Osaka'd Girl

Japan is a great place to be vacationing. Armed with only flight tickets, hotel, and a JR rail pass plus a little spirit of adventure is all one needs. I must say I am most pleased with myself on the choice of accomodation; Swissotel Nankai Osaka could not have been a better choice. Direct express train access to airport, subway and right smack next to Dontonbori and shopping and nightlife districts. Does not hurt that Takashimaya is next door either. Random highlights of my 8 day journey:

Namba station (or any major train station for that matter) - they could film the next "Survivor: Japan rail station" here. Serious underground city with amazing complex mass of passageways one could get brain tumour almost trying to navigate it.

Takashimaya - err, for mature aunties only. Not quite fashionable like the one we have here. But fun experience grabbing 50% off last-minute bento box specials pitting our kiasu-ness with all the other oba-sans.

Cofes - afternoon teas are serious business here. No matter where, the afternoon coffee and cake sets are amazing. Slurp. Why would Starbucks think they could survive here?

Kobe beef - Navigating 2hours in train ride and walks to date this melt in your mouth cow meat. As C declared to the chef when he requested for the Wagyu dinner course (it was lunch time), he didn't travel all this way just to eat ordinary lunch time beef. I of course, had to renounce my vegetarian vows for the time being.

Movies - wahlaueh, $20 for a movie ticket. It makes GV gold class here a good bargain in comparison.

Vending machines - are everywhere. But how come every drink costs nearly SGD 2???? I start to miss the provision shops here in SG.

Himeji castle - a bit of Amazing Race style fun. We arrived at the station 20 mins before castle closing time. Pit Stop - either run 1km to the castle, or rent a bicycle at the bicycle park and cycle our way there. We chose cycle. Amidst nearly crashing into hordes of people, trees and couple of poles (me of course), and yelling at the entrance gatekeeper to "WAIT!!!!!!!!!" and with C leaping over the fence ala Mission Impossible style, we did make it of course. But damn in my past life I better not be a princess or maidservant at the castle. Those castle steps are not made for modern people.

Nara - Todaji temple and the giant 14m tall buddha inside is fantastic. Err, was temple built first or buddha first? Nara deer park is amazing. Hundreds of deers roaming freely amongst humans. There are snob deers, bambi deers, old deers, horny deers, zen deers and hungry deers. Humans come in hordes to feed them food, there's no need for park keepers to even feed them.

Universal studios - one can actually buy an Express pass (i.e jump queue) pass for $50 to get first in line for any rides. Gotta admit, C was right on this one. Would have been more fun if everything in the park weren't in Japanese. Best part? The studio picture we took. Gotta post it up later.

Food - curry rice, sushi, sashimi, tonkatsu, soba, omu rice, okonomiyaki, kobe beef/ teppanyaki, bento boxes. We ate it all. Food is amazing. Not cheap, but it's great. Gotta say McDonald's and Starbucks is consistent with standards in Singapore and was the only 2 places we could comfortably order without fumbling.

Fashion - Jap girls are really pretty. Fashion is a unique style (woohoo, I put my new boots to great use). Everyone there had huge fluttery dolly mascara'd eyes with sexy japanese curled hair and fair fair skin. Skirts were short short short but strangely enough no cleavage is seen anywhere. My unique fashion sense would be very happy in Japan.

Toys - figurine toys are big business here. These girl anime figurines are probably the fantasy expression of all these pervy japanese men. All come with big DD boobs, cleavage popping attires, tiny waist and pert bottoms and very suggestive poses. Price of possession? $300 and above. Err, maybe they should just invest in some porn magazines.....

Shopping - ok ok my friends would be aghast here. My total acquisition is only 1 pair of glasses, 1 belt, 1 box of sweets and 1 bag. Serious underspending. I think, better to shop in HK. hahah.

More later.