Well, it was my birthday. :3
So last week, from Wednesday afternoon until Friday morning, I had a nice amusement part/bar bacchanal for my birthday.

It was such a great 48 hours, a great way to celebrate the quarter century mark, and I'm really lucky so many people cared about me enough to make my birthday special. I know they don't read this blog, but I'd like to say Thank you anyway. It was perf~









So here's my birthday outfit..! We went to Universal Studios Japan so I had to keep it.. practical? Ha! Metallic skirts = tots practical. And this is also the last time I'm wearing those tights. It's basically sub-zero these days. :<

Okay, last one I swear. I'm going to toss the rest on tumblr though. ;)

I finally took one of these..! I've always wanted a shot in one of these corner mirrors.

This was taken in the subway near my apartment. It's also frigid down there. :o

Once we got to the theme park, I was pretty shocked by the number of guests, seeing as it was a Wednesday for one, and also really cold (how many times will I stress the weather??). But couples and school groups were out in full force, I even saw a couple fellow birthday girls. :)

I was a bit disappointed that we arrived so late in the afternoon (my fault, because I work nights, so I always go to sleep around 6am..) since the sun sets around 17:30, but we tried to have as much fun as possible before it got colder and the wind picked up. We weren't able to ride Hollywood The Dream roller coaster since they were having technical difficulties, but instead, we got a chance to the outdoor Christmas musical projection show. I'm sure that's what it's called.

The visual aspect was pretty good, I would even say mesmerizing, even if the musical part left a bit to be desired.

I could feel Christmas-y in my heart :3








The grand finale was my favorite part..! Lots of things floating in the air, it almost did seem like snow was falling.

That all being said, I probably won't go see it again, but it's something you should check out if you get the chance and you don't mind the cold (like seriously don't mind it).





I could grow to love being at USJ at night and I'm definitely regretting not going more in the summer.

So, a bit of an early New Year's Resolution; making time for USJ for awesome summer evening fun times. YEAH.






After USJ, we went to the Hard Rock Cafe Osaka that's tucked away inside Universal City Walk. This is the one place in Osaka were you can get some American food in American portions which is basically like heaven. A really expensive, well-lit and comfortable heaven. And delicious!! I could eat their pulled pork everyday. :3

Delicious quesadillas..!! These had pineapples hidden inside, which was a nice sweet surprise for me, but might not actually mesh with most people. Do other Hard Rock Cafes have similar quesadillas (I'm am interested in these quesadillas lolol).








I told our waitress it was my birthday so I could to participate in the birthday song and got a sparkler stuck into my ice cream. Yay..! Happy camper here.
After dinner, we checked out the JUMP Shop inside the same shopping area to see if there were any awesome anime and manga items to collect. Unfortunately, no Tiger & Bunny stuff really :< Super sad about that. And I'd already given up on Naruto and One Piece long, long ago, so I don't really bother trying to collect anything anymore (there's just waaaay too much anyway).

I still really wanted to take a photo in the huge pirate ship next to Luffy and Naruto. Kekeke! Check out that somewhat perplexed face..? Lol
After we got back home, I helped myself to a bottle of the cheap wine Shota picked up for the celebrations. And I continued to drink on into the night, while looking up vacation packages for my mother-in-law. A weird but not totally unpleasant way to end the first half of the birthday-ing.

Part 2 coming shortly! I just wanted to keep the pic spamming winthin one post to a somewhat minimum. Yeah... Don't know if I succeeded or not. :P

★Peaces★

I love a good buffet. Well actually, that's not true. I love most buffets, but a really good buffet? Perhaps.. that's even more than love. MMMfood.

I really shouldn't be writing this while I'm hungry, but if I put this off any longer, it'll be a new year :P

The Platinum
Umeda, Osaka, Japan

Access Info
〒530-8217　
大阪市北区梅田3-1-3
(Osaka-shi, Kita-ku, Umeda 3-13-3)
10F
TEL 06-6347-0542
Hours of Operation 11:00～23:00(Last order: 22:00)
The Platinum Lucua Webpage
Lucua Access Info Page

The Platinum is located on the tenth floor of the new (and still purty) Lucua shopping mall in Umeda, Osaka. It's right next to the JR Osaka Station, though a bit of a walk from the Hankyu and Municipal Subway lines. I wouldn't say more than a five minute walk though.

