Friday, December 19, 2008

Friday, 19th December

This morning I got my sleep in as promised. Then we went downstairs to the cafe in the hotel. We were given a drinks menu and Charles cleverly asked in Japanese whether they had anything to eat. The waitress said a whole lot of things and we picked out "Toastu" and said "Yes! Toast! Hai!" so were given toast. Expensive toast.
We took the train into the city one stop further than last night, to a place called Namba. There we went to a Marui department store - the same department store we went to in Yokohama. I was looking for a nice dress to wear to a wedding but everything was too wintery. Charles bought an amazing jacket. We saw the same one in Yokohama weeks ago, and today it was on sale! Hooray! We even managed to get the tax refund.
We found another underground shopping arcade and stopped for a break. Chucky bought a burger and I had a coca cola. Japanese coke is different from Australian coke.
Next we started walking from Namba to Shinsaibashi, the place we were last night. We stopped at a McDonald's because I started to feel hungry. I bought some chips and a chicken fillet, which turned out to be so incredibly spicy that I almost choked and even Charles could hardly eat it. Harrumph.
There were so many interesting shops around. I liked looking in a bead shop that was selling every kind of bead you could think of at a cheap price, plus jewelery components. I didn't buy anything but I got lots of ideas.
We found our way back to Aranzi Aronzo and bought some band-aids with characters on them and a little tin.

Band-aids story: Last night I reached into my health bag and was attacked by my razor, which ate some of my left ring finger knuckle. I bled SO MUCH and then I realise that I'd lost an earring (a handmade one) and then I banged my elbow. So I needed band-aids.

We asked the girls at Aranzi Aronzo if they knew where Victorian Maiden was, which is another Gothic Lolita shop. I like Victorian Maiden because all of their designs are actually wearable (maybe) and really pretty. The girls at Aranzi Aronzo tried really hard to help us, even printing out a map for us to follow. So we followed it and ended up in the America Mura district, which is a shopping area with apparently American things.
We couldn't find Victorian Maiden no matter how hard we looked. We found a 2nd hand Lolita shop though (maybe it was old stock from the good brands) with relatively cheap clothes. I actually tried on a Victorian Maiden dress, and an Angelic Pretty dress, and a Metamorphose skirt. They were all a little bit wrong for me, but I got to think about the styles more.
We went for a walk down the road and found an Apple store where Charles tried all the headphones.
We went down a little side street and I saw a familiar sign: Baby, The Stars Shine Bright! Unfortunately (or fortunately) the shop was closed as it was past 7:30pm. I got to look in the window though!
Took the train back to Shin-Osaka and had a late dinner at the station. Dessert was a creme broulee or something... they sell about 20 varieties of creme broulee in the convenience stores. Some are gross but tonight's one was good.