2-Day Nagoya Trip

Soooo I finally got around to getting out of Tokyo/Chiba, and planned a trip to Nagoya!  I had wanted to see some Japanese castles anyway, so I decided Nagoya Castle would be a good start.

It was my first time on the shinkansen (or bullet train) so I was looking forward to the trip.  On the 9th I rode on down to Tokyo station, manuevered through the chaos and went to the shinkansen tracks.  I bought a train bento and hopped into the train.  It was fairly quick to Nagoya, a little over two hours on train.  Once I got there it was about 5:00.  I was too late to get into the Nagoya castle, so I decided I would spend the day in Osu.

Osu was quite big, it was a hugely popular shopping district in the area.  I imagine if Akihabara and Harujuku had a baby, it would be Osu.  Lots of trendy clothing stores, electronic stores, and smaller food shops. 

After wandering around aimlessly for a few hours looking at shops, I decided to stop by the arcade.  Lots of people playing music games, rythm games, and the like.  I watched some guys play an Initial D racing game. 

Some hardcore DDR players were also in the arcade (as they always are) playing some intense DDR.  I.E. this one guy was getting like 300+ combos on super heavy, this guy is so pro he has actually taken off his shoes and socks to get better footing on the mat (but I don't think that's the greatest idea, doing that on a dance pad that many other people have used, but I think he wiped it off before hand, but it's still gross to think this guy has his sweaty feet all over this dance pad, even if you're wearing shoes...).  Even though he was amazing, I actually saw him fail one song, so I guess he's not perfect!

I also tried my hand at one of my favorites, a gun-based rythm game where you shoot music monsters to the rythm of the song.  While I was playing a few Japanese people stopped and stared to watch me own at the game.

Even though I had some Subway earlier I was still hungry so I went to this small food stall across from the arcade.  It was Japanese onigiri (rice ball) wrapped in cooked pork.  It was awesome, aparently the place had appeared on TV once before.  As it was getting late I decided it was time to turn in for the night, I had decided beforehand I would stay at a manga/internet cafe because staying at a hotel for just one night would be too rich for my blood.  Anyway I had gotten a coupon from some guy outside the arcade too, so I decided I would be sleeping at that certain net cafe!

When I got to the place it was on the top floor of a building, so I had to climb a few escalators.  I walked in and ordered the 10 hours package, which was about 2100￥($23ish?).  This place was a bit interesting as it was a little different from the normal net cafes that I stay at, the usual package consists of all you can use internet, drinks, and manga comics.  This place had all you can use internet, drinks, and vanilla ice cream!  And to top it off, this place had a free.... tanning service? What in the... well, I was almost tempted to give it a shot, because hey, free tan?

Well aside from the usual perks of low cost, free drinks and other bonuses, net cafes do have their usual downsides... thin walls and no enclosed rooms!  Also the Japanese men who tend to stay at these places tend to snore... LOUD.  And I do have a funny story about this.  Do you remember that Spounge Bob episode where Sandy is snoring so freaking loud that she can't hear Patrick and Spounge Bob making tons of noise? Well, it was kind of like that.

About a month ago I was staying at a net cafe in Funabashi (I had missed my last train).  I had setup shop in my booth cafe for the night, and was walking around in the cafe.  I was peeking at some Yakuza-themed manga, and was watching Japanese guys play Monster Hunter Frontier Online (pretty awesome looking game actually) until I heard some noise like a bear growl coming from behind me.  It turns out that some guy in the booth behind me had fallen asleep, and was snoring LOUD as hell (I am so glad I was not camped in the room next to him).  One of the internet cafe's waitresses heard this and came over to his booth to let him know he was snoring too damn loud.

Waitress: お客様…お客様…　(Customer...., Customer...)

Man: ZZZzzzZZZZZ

Waitress:お客様！！ (Customer!!!)

Man: ZZZZzzzZZZ

Good lord, this man was snoring so loud, he was drowning out the waitress' cries.  I think she eventually gave up and left...

Anyway, the next morning I got up out of the cafe, and headed toward Nagoya Castle.  When I got to the castle around the afternoon, it had quite a few people around.  It turns out that most of the Castle had been hollowed out and turned into a museum.... oh, well.  And even more hilarious the top leve of the castle had been turned into a gift shop.  Anyway after I toured the castle I went back down to the grounds and had a shot with one of the castle's samurai performers.  It was an awesome way to end the day!