Saturday 10 July 2010

Pete Day 2010

It's been over a month now since I last posted here, and boy has it been a boring one. There has been so little to write about it stings a little when I think about it, and I'm sure not one of you would have appreciated a long string of entries talking about how studying is rubbish and how I like sleep. But now, at last, I have something proper to talk to you about, and hopefully now that we've reached the final stretch (...) there'll be plenty more to talk about as I hurry to tick off the last of the Japan-bucket list.

So now on to Pete Day 2010, which in the true spirit of Pete-based holidays extended well beyond a single day. The following account takes in last Saturday and yesterday (Friday). I also contains no photos, because the places I will be talking about were not places that photos were generally allowed. Also, I am an idiot and left my camera in a station locker on one of the days.

So, here we go, time for Pete Day 2010.


Cats...

Osaka is home to, I am told, about twenty cat cafes spread out across the city, and being the feline enthusiast that I am it would have been simply heresy for my to skip out on the opportunity. The cafe Steph and I went to was called 'Neko no Jikan', literally 'Cat Time', and sat in the middle of the American-themed district a little west of Shinseibashi, one of the big shopping areas. Leave station exit 7, we were told, head south until you hit the Apple Building, take a right and it's on your left.

No, Google; no it isn't.

We spend a good hour in the pouring rain looking for this one shop, which when we found it was actually pretty easy to spot, but it looks like the twisting side-streets of fake-America do not enter into Google Maps and as such it became a huge ordeal. By the time we found it at long last I was tired and angry, and in much need of a cat to hug.

Neko no Jikan is a really nice-looking place. Wood furnishing on every last inch of space, really nicely designed. And to top it off the whole thing is just a giant cat playground (that's a giant playground for cats, not a playground for giant cats) with scratching posts and things to sit on as far as the eye can see. The residents of this particular cafe numbered about twenty, though not all were present on the day. Most were a funny breed I'd never seen before, and angry-looking puffball breed of cat with thin tails that end in a pom-pom. Anyone got a name? There was this one that I swear looked exactly like Samuel L Jackson.

Anyway, it was 1,500 yen entry (it works like karaoke, so by time, and Steph and I were on free time) which also got us one drink. I never knew honey in tea made such a difference. But yeah, the focus was the cats themselves. Plenty of them were more than welcome to be petted and stroked, but a lot would just wander off if you tried to touch them. I must admit, it wasn't the nicest of feelings, getting rejected by these little guys after you spent so much money to play around with them. On leaving the place a while later, Steph and I agreed that if that had been a hostess bar and the women had acted like that, we'd have asked for our money back.

Not that we were going to a hostess bar any time soon, you understand.


Maids...

What we WERE going to, however, was a maid cafe. The real deal, just like on the the news. Our destination was mel Cafe, a cafe just off Den-Den Town, Osaka's technology district. Again, a well-made place, with some nice decorations and apt, mansion-esque music playing in the background.

Now, it's clear to me that I had something of the wrong impression when I was looking up these places. It had been my understanding that a maid cafe was a place of minor-level debauchery, where you essentially pay to oggle young women in revealing clothing. This was far from the truth (of this cafe, at any rate) and it was clear from the start that the real maid-work that went on came from the maids being just very friendly with you. On entering the cafe we were greeted by one woman who, when we mentioned that we wanted non-smoking, enthusiastically proclaimed just how relieved it was that we spoke Japanese, as she spoke not a word of English. The outfits, as well, were not to my expectations, and looked just like something you might actually have worn to do housework at some time or another.

As expected, however, the prices were slightly steeper than your usual cafe. 700 yen got us a sizeable drink plus a cake, so I don't think we were ripped off at all. Really getting into this ice coffee lark, by the way. Over the course of our time there we were talked to about exchange student-dom, and got to read a magazine on maid cafes around Japan (thereby proving correct my hypothesis on at least some maid cafes being the aforementioned debaucherariums). It was actually a lot of fun, with the staff being super-nice the whole way through, and the whole atmosphere being incredibly relaxed and a lot of fun to be around. We got waved on our way and off we set.


Everything else...

Not much else to say here. Got a walk down Den-Den Town, which is always fun, BUT...

...Joshin Gundam's no longer exists. I was heartbroken. Now it's nothing but a run-of-the-mill Joshin Kid's Land, with a floor that happens to be Gundam-themed and have a Gundam hand coming through the wall. Sucks to be a Gundam fan, and so much for my hopes at finding a remote-control Haro... Did get myself a Master Grade Zaku II to celebrate my last trip to the Gundam shop, as well as one sweet as anything t-shirt.

Also missed TWO opportunities to head to the wonderland that is Sweet's Paradise, both times due to my slow window shopping.

There is just one last thing to add, and that's that today Steph and I went to see Pokemon the Movie 2010, today being its release day, and now I will return to my review post to fill you all in.

Other events worth looking forward to hearing about are trips to Nagoya to see Mai in a couple of weeks, a finale trip to Lake Biwa with the church group, a trip to Fukuoka to see monkeys and end my grand tour of the Pokemon Centers, and naturally a host of other farewell parties.

Now, if you'll excuse me, thinking about the end has me made a little sad.

Thanks for reading.


-----

あのね、時々でね、「戦場の絆」とそのプレヤーたち大キライよね。

No comments:

Post a Comment