2008-01-02 07:06:00
Yesterday I'd decided to make it a very slow day: I'd stick around Osaka to recuperate from New Year's and to rest up a little bit. I stayed in bed (with my laptop) until ~11:30, cleaned the apartment and did the dishes. Then, around 14:00 I went out to Shitennoji temple again. I wanted to see it by daylight as well :)
Afterwards I wanted to go back to Den Den Town, to see if any of the shops were open. On January the first, usually -everything's- closed over here. Luckily, two of the shops that I'd been meaning to visit were indeed open: Super Kids Land and Super Potato. The latter being a (retro) video game store and the first being a toy/chara/model shop.
It's a shame that dutch law explicitly forbids the ownership of Airsoft guns, because oh man! SKL has a whole floor dedicated to those things and some of them are exquisitely crafted! Around Y2000 will get you a simple Desert Eagle lookalike, that simply put looks awesome. Now, I'm absolutely of a fan of guns etc, but the idea of owning a replica of Rally Vincent's (from Gunsmit Cats) CZ75 seems way cool to me ^_^;
I also managed to get lost on my way to Den Den Town. Not by far, but I did end up in one of Osaka's unsavory districts. Niels and Robert assure me that it may look a bit threatening (to a gaijin), but that I was still perfectly safe. Still, to my westerner's reflexes being surrounded by homeless folks, drunks and ramshackle kots made from a few planks felt unsafe. =_=; Menno, you asked about hobos earlier? Go over there and you'll find them aplenty :)
When I got out of that district, I ran into the abandoned Festival Gate amusement park. It's an indoor amusement park, which runs straight through a mall. The roller-coaster winds through a number of buildings and can be clearly seen from both the streets and the trains. The design may be godawful, but the concept's pretty cool.
kilala.nl tags: japan, japan 2007,
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