FOOD

At this particular buffet, there is a lunch buffet and a dinner buffet (a lot of the other places I've been to offer the same food all day long). With the lunch buffet, a lot of the basics like salads, pizza, tandoori chicken (yes!), 3 other types of tasty chicken (YES), this pumpkin dish that reminded me of stuffing, french fries, potato salad, pasta, as well as udon noodles, korokke (it's kind of like a hash brown), fried rice, some beef items, shrimp, soup, white rice, a chocolate fondue and an assortment of desserts. Oh, and all you can drink white and red wine. With dinner, I think the number of items available goes up a bit, with the inclusion of nigiri sushi.


The lunch will run you about 1500-1600 yen (about 18-20 USD) for 90 minutes while dinner starts around 2500 yen (about 31USD). Which is truly amazing when you see the variety, presentation, and most importantly, when you taste the food. It is GOOD. As the colloquialism goes, they put their foot in it. For reals.

Do you see that?! It was delicious, and I really couldn't tell you what it was aside from being a meat food. And it's really surprising for me because I'm a pretty picky eater. I know what I like, and I rarely try new things without peer pressure, but I would eat everything here.

Except all the desserts. But Japan really isn't up on the dessert front.

However, if you like your deserts sans everything good about desserts American amounts sugar, then you won't be disappointed. (Sorry, I took the photo after destroying a jello fruit cup :3).

Plus wine. I'm a big fan of free red wine now. ;)

I highly, super highly, like Tokyo Sky Tree highly, recommend this place if you're in Osaka and looking for some good food. It's not necessarily traditional Japanese food, but it's got the Japanese service and it's GOOD. I don't think I can stress that enough.



And since I'm sharing photos from this day, I'll share my outfit from that day as well. :)

I can't seem to separate that shirt and jacket. They just go so well together??

Also, lot's of a red. Kekeke..













Unfortunately, I've been slacking on the outfit front, but when I do take out photos, I take a lot more of the same one, if that's some sort of consolation. Cake would be a better consolation, but I have none :<

Anyway, you check out more of this outfit on the We♥Kansai tumblr, which also gets posted on more often since there is less pressure in the writing department. eHeheh..


I still have a post about my trip to Lake Biwa in Shiga, plus I'm going to update the Halloween post with some photos from work. As for this week, it's mah burfdey!! HAAY. And my boss is throwing me an Alice in Wonderland themed birthday party at the bar, costumes and all. So I'll probably get to posting that around Christmas (I kidd!! but seriously.. I'm going to be more prompt in the future I hope).

And then I'll be off to Nagashima Spa Land next week! And then my band will have a live after that..!! Holy crap, I think I have work to do.. DD:

On that note (no pun intended), if you're in Osaka and free on Monday evening, come check out my band :)
It's being sponsored by the Yoshimoto talent agency, so it's a bit of a battle of the bands type deal where the winner can participate in other Yoshimoto events. Here's hoping!!



★Peaces★

I like to peg myself as an adventurer who enjoys a healthy leap into the unknown. And that was relatively true until I got a job and loss all sense of happy-fun-times in exchange for always sleepy-tired times. But since I've dropped that, I'm going back to being an explorer. Of sorts.

During the sleepy-times, Shota and I developed a pretty consistent schedule of visiting Namba on weekends until we knew it so well that.. well, we decided we knew it too well. We had a spot for Indian food, several karaoke sweet spots, a spot for desert buffet-ing, and ice cream spot, a spot for a little sports and rec, even a spot for ice skating (as rarely as we do that).

As a result of the monotony, we decided it was time to let go of Namba and branch out a bit. And by branching out I mean moving up 3 or 4 kilometers to Kita Osaka (Northern Osaka) or better known as Umeda. :)

It had never occurred to me that Umeda was the Osaka tourist hot spot until several visits and hearsays from friends and also the delayed realisation that all references to Osaka Station were actually references to the Umeda area (in my mind, Osaka station was Osaka-Uehonmachi station).

Oops.

Well actually no, not oops. I like my Osaka-Uehonmachi as my anchor point and until Umeda proves itself anchor point worthy in my high-and-mighty imagination, so things shall stay :P

But it's not bad either. :)

Umeda Sky Building(s)

For this visit, we started at a popular tourist spot for the Umeda area, the Umeda Sky Building. Actually, it's two buildings. Connected by those distant walkways (and another walkway closer to the ground). The buildings reach up to forty floors, and I hear they offer some of the best view in Osaka. You'll understand why I wrote "I hear" as opposed to "I think" or "I know that."

Despite what's pictured on the map on it's official website, the Umeda Sky Building is a bit of a walk from the JR, Hankyu and subway station. It took us about 15-20 minutes from the Higashi-Umeda Station, but that is probably the station farthest from the building :x
And we're sloooooow... So basically take our time with a grain of salt. ...:x

Tanabata

Located in one of  the walkways that leads you to the elevators that will take you to the observatory was a lovely display for Tanabata.

I did take photos of each one, but I won't bore you with them here. They'll all be uploaded to the We ♥ Kansai tumblr later on though..! :)

Elevator fare for the Observatory

Shota and I were fully prepared for the full-on awesome that would be the observatory until we saw this sign. →→

I really shouldn't be surprised about seeing signs like this. I mean, after all, if you want nice things (like snazzy observatories), you have to be willing to put down for it. Unfortunately (or fortunately? depending on how you see things), it wasn't in our budget for that day, so we just enjoyed our view from the third floor and headed back downstairs.

We're going to save all the gorgeousness for another empty Sunday (plenty to be had, I'm sure).

I am a little sad we didn't get to see the Tanabata decorations they had on the top floors. Ah well! :)

The smexy.

After the sky building, we decided to wander in search of a little cool-ness.

I think with a lot of Osakan people, Umeda has a very 'bouji' (click here for a definition if you're unfamiliar with the term ;) ) image so it's mostly devoid of the young and penniless (or the economically creative as I like to call them :D). It's definitely cleaner than Namba, with no hobo's to be found. But I figure even an uptight area like Umeda has it's own underground chill spots for the less monetarily endowed.

And I guess that's where Chayamachi is supposed to come in. According to Shota and what he's heard from other Osakan people, it's supposed to be Umeda's equivalent of Ame-mura.

Again, definitely not as dirty as it's southern counterpart, but I guess I could see it. It is close to where HEP5 is located, and that's a well-known youth hotspot, and also the location of Osaka's largest number of purikura machines in one game center. If that doesn't draw in the young folks, I don't know what will.

While I couldn't find any nice streetwear shops like the ones in Ame-mura, I DID find a ESP Custom Guitars shop. And across from that was a music shop selling that smexy Spider-Man guitar. I'd almost ninja gaiden someone for that guitar (I'd definitely ninja gaiden someone for a Batman guitar..).

NU Chayamachi shopping center

After a lot of circle walking, we eventually decided to enter NU Chayamachi, which is, as you have probably already guessed, a shopping center.

Nothing particularly new or exciting in here. HEP5 has a larger variety of shops and a gentler price range. And it can be seen that NU Chayamachi is for that OL/Salaryman group that isn't quite yet ready to retire to Daimaru's/Takashimaya's/Hankyu's/Kintetsu's.

There was a nice music shop with a decent price range for it's instruments, but nothing really outstanding (and really, it's hard to live up to a Spider-man guitar). There was also a Tower Records shop, but finding CDs isn't really a hard thing to do in Japan.

A sweater in summer!? Cray~

I wouldn't be in a rush to bring my friends out to this particular center, but I think Chayamachi still has more to offer.
I shall be back, in a better pair of walking/exploring shoes than ←← those.

I ain't done with you yet Chayamachi!! >:D

I was going to share another shopping center (actually outlet mall) that we checked out, but apparently I couldn't be bothered to photograph anything but the ferris wheel because that was all I found on my camera from that day. OOPS.

If anyone ever asks you to go to RINKU Premium Outlets, just say NO. Unless you really need some sportswear and are certain that they can't be purchased anywhere else for a similar price (and mostly likely, they can). Save yourself the trip and train fare..! Though I would recommend it for Non-Japanese girls who want some nicely fitting jeans for a good price :D

Anyway, hopefully the next post will be salutations from some place with lots of sand and sun..! ;] Take care♥

★Peaces★

And when I'm not busy on the computer, and Shota's not busy saving old people, we have more time (and energy) to visit new places. Like these ladies adult costume shop. Hint: it's not called adult because the costumes come in grown-women sizes, though I'm sure that's part of it.

We both felt the awkwardness and left soon after.














My niece, who is now 3..!! Holy crap I remember seeing her after she was fresh from the box. I feel old..ಠ_ಠ

She loves laughing at me/with me (not sure which). Anyway, we're 'nakayoshi' and I will turn her into my English speaking prodigy :3

Here's to our 4-hour car trip coming in August!! :D Lots of giggles to be had.




On a recent outing, I did do a tiny bit of shopping, the most expensive thing being that Addidas tