Tales of the Traveling K

Today I went to Osaka!



Kelly O. and I traveled together by train. We started our trip at Osaka Castle.




On our way up to the castle, we saw a clown, who would perform for 200 yen. He was quite entertaining.



Kelly had millet cake ice cream, which the shop proclaimed to be an Osaka specialty. It tasted like vanilla with a hint of alcohol. I got a coffee from a Quick! Tasty! Friendly! vending machine.



Perhaps the best part of Osaka Castle was the large number of adorable tiny dogs our for walks in the castle grounds. Weiner dogs are very popular around here.



We also saw a couple of pomeranians, one of which was very friendly and jumped all over us licking our hands. It made me want a pomeranian. :)

Then we attempted to find Denden town, the electronics district, but our map had it listed in the completely wrong part of town. Instead, we found a giant woman on a giant gold fish on the side of a building...



...followed by a crépe stand in a covered arcade. Mmm.



A nice policeman saw us looking at our map in confusion, and pointed us in the right direction for Denden.

Along the way we found the one thing I knew I had to see in Osaka, sooner or later. Yes, that's right, we found Denise's favorite giant crab.




After realizing that our map was entirely incorrect as to the location of Denden, I sent a message to Kristen, who was there, on my fancy new Japanese keitai (cell phone). She told us the subway station, since we knew our map at least had the subway correct, and we finally managed to meet up with her and Owen in Denden. It was all very exciting. We went in more than one manga & DVD store, but they all forbid the use of cameras, so I have no photographic evidence. As it got late, we went out for a delicious and cheap dinner (I had tenpura), followed by a quest to find a not-too-pricey parfait.





After an epic video-camera battle between Kristen and Owen...



...we got to a little road with a light-up blowfish.



Finally, on that tiny road... success!




We had a herd of chocolate parfaits.



In our joy, we formed a new group: the Kansai Parfait Quest Club (KPQC, or ケーピキューシ）
Our mission is to enjoy a parfait from a new shop or restaurant every Saturday. We will be writing reviews and taking photos, with the goal of creating a brochure and/or website for use by current and future Kansai Gaidai students. Coming soon: the face of KPQC--Owen in a fruit hat!

Posted by K. Raila at 8:01 AM Comments