Osaka: Day 32

Once a year Osaka had this flea market inside the grounds of Shitennoji, a huge temple. I forgot the exact reason, but we went to the flea market since today was the first day.

This is the outside wall of the temple.
After walking around the flea market for a while I noticed a guy with a table full of old manual SLRs. I was immediately interested and started looking at some of them. He had a few Canons, which I was paying more attention to because I am a Canon kind of guy. The guy noticed me and asked me in Japanese where I was from, I answered that I was from America and then we started this long conversation about what state I lived in (apparently he had been to Atlanta once) and what University I went too. He asked me if UGA was an elite University and I told him that it was really good and he smiled and told me good job. I also told him that my major is Japanese but since I just finished my first year I am still bad at Japanese, so I was sorry for that. He and his buddy immediately protested, saying that my Japanese was good. All and all it was a funny conversation because I struggle with some stuff, but I am can say my Japanese is bad really well, so people always disagree.

Anyway, I ended up haggling with him a bit and buying a Canon FT QL, which is a 35mm Manual SLR from 1966. I think it is really pretty and it is in good condition. I can’t wait to put some film in there and play around with it. I don’t have any pictures of it yet, but I will put one up when I get the chance.

The flea market.


The monks.


After the flea market we were pretty tired from walking around in the sun with the crazy humidity, so we went back to the hostel and napped. I also looked up my camera and found the manual for it and stuff. After our nap we went to meet my friend Tetsuya at Osaka station. We saw a funny sign while we were waiting for out train.

Hehe.
We met up with Tetsuya and he took us to Namba, which is a very famous part of Osaka. It was really cool a night.




That Glico billboard is really famous, apparently.


We decided to eat Osaka style Okonomiyaki. We eventually found a good-looking restaurant and went in. The picture above is the food we got. Basically it was shrimp and some vegetables cooked inside a big egg pancake with cheese, sauce, and dried fish on top. It was very, very good.

Tetsuya enjoying his Okonomiyaki.

This puppet is really famous and stands outside a restaurant. The place is said to be a symbol of Osaka but since everyone comes to see the puppet but no one eats at the restaurant the place is going bankrupt. Ironic eh? The puppet is going to be auctioned off and is estimated to bring millions.

Tetsuya bought us some takoyaki from this shop that was on TV a lot. It was really nice of him to treat us to takoyaki, I really appreciated it and thanked him profusely. We went to this big store that had its own Ferris wheel. Apparently it was the original store of this big chain that is all over Japan. He guessed that it was kind of like the Japanese version of Walmart, but cooler and less oppressive. In the store they had these ab machines that were supposedly like riding a horse and if you sat straight on the machine it tones your abs. We played with it a little bit.

Tetsuya on the ab machine.

Erin thought it was hilarious.
While we were in the store I found a cheap takoyaki maker and decided to buy it so I could make takoyaki at home. It is pretty small so it fits in my luggage. I can’t wait to make takoyaki for my family and friends.

We parted ways soon after we left the store since it was pretty late at night. It was really good to get to see Tetsuya again. He is a good friend.

When we got to the hostel we checked all of our stuff online and I chatted with my dad a little bit. We also met a guy from Hawaii who we talked to for a while. His name was Eddie. After that we went to bed since we’re going back to Tokyo tomorrow. Our trip is pretty much over which is crazy to think about. Only 5 days left in Japan.