Osaka - Japan's Sin City

Don't cry, little Kawaii 😭

Dada, Tata, Papa. No matter where you are on earth, everyone understands that. And tears. Tears speak their own language.

It's Sunday, departure day. I wake up at 6 o'clock, pack the remaining things and take a shower. When I'm finished showering, I hear the young daughter of the host calling for her father. Nope, it's me showering here, not there Papa. I think to myself, as she speaks with her presumably maximum 10 years of age. of course no English. I go to my room, make the final preparations. 'Tata? Tata!'. It doesn't stop. The little girl comes into my room, looking for him here. Nope.
I go out into the hallway with her, she sits down crying on the floor with her phone. So I sit down too. With my phone. Not crying, but dialing her father's number, I hold out my hand to her. She takes it, which calms her down. I put it on speaker and hear a Japanese automated message. I can guess what it means.
So I try again. And again. And again.
At the fourth time, a 'Moshi, moshi?' comes from the speaker, I hand her the phone. Situation clarified, I am still allowed to go to the airport. Something new once in a while.

Leisure planning 🏟

At the airport, I buy a ticket for a baseball game. With €44, it seems reasonable to me.
Before I arrived in Japan, I had informed myself about the ticket purchases. I had already imagined the biggest odyssey. Well, outdated instructions. From entering the search term to the deduction, only 5 minutes have passed. I don't have to stand in line at a ticket counter. I can pick up my ticket at any 7-11 from tomorrow. The email tells me exactly what to say and show to the employee. It can't get any easier.

After that, I go for it again. Before I went to South Korea, I was annoyed that I couldn't visit a sumo wrestling match in Japan at that time. Now everything is different. Coincidentally, the big May Tournament takes place exactly during the time I will be visiting Tokyo. 🔮
€30 sounded like a lot at first. Turns out: admission at 08³⁰, it goes until 18⁰⁰, and you can go out and back in once in between. 9.5 hours of sumo wrestling for €30, that deserves the highest German praise: 'You can't complain about that.' 😂

At the check-in for the domestic flight, I see the counter for the Taiwan flight to my right. That would have been my original destination. Two weeks in Taiwan instead of fulfilling my wishes in Kyoto and Tokyo. And all because of the lousy time in Busan. I did everything right. The bad is there to show us the good.

Arrival in Osaka 🛬

I arrive at Osaka's airport. What catches my eye are the announcements in not only Japanese and English but also Korean and Chinese. I get myself a ticket for the one-hour ride to the hotel. In Tokyo, during my first arrival, I literally broke a sweat doing this, all alone, without experience. This time I have my 6 weeks more experienced self with me, it's going quite smoothly. But I can still understand very well why it can be very overwhelming. And this is not even Tokyo yet.

I check in quickly and have a portion of Cup Noodles. The original. And what can I say, they are damn good. Then it's the usual, shopping. I notice how nice and quiet it was in Okinawa, but this place is more in line with my energy right now.

Shopping 🛍

This city is the epitome of an entertainment district. On my way to the electronics store, I take the direct route and stroll along a market street. Eventually, I realize that it's been raining the whole time, but it doesn't bother me because it's covered the whole time. At a major intersection, I simply go down into the subway, and here too, it just continues into the next shopping street, this time underground.

I end up at BicCamera, and first go to the electronics department. I buy something that I should have bought at the beginning. A 3-pin cable for my laptop charger. No more annoying power adapter that tips forward. So liberating. 🤗

Then I go to the Nintendo section, get some accessories for my Switch. I see a brass knuckle for Joy-Cons and think to myself: 'Haha, who buys something so stupid?' Then I think again and think: 'Hey, I want to box, that's ideal!' It's bought for €7.
With my purchases, I stroll through the toy department for a while and I'm amazed. Power Rangers still exist?! A little more modern than back then, but the design is as if time stood still.

Round 1, Play! 🕹

On my way to Aeon, the food market, I see the entrance to a small game arcade. The usual claw machines. 'Well,' I think, let's go in.
On the first floor, it looks as usual. Claw machines as far as the eye can see. But I realize that this is not the only floor. The sky opens up in front of me. Or hell. Depending on how you see it.

13 floors of amusement. That's French for 'to let loose'. There's everything here. Shooting, boxing, riding trains, fishing, racing, dancing on mats, dancing in front of motion-detecting cameras, hitting drums with sticks, hitting circles, touching the screen, tactical games, Gundam, pulling-pushing-turning. And I've only been through two floors so far.

There are also several levels of Spo-Cha, called Sport Challenge. Data, bowling, table tennis. One floor of karaoke. The machines where you throw coins and hope that exactly your coin triggers a chain reaction. 30 spots for horse racing. And then a dozen things that I can't do anything with.

I think about when to go here. The opening hours are not a problem, open 24 hours. An ATM is also available. I wanted to withdraw money anyway, €30 should be more than enough. The ATM only gives out €70 as a requirement. Also not a problem. I can load everything onto the pendulum card Sucia, which I can also use to pay in stores. This way, I can get the money through, I still have over 2 weeks here.

Money, olé, money, adé 💸

After over half an hour, I finally move on, even though I haven't put a single coin in. There was just too much to see. Within a radius of 100m, I see two more stores of similar size. Plus countless stores and restaurants, some of them 24/7. Welcome to Dotonbori. If you want to make your salary last, you should be able to do it easily within a short time.

On the way to Eon, I pass through the red light district again, which I already came through on the way here. At least I have a strong feeling that it is. I still don't know that I will have certainty at the same time tomorrow. Here, the female scams walk around in sexy school uniforms. One wrong look and they'll latch onto you. Quickly back to the hotel.