Japan 2010, Day 15

Friday, March 26, 2010

I got up and checked out today, and had the front desk hold on to my bags. I then rushed off to the IDOLM@STER machines to get my producer name right, which I did do properly this time. I also succeeded in trying the Mega Muffin breakfast meal set at McDonalds, which was basically a Sausage McMuffin with Egg, but with ketchup, bacon, and another sausage patty added. It was interesting, but I think I prefer the normal Sausage McMuffin with Egg. I then did a small bit of shopping, picking up a few Weiss Schwarz cards, and then I picked up my bags and headed to Osaka station to leave my bags there. I met up with Chris at Settsu-motoyama station, and he had invited Justin to join us in our visit to Konan University.

The front gate of Konan University

We walked there from the station, commenting on some of the stores that changed, and upon arrival, we found that the Ajisai room layout had changed a bit, with more tables than before, and that the office area had expanded as compared to before. Also most of the staff was different. I had them direct us to where Morikawa-sensei was, and it turned out that a couple of the other Japanese teachers were there too. We talked to them a bit, updating them on what we were up to, and then parted ways. We tried to find some of the other teachers, but they were not in. We left Konan and had lunch at La Pausa by the station, and then Chris and I headed to Shin-Nagata station to see the 1:1 scale statue of Tetsujin 28 that was there.

Chris standing next to Tetsujin 28's foot

We explored the station area a bit and found a statue of Guan Di, since there was also Romance of the Three Kingdoms statues around too, and Chris took a picture with that as well. Afterwards, we went to Sannomiya and shopped around our old haunts. Then we tried to get into a Rumiko Takahashi exhibition at the Daimaru Museum Kobe, but we got there too late.

An inflatable Inu Yasha outside the exhibition

Though we were short on time, we made a quick stop at a cool place called Die Currywurst, which was dedicated to bringing German bratwursts to Japan. Their main menu item was a bratwurst infused with curry. They told us about how they served their fries with mayonnaise, like they apparently do in Germany. Anyway, by that point, we’d spent way too much time there, and rushed to the train to try to catch a shinkansen back to Tokyo. By the time we got to Shin-Osaka, we had no choice but to catch the last Nozomi headed to Tokyo for the day. We made it back safely, and did a little planning for the Tokyo International Anime Fair the next day before going to sleep.