Day 169 in Japan - Den Den Town (Town)

After a bit of a sleep in (after my strenuous day yesterday of doing nothing), Sam and I headed into Osaka. I have been feeling guilty lately about having spent 3 multi-day trips exploring Tokyo, and only having been to Osaka once, even though it is practically next door to Akashi! So it is one of my New Years Resolutions to see more of the heart of Kansai. Today, we started with Den Den Town - the Osakan version of Akihabara, the anime and electronics district of Tokyo.

We met up with Jodie and Fiona at Osaka station, then wandered the streets near the station looking for food. We didn't find that much food, but instead accidentally wandered down the Love Hotel roads, finding nothing but bad Engrish and dodgy photos lining the streets. We ended up giving up and getting Nakau more for somewhere warm to sit than for the sake of our stomachs (it was really cold here today - we all felt colder than we actually had at the snow!).

Sign in the Love Hotel area. I mean, what more do you need?

Then we headed towards Den Den Town (real name Nipponbashi - "den" or でん or 電 means electricity, so it's called Den Den Town due to the high concentration of electronics stores and general nerdy shops around).. We caught a few subways with the kind assistance of Fiona, and eventually emerged from Ebisucho station into the most pee-smelling place I have been in since I came to Japan (with the exception of any school toilets, which always reek). We wandered down what we guess was the main street, and continued poor Fiona's education in the otaku (nerd) arts. Lots of decent little electronics stores (little niche places - think computer fair stalls in shop form, with more odd things and less RAM), our own local SuperPotato (which was my awesome retro game store in Akihabara), and heaps of nerdy anime stores.

Why, Japan, why?

We wandered into quite a big manga place later in the afternoon, and accidentally found a buttload (pun intentional) of porn! We were innocently walking down a kids manga aisle, and then everything around us started to turn flesh coloured. Then pink. (use your imagination). We kept trying to get away from some of the more embarrassing covers, but it didn't end! We got further and further into the weird pornish manga stuff, and by the time we emerged, Fiona was blushing as pink as the areolae/labia we had been surrounded by. Sam and I also toured Jodes and Fiona through an arcade near Namba station (where we emerged from the nerd district), and saw a guy who looke exactly like a Japanese version of my cousin, Lachlan. Scarily so.

Den Den Town random anime shop.

Shoppers in Den Den Town

YES! I want to collect this franchise.

I Can't Believe It's Not Lachlan!

We went for a quick coffee and bagel (yeah, bagel- that's how cool we are) in a big shopping complex to the south of the station, and saw a big festival going on. We aren't sure why it was happening, but Sam and I also saw some other bits of matsuris from the train on our way home.

Matsuri at Namba (Nipponbashini?)

Matsuri in Namba,

Food Highlight of the Day: The Den Den Town waffle street vendor place we visited halfway between Ebishucho station and Namba was delicious (Jodie's blackberry jam one looked the best, but my chocolate was great too), and the guy running it was ridiculously friendly and helpful. I think this is totally going to be a tradition whenever we visit Den Den Town (which will happen again, I swear!)

Osaka Waffles? Den Den Waffles? They were special for some reason other than their deliciousness.