Universal Studios Japan!

During Saturday some friends and I went to the huge amusement park Universal Studios Japan (USJ), located ~15min (by train) away from central Osaka. I didn’t know that much about USJ before going there so I was very impressed by it. It was like a smaller city, both beautiful and cozy.

When we arrived we decided to buy so called express passes, which let us stand in a piority que once per popular attraction. It costed us the double but 5-10min of queuing instead of 1-2h sure made it worth it, especially since I probably won’t go there again.

Unlucky for us the Spider-Man ride was under maintenance so we couldn’t try that one. And one of the attractions I was looking forward to the most (Space Fantasy) turned out to involve some heavy spinning and was therefore not recommended for those easily getting travel-sick, so I reluctantly decided to skip that one.

Hyung and me chilling.

Just like a small town!

Another area.

Phen and me preparing for some “4D” action.

A pretty park filled with roses.

A cute cafeteria not yet opened.

Old-style selfie!

Lunch break.

Peaceful surroundings viewed before the “Jaws” ride started.

Outside the “Space Fantasy” ride.

Me and Bow chilling while queuing.

Me and Phen.

The Jurassic Park area.

The end of the Jurassic Park ride, which totally messed up my hair. x)

Red like a lobster! Forgot to pay attention to the strong sunrays.

On the other hand I got to experience the Hollywood Dream ride, the Jurassic Park ride and a “4D” cinema for the first time. Another attraction was the Terminator show with a merge of 3D, live acting and scenes from Terminator 2. I found it really cool and enjoyed it a lot. Other attractions was the Jaws ride, with some live acting included, and the Backdraft show, which was quite cool. But the one attraction I enjoyed the most was probably the simulation ride Back to the Future, it was just so fun! It really felt like we were riding a rollercoaster through some really exciting environments, even though we in fact were on the same spot all along. I got quite travel-sick though but that didn’t make it less awesome.

Lastly, we enjoyed the pretty Magical Starlight Parade during the evening. I’m usually not the romantic type but I have to admit that show had romance allover it and I loved it! My favourite part was probably the last one, which was based on Cinderella.

Waiting for the Magical Starlight Parade to start!

Starting off with Elmo from Sesame Street, followed by Snoopy.

The Alice in Wonderland part begins.

I really liked this one!

Arabian night theme.

The beginning of the Cinderella part.

Part of the area just outside of USJ.

Takoyaki party and The Hub!

Last week I went to a takoyaki party (a takoyaki is a fried or grilled ball-shaped snack usually filled with squid, green onion and some other stuff ) arranged for students living in certain apartment buildings. The purpose was to let the students there get an easier time getting to know other students living in the same respective building.

At my table sat one guy from Shanghai and another Chinese-speaking man from either Taiwan or China (irritating enough I can’t remember!) and last but not least: the very pleasant and funny Anna from Sweden! Anna doesn’t live in the same building though (and she has already graduated) but they probably put her at our table out of consideration for me. Despite us both being Swedish we basically only spoke in Japanese so the four of us at the table could participate in the ongoing conversation at all times. We spoke mostly about games and series since that was a shared interest among all of us.

Takoyaki in the making! And some pre-made okonomiyaki to the right.

The two gentlemen of our table.

At first I didn’t feel like going to the party since I believed it would be more fun to hang out with my usual friends, but I’m so glad I went because it really was super fun. Not only did I make some new awesome friends, I also got to taste takoyaki for the first time. Moreover I got to make the takoyaki myself which was very fun. Additionally, it was all-you-can-drink and everything was, once again, free! Gosh, I really love this school…

After the takoyaki party me and Anna went to an international pub included in a chain called “The Hub”, where we met up with a bunch of friends. Except talking with Anna and some classmates, I talked a lot with two super nice Singaporeans and later on some very funny Japanese people who shared the same table. Yet again another evening was added to my list of “Awesome evenings in Osaka”, wonderfully enough they just keep adding up!

Me and Anna chilling with Bailey’s-based drinks.

Rainbow power!

School trip

So we went on a school trip last Friday, instead of the usual class (yey!). We went to an island called Awaji-shima which, according to the creation myth in Shinto, is the oldest Japanese island. It took ~1½h to get there by bus, crossing the world’s longest suspension bridge: The Akashi-Kaikyō Bridge.

After having a very nice chat with one of my classmates during the bus trip, we arrived outside the the huge and beautiful Akashi-Kaikyō National Government Park. We were lucky with the weather at first but then it started to rain a lot and it didn’t really stop until we got back to Osaka. It was a refreshing trip nontheless, a quick visit to the beach included.

Most of my classmates (and other people from school).

My classmate Oku.

The mandatory selfie.

A little cutie out on an adventure (or something)!

Hyung having some fun!

Lunch partners: Hyung and Kim.

A funny park creation once again.

The Akashi-Kaikyō Bridge.

Night view from Umeda Sky Building

During Monday we didn’t have any classes so some friends and I went to check out Umeda Sky Building during the evening after hanging around for a while. It turned out to be a typical “couple’s spot” since there were couples everywhere (not like it matters, just an anecdote). Anyway, it was a very nice view over Osaka. City views by night sure are awesome! They also had a cool floor highlighted by UV lights.

Pretty!

The center of the building was also quite cool.

UV lights temporarily pimped my shoes and socks.

Party party!

Ready for some fun!

Saturday evening we went out for an all-nighter with nomihōdai, club and karaoke. We went to one of the most popular clubs here in Osaka, namely Giraffe in Namba. It was a super nice club with four floors and great music. I left my camera in a coin locker during the club visit so sadly I have no pics from there, and I forgot to take any during the karaoke. Anyway, here are at least two from the nomihōdai:

Kampai!

Everyone was looking at another camera, oh well!

Yet again, an awesome evening with the best of people!

Tennōji area

Yesterday me and some friends made a trip to the Tennōji (天王寺) district here in Osaka. We went to the zoo, Shitennō-ji (四天王寺), Shin-Sekai (新世界) and some other smaller areas. The zoo was almost as depressing as the zoo in Ueno (Tokyo) but the park outside was beautiful and I’m glad we visited the temple (Shitennō-ji), since it was a very heart soothing and peaceful area. After the temple we went to the very lively but controversial Shin-Sekai area, which really gave me the feeling of “neo-noir”.

Moi.

A really cute miniature garden in the park.

Funny creations in the Tennōji park.

A very pretty roof of pink roses in the park.

Koala!

Seels sunbathing.

Some beautiful nature.

Lion taking a nap.

This pic really reminds me of the game Ico.

Shitennō-ji.

A cute little pathway in the Shitennō-ji area.

Loads of turtles sunbathing in the Shitennō-ji area.

A big and gruesome-looking statue somewhere in Tennōji.

A cemetery somewhere in Tennōji.

Somewhere in the Tennōji district.

My friend Hyung by the Kinnikuman (キン肉マン) statue in Shin-Sekai.

Shin-Sekai.

Today it is Saturday though and once again it’s time for nomihōdai and possibly some club dancing after! Wee-hoo!

Ikebana!

The day before yesterday I went to an ikebana (生け花) exhibition/workshop I signed up for, where I was given the opportunity to make my own arrangement given a predetermined set of flowers. Ikebana means “living flowers” and is the (Japanese) art of arranging flowers. I’ve really wanted to try this so I feel lucky I got the chance. We were also served a beautiful sweet, followed by green tea prepared the traditional way. And after the workshop I got to take my creation back home. All this for free! Great experience, I hope there will be more of these cultural events.

Anyway, brace yourselves! Flower pics incoming:

Posing with my creation.

My favourite ikebana on the exhibition. I really love rhododendron.

After the ikebana we paid a visit to the nearby Den-Den Town (Nipponbashi). Den-Den Town is like Tokyo’s Akihabara and is heaven for anime/manga and retro game lovers. To my great surprise and delight I found a Super Potato store in the midst of everything. They have tons of retro games and funny game merchandise and an equal store (same chain) can be found in Akihabara. It was my favourite store in Tokyo so it was an epic discovery for me. Win!

Boyoyon Sweets Garden and more!

Yesterday we went  to the popular Boyoyon Sweets Garden in Namba for an amazing drink and dessert buffet (with light lunch included), which costed a mere ¥1480 (~$15/~100kr). Since I wanted to try a piece of almost everything I ended up feeling quite sick after eating so much but it was an overall yummy experience nonetheless.

After 2 hours of gluttony we left Umeda for a trip to Kyocera Dome Osaka, a huge stadium usually used for baseball games (by far the most popular sport in Japan). Yesterday the famous South Korean band Big Bang held a concert there so people were allover the place. The reason we went there was to accompany two friends (big fans of Big Bang) who wanted to buy some concert-related stuff. Once outside the Dome I thought it would’ve been nice to have a ticket though, my guess is their show would’ve been an awesome experience.

The really cute interior of Boyoyon Sweets Garden.

Sweets, sweets everywhere!

Outside Kyocera Dome Osaka.

With the shopping business taken care of, we continued to Umeda where we, after fooling around for some time, timed a cool projection show outdoors by chance. And after that little event we went to a friend’s workplace nearby, where we finished the evening with 2 hours of all-you-can-drink, some side dishes and two gigantic ice cream desserts we all shared. The dessert was a treat from our kind friend (thanks Tendy <3) and it was, as we say here, meccha oishikatta (very delicious)!

Yes, the peace sign once again… It comes automatically, it seems.

Really beautiful part of Umeda.

The projection show, pic 1/3.

The projection show, pic 2/3.

The projection show, pic 3/3.

Party, yey!

My apartment room and the surrounding area

Thought it could be interesting to see how I live here and how the surrounding area looks like, so here are some pics:

The kitchenette is equipped with a rice cooker, microwave, fridge/freezer and an IH (Induction Heater).

Closet and bed.

The bathroom even has a small bathtub.

The brighter part of the room where my dear companion resides.

My apartment building is the left-most one.

Some greenery on the way to one of the super markets.

A kindergarten just down the street.

An area close by.

A crossing on the way to the subway station Higashimikuni (東三国).

My room is ~16m² and I have, as you can see, my own kitchenette and bathroom. A really nice room I have to say! I have three different super markets and a 24/7 store about 5 minutes’ walk from here and walking to the closest subway station takes less than 10 minutes. I even have a hospital/clinic just a few minutes away so it’s quite the convenient area. The down-side is that there’s an airport not far from here so during day-time there are a lot of planes passing by at a very low altitude, so it’s often noisy. But! Like so many other things, you get used to it. I’m not bothered by it and hasn’t really been from the start either for that matter.

Here’s a random food pic and a pic of a backpack I bought during the weekend. They don’t really fit in any other post so I’ll just post them here:

My first real ramen (ラーメン), believe it or not. I never ate one during my long stay in Tokyo and I don’t really know why. Anyway, it was very tasty! Japanese curry is still my favourite dish here though and that will probably not change.

Yes, it’s not the prettiest one there is but it was cheap and it’s filling its purpose in life. It’ll have to do.

Party and karaoke!

Last Friday it was time for the first party! We were at a place called Torikizoku and ordered 2 hours of tabe-nomi-hōdai (食べ飲み放題), all-you-can-eat-&-drink, for the nice price of ¥3000 (roughly $30 or 200kr). This includes beer (Japanese beer <3), red wine, whiskey, different cocktails and so on. We were served a variety of dishes and also dessert. Very yummy! The 2 hours just flew by but after Torikizoku me and most of the others followed up with some fun karaoke. It was a great evening all in all! Already looking forward to the next…

First beer since arriving to Japan!

The 5th drink or something, I think it was some kind of banana-pineapple cocktail.

Karaoke! Taking a cup of coffee while waiting for my turn.