Tennoji Station And The Mall

I love these mats so much that I decided to take pictures of them. They're so cushy and easy to walk on but you can stand stuff up on them just like hardwood floor. You can't get rug burn from them, either.

Anyway.

On Saturday, we took the train to Osaka-Abenobashi, a station right near Tennoji. 

Walking to Fujiidera.

Coo.

You'll have to forgive me for how often I take pictures of pigeons. I find them pretty picture friendly. Also they make a good target because they don't run away from people. 

The train schedule.

We took the same train to the same station again, but instead of transferring, we walked out into the city.

According to Ayaka, this is the tallest building in Japan.
I think she was mistaken.

The mall.

Not even by going to a different country
can I escape construction.

 Q's Mall

First, we headed to a mall just across the street called "Q's Mall."

Some interesting advertising on a clothes store.

Not even by going to a different country
can I escape these hideous shoes.

A very famous Japanese clothes store.

Apparently, Japanese celebrate father's day, too.

I almost bought one of these.

Eventually came to the place called Shinobiya. They sold all kinds of ninja-related toys and merchandise. It was really cool, but I've never felt more like a dumb gaijin than the time I was in that store. I felt like it was just pandering to people like us. There were lots of Japanese people there, too, though, so maybe I was thinking about it too hard.

There was a game where you could pay to throw
shurikens for prizes. the girl running the game
could get a bullseye every time.

Katana-handle umbrellas.

Ninja-themed underwear.

It wasn't too long before we were done there, and we decided to split up. We were to meet in the nearby food court in 2 hours.

Music store.

I started walking around with a cool guy named Wataru. We went to a music store that had a wall of guitars rivaling Guitar Center, and to a Sharper Image-type store that sold all kinds of goofy and/or cool stuff. However, I wasn't really that interested in anything the mall had to offer, so it was just us walking around talking for a while. After maybe 40 minutes, we went back up to where we started, and met up with Jake and Christian.

There was something interesting going on outside, so we stopped to look.

The view from that level of the mall.

We watched them for quite a while, because there wasn't really anything else to do. It was mesmerizing. It's called Gibbon Slacklines. It's kind of like an extreme sport.

Finally, it had been almost 2 hours, so we went back inside to the food court. There's this place called Mos Burger in Japan that I wanted to try, so I did. I just got the regular "Mos Burger." It's a very appealing name, I know.

It was quite delicious. I sat in one of the outside seats, and talked with Kenny, another of the Japanese students, and Wataru for a while. The next stop was Animate.

As you can see, downtown/big cities in Japan are freaking awesome. There's also lots of weirdness.

Animate

We basically just crossed a bridge and went inside a building. On the third floor was this store called Animate. It's basically an anime and manga superstore. I was a kid in a candy shop.

In Japan, stores are really vertical. The idea of a store
being only on the third floor was kind of weird to me.

I only took one picture, because I didn't want to
cause any trouble.

After spending not nearly enough time in there, I managed to decide on a few things and then I checked out. They gave me a points card too. Nifty. I would be coming back soon.

Purikura

Some of the girls wanted to do Purikura. I was about to enter a whole new world of Japanese weirdness. We headed back to the mall. These Japanese photo booths were in the arcade.

There is a shop set up here for palm reading.
Really. I'm not joking.

The arcade was really crowded and loud. It was dark, despite the numerous flashing lights of all colors. We made our way to the back of the huge arcade, where the Purikura is.

It was crowded outside the arcade, too.
There was a crowd of people cheering on
this guy playing the taiko drum game.

These are not the photo booths you're used to.

We stepped into the bright room, all 5 of us, and it took about 20 pictures of us in about 2 minutes. It was a pretty big photo booth, but it obviously wasn't designed for 5 people.

The inside of the booth. It was big enough for several people.

After we were done, we walked out into the dark arcade, and around the back of the machine to "play" with our pictures.

I had a go at it, too. It was pretty silly. You could throw a background in, write stuff, put in stamps. The pictures were automatically modified to remove blemishes from our faces and widen our eyes.

Omikuji. I asked Ayaka why they are sold and tied here
inside the arcade, but even when she explained it to me,
I didn't get it.

An image warning delicate young girls about the
dangers of men in arcades.

Ayaka cut the pictures up and shared them with us. We looked ridiculous.

There were games in the arcade you'd never
see in America, like Mario Kart.

We were all tired, so we decided to head home.

There were some interesting people at the station.

On the way home, we changed our plans a little. We decided to go to Karaoke! Again!

Some of us weren't really feeling it, so they went home. Losers...

Mata Karaoke

We were going to go to karaoke there right by the train station, but it was expensive, and there was a wait, so we decided to return to Fujiidera first, and go to the same place we went before. This time I had my student ID, so I got a discount!

Wanted: Dead or alive.

Kilo, frontin' like a mad gangsta.

We were in a different room, and the karaoke machine was slightly different. I didn't like it as much, because it seemed to have a smaller selection. It was still really fun though.

After our hour was up, we went to the grocery store inside the mall to get some food, and then we went right back in. I guess they don't care if you bring food or drink in, which is strange, since they sell food. And drink.

And And that pretty much sums up that day. Probably the busiest day I had so far.