In Osaka

We arrived in Osaka yesterday, after quite the last couple days in Tokyo!  More on that in a sec..

For those curious about our whole TV gig, it was as brief as i was expecting it to be!  And i totally called it too- i was mearly a creeper in the background as S got her hair done.  She hardly got any air-time either, considering all the footage they took.  First a shot of the back of her head, showing the finished straightened hair, then them asking her how much time she spends on her hair in the morning, then a few shots of the whole straightening process.  All less than 2 minutes!  I can't really complain though.  I still got paid!

Anyway, later Saturday we met up with a couple of our guys- Mr. Rich Man and our little Yu-yu.  We went to an izakaya (as we have been doing, at least a couple times a week since we've arrived in Japan.. needless to say i'm pretty izakaya-ed out!) had some tasty food and drinks and goofed around, then walked through the streets of Shinjuku.  We came across many host and hostess clubs, as well as many hosts standing around in streets (just as i remembered Shinjuku from mine and Carl's adventures there years before).  We eventually ended up at a batting-range/arcade-type place and each took a turn batting!  Naturally, i was terrible.  At least i redeemed myself with the 'test the strength of your grip' game!  S and i were both way above the average strength of Japanese males, lol!  Mr. Rich Man was off the charts!  But poor Yu-yu was only as strong as S and i, though he did go again and managed to add a few more kg to his score, haha.

 Mr. Rich Man and Yu-yu

 Funny drinking faces

 And our funny drinking faces!

 I think this is when he was pretending to be a dog

 Eatin' fishies

 'Since you for you' lol.  Poster of some of the expensive boys you can spend time with.  Lots of them were roaming the streets too.  Their hair is absolutely delicious!

 That's right, 76kg of strength in that grip right there!

Yu-yu's second attempt.. he's trying soooo hard to beat our scores!  He made it to 60kg!  S and i got to 55kg.

Then we went to a Donkihote and faffed around there for a bit.

 He likes the boob

 Zebra me and zebra Yu-yu

 Yep.  Lots of fun to be had at that store!

We then walked to Shin-Ōkubo, the little Korean-town not far from Shinjuku, and went to a Korean restaurant for some drinks.  I don't remember what drink Yu-yu ordered for everyone, but it was gross so i didn't drink it.  He then had to leave to catch his last train home since his girlfriend was sick, so Mr. Rich Man was gonna walk S and i back to Shinjuku station so we could catch our last train back.  Halfway there though, Yu-yu called us and was like, 'Oh hey actually I'm not going back, you guys wanna hang out some more?'  So we walked back to Shin-Ōkubo and we went to a Korean club there, and they played lots of K-pop (you would've been so happy, Miss C!)

So, didn't sleep at all.  And i had only been able to sleep 5 hours the night before.  As soon as i got home i had to pack in order to be checked out by 10am.  The guy at the front desk though allowed us to stay til noon for no extra charge, so we were able to get in a little 2-hour nap.  We left our luggage at the front desk then headed out to Ueno to kill some time.  Hung out at Ueno Park for a long time, and got in another short little nap there on some large rocks.  Then we walked around and watched some of the street performers, got some snacks (shaved ice for me, and a tornado potato for S), watched the people on the lake in row boats and swan boats, then went into the city and found a department store to meander around in.  Finally went back to fetch our luggage, and the nice guy at the counter who had approached us about the Fuji TV thing told us we could use the showers, which i gladly did.  I always wake up after the night on the highway bus feeling disgusting, so it was nice to get a shower beforehand. 

We headed to Tokyo station and met another old friend from UW there.  We went and found a little Irish Pub and had some munchies and talked before we had to go board our bus.

 Street performer in Ueno Park

 He was hella built too!

 More street performers, doing scary balancing tricks on chairs

 Spying on this young, lovey-dovey couple in a row boat

 With H at the Pub~

Had a little bit of culture shock going from Kyoto to Tokyo, and had some shock again coming back to Osaka.  Definitely a different atmosphere in Kansai!  Nothing too exciting has happened here yet, but i do have some stories i'll post next time.  :)