OSAKA , JAPAN !

This entry deserves an exclamation mark in the title! And in the first sentence.

Last night flew into Kansai Airport from Shanghai. Had a 4 hour stopover in Incheon, Seoul again. 2 flights only around 1.5hours each. One hour on a rapid train brought us to within a 5minute walk of our hostel in Osaka. Altogether about 12 hours of travelling from hotel to hotel. Overall a relatively low stress journey.

This morning we spent a bit of time planning our 20 days in Japan, reviewing budgets, and consulting the Holy Lonely Planet again. Then headed into Minami district from where this post is coming to you from.

In this area there are many narrow alleys, each lined with all manner of shops. Already we have seen many weird and wonderful sights. Of course I made straight for SEGA WORLD when seeing the sign. 3 floors of noisey arcade game action.

Many bizarre and quite alien games to me. Lots of games seem to be played in groups. There were games that had an electronic table in front of the screen on which players moved trading game cards on. For example a soccer game. The cards are different soccer stars, and the player positions them on the table, also using buttons to left and right. A completely new concept in games to me. I had flashbacks to the first time I entered a Spacie Parlour as a kid at "Wizards" in courteny place when it was all new and of course ultra hitech. It has been many years since Ive seen arcade games of the same graphical quality as PC games and I definately saw a few that were at such a level. For the geeks out there who want some specifics : Virtua Fighter 5 seemed to be one of the latest.

This is also a time for us to get to grips with the cost of things here. No surprises really - it is expensive. But we have found already that we can eat for fairly cheap on the street. Our lunch today cost a little over 5$ NZ for both of us, and was damned tasty. Have no idea what it was called. Basically like a roti pancake, fried on a hotplate, fresh sliced cabbage thrown ontop , an egg cracked ontop of that, rolled closed like a crepe and a delicious sauce poured over it.

Needless to say, the internet Im using in this cafe could be the fastest Ive ever used. Oh, and we are sitting in Contessa mesh chairs (expensive) surrounded by shelves and shelves of Manga comics with pleasant muzac playing in the background.

We have definately reached Japan.