We head on over to KFC for a light breakfast. Fuck it. We're on vacation, in Japan! Give me more food! So we head over to another curry vending machine. This place was different from the other curry shops that we've previously been exposed to. This place offered a free service that we weren't use to, they had porno mags available for your viewing pleasure. It's only 9AM, it's too early for porn, yes even in Japan it's too early for porn, so just the curry please.
After that "light" meal, we head back to our hotel to pack our bags and check-out. Steve was closest to the door so head said "Alright, let's go" so he picks up his bag to head for the door, and as he was picking up his bag, he didn't realize that he hadn't zipped it up, so everything that he had just spent the past half hour packing neatly fell out of his bag an onto the ground. Can you say major fail?
So we get to the station with a little time to spare, we each take turns, watching the bags and going into the little convenience store that they have on each platform. I walk into the store and notice that they have an assortment of Kit Kat bars in flavours that are rare here, such a Green Tea, Apple Vinegar, Grape etc. But I resist the temptation to purchase any more since I had already made my snack purchase earlier. Next thing I know, Steve comes walking out of the store, happily munching on an Original Flavoured Kit Kat bar. Fail!
So the train arrives and we board, not much excitement for the next three hours. So let's fast forward ahead. Vrrt!
We arrive at the Ana Crowne Plaza Hotel with our bags ready for check-in. I make my way up to the check-in counter smile and wink at the male receptionist, and voila! He informs me that he has upgraded me to the Club Level, so we get a larger room, we're on the 23rd of the 24 livable floors of their building, we get a nicer view and on top of that we recieve a variety of complimentary Club Service Features, which includes free breakfast buffet in the mornings, free snacks and refreshments in the afternoons and free alcholic drinks in the evenings. Cha-Ching!
We all rush into the room and begin snapping pictures of a nice clean room before we trash it. After a short break we head out to our first tourist attraction in Osaka, the Tsutenkaku tower.
Tsutenkaku means "tower reaching heaven". Back in the day this tower lived up to its name, it was the highest tower in the East at that time. However that is not the case today.
Inside this tower lives Billiken, the God of Good Luck. He is very popular with the locals, people pray to him to pass school entrance exams, find mates, etc. It has been noted that the prototype of Billiken was a unique god who appeared in a dream to an American girl back in 1908. Okay, so even though an American girl dreamed him up, people still believe that if you rub the soles of his feet, your wish will be fulfilled. I guess it is true then, that people will worhsip anything!
After that tower, we went to go look for some kushikatsu, a dish that is popular in this area of the neighbourhood. Kushikatsu consists of pieces of meat or vegetables sprinkled with bread crumbs, skewered and deep fried, it's made to order and consumed right on the spot. The sauce is important and each piece had it's own flavour, they even have rules for applying the sauce. Well, the restaurant we ate at, had it's own rule for the sauce. It said "absolutely no double dipping". It didn't occur to me at the time as to why that rule was in place, I only figured it out after we finished eating, I thought the rule was in place so that you don't ruin the flavour of the item by double dipping, sadly that was not the case. *cough
After visiting the Tsutenkaku and rubbing the soles of Billiken and wishing not to catch Swine flu, we had just enough time to visit one more attraction, the Osaka WTC.
We got to go all the way up to the 51st floor and enjoy a nice romantic view of the city. This was probably the most romantic spot that we went to during the trip. So romantic that we even had wedding bells on our minds and before we left, I put my name on the waiting list for 2015.
After visiting the WTC we needed food! We must have wandered around the city for hours, searching hi and lo, but for some reason, we could not find a decent food place to eat. Finally after what seemed like a decade of walking, Ly noticed that they had an underground food court in a train station, so we decided to head there and check it out. It wasn't much, but it'll have to do, they had a subway, a Mc Donalds, a bar, and a small shop that served what I believe is called Takoyaki(?).After walking up and down the limited selection of shops and unable to come to a conclusion on what we wanted to eat, we finally settled for some good old fashioned Mc Donalds. I tried their spicy chicken burger, along with their french fries fried in Japan, along with their coke that was also poured in Japan. Steve opted for Mc Donald's as well, he went with a good ol fashioned Japanese burger with a bacon potatoe pie and some weird drink.
Ly went to the Takoyaki shop, which served octopus / squid inside a fresh baked batter in a ball shape. It sounded weird, but tasted a lot like congee.
After dinner, we made our way back to the hotel. As we're walking along, we came across a detour. We could take Route A, which was a new route and this route may or may not pay off in bringing us back to our hotel quicker than the old route. Or we could take Route B, which was the route we knew would surely get us back to the hotel.I said that Route A was quicker than Route B, but they guys didn't believe me, so the other two chose Route B and I chose Route A.
Lo and behold Route A was a lot quicker. As my reward for completing this challenge, I got to shower first!
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