down the line -- but at least we didn't get lost! ...Yet!
We surfaced into in the busy Nipponbashi area of Osaka and immediately had no idea where the heck we were. This is always the fun part. I always imagine a lot of Japanese people watching the gaijin (foreigners) surface into the upper world, taking in our puzzled glances as we desperately try to find any sign of guidance. But alas -- we generally end up wandering in a direction until we realize we are wrong. For some reason, I got stuck with the task of asking for directions. There was a really happy looking elderly security guard/guide type of person on one of the streets, so I kindly asked him: "すみませんが、Denden Townはどこか知っていますか。” (Sumimasen ga, Denden Town wa doko ka shitteimasu ka = Excuse me, do you know where Denden town is?) It wasn't exactly the politest way to ask for directions, but he pointed us in the right direction.
Good thing too -- we were going the complete opposite direction.
Not wanting to spend the effort (or the money) on finding Japanese cuisine, we mutually decided that we were all going to eat at the nearest McDonald's.
A Chicken Fillet-O! It's my usual. It took me awhile to figure out how exactly to say that I didn't want any mayonnaise. For future reference, the word is "nashi." Japanese McDonalds is actually really good! The food is always made to order, so it's always fresh. I've never once had a bad dining experience at a McDonald's yet.
This is the infamous Shaka Shaka Chicken, one of Japan's dollar menu items. Since it is only 100 yen, it is a popular snack/lunch item for the college student strapped for money. What it is is that there's a chicken patty inside that sort of tastes like Chicken Selects Strips. You put a packet of powdered flavoring inside the top of the bag -- lemon, black pepper (my personal favorite), or cheese. Then, you "Shaka shaka" it! Shaka Shaka is supposed to be the sound the chicken makes in the bag when you shake it. I will miss this when I come back home.
Kaylie getting her eat on. Oh, those cups we're drinking out of that look like smalls? Those are the Japanese medium size! I explained how we have Super Size drinks in America to my friend's speaking partner, and she was absolutely shocked.
Sarah being Sarah :DWith food in our stomachs, we ventured off to explore the territory! At first we just kind of looked at all the stores so that we could pick out which stores we wanted to visit as to not spend all of our money in one place. When you enjoy anime a little bit too much, it is very easy to blow a small trust fund in this kind of place, so we had to practice self-restraint. Pretty much, for anyone who has been to an anime convention, it was like having 20 dealer rooms. Yeah.
Here's a sign labeling that we indeed had arrived in Denden town!
A look down from a pedestrian bridge at the bustling activity.
The landmark Gundam store! I can't say I know much about Gundam (a mecha anime that is very popular and has many different revivals), but the store itself seemed pretty cool! It made we want to watch some Gundam!But it was SUPER crowded! And all of the stores were excruciatingly hot. I guess the otaku (anime nerds) really like sweating or something. I actually felt a little dehydrated during this expedition and had to go buy water! Just the sheer amount of people and the heat in the stores was wearing on my nerves, so I got a bit cranky toward the end of the shopping trip.
Patrick and Ian seemed to be in Denden town more or less for the electronics half of the area, so we all followed them into an electronics store where, much to our surprise, the Olympics opening ceremonies were on! It was during the part where all the countries enter the stadium, and we noted that the line-up was getting close to the U's, so we waited. America came on the TV and we (quietly) cheered and clapped our hands for our team within the store. The Olympics truly are a really cool thing to have happen when you're not at home to experience them. It's nice to have a connection back home! I could honestly say that at that moment, I was very proud to be an American! :D
Anyway, we decided to split up. Boys hitting tech stores, girls hitting anime-ish stores. The first store we entered was a fairly spacious (in comparison) figurine store. You're not supposed to take pictures in these kinds of places, but these diaramas the employees had set up were too much to resist.
Yes -- Eva units have to eat too. It kind of looks lonely....good thing it has a pet bird to keep it company as it eats it's meal.
This Eva unit was slightly more social, for it found gloomy bear and some green haired kid! They were too cute. :PThe stores were multi-floored, and as you went higher and higher in the building, the merchandise seemed to become more specialized.
Floor 3 -- Hello Kitty and Vocaloid air guns.While walking on the street, we came across this store in which all of the employees cosplayed and then proceeded to shout at everyone walking by to buy very expensive electronics, such as TVs! here's a video!
The only character I could recognize was Piccolo from Dragon Ball Z. I found it quite amusing. XD
We went into about 3-4 more figurine type stores. In the second store, there was totally a 11,000 yen Furby for sale! ($110!) There were other things in them too, but that is mainly the kind of thing you come here to buy. Although...I did find a ball-jointed doll store! I was very excited and thrilled to finally see these dolls up close and personal! If you don't know about asian ball-jointed dolls, they are highly customizable, beautiful pieces of art. Unfortunately, they are very expensive, but I have always wanted one since the day I set my eyes on one. As tempting as it is to get one in Japan, I've got to be good and save my money. Plus, it would be rather difficult to bring one home.
I found a few things that I wanted to purchase, yet didn't want to get yet since my scholarship spending money had not arrived yet. We're definitely going to be making a return visit to pick up that kind of stuff.
Anime fans -- if you want to be hip in Japan right now, Axis Powers Hetalia is what you need to be watching, reading, and listening to. There is SO MUCH merchandise in manga stores for this series, it's ridiculous! Aside from One Piece, I think Hetalia is the second most represented fandom that I've seen so far in Japan. I've watched the first 38 or so episodes (each is only 5 minutes long!), and it is a pretty good time, so I would recommend it! The above picture shows some of the character song CDs. It seems that Germany's CD had just come out, so it was pretty popular.
Again -- Hetalia is everywhere. This was a diarama set up in one of the manga stores.As for what I got -- I got a few souvenirs for friends, but this was my favorite purchase:
It's a shirt of Chopper from One Piece! There is a Sanji shirt I want as well that I will probably go back for. The nice thing -- it fits!Next up -- the Plum Blossom festival!
Yeah, I really liked the walk to Makino. I only did it a couple times... to go to karaoke and then bowling, but I liked it. :) Normally I just met up with people at Hirakata-eki since I wasn't in a sem house.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, I believe we were all very excited to learn the word 'nashi' too. XD
Sooo jealous of all the Hetalia stuff. o.o *grabs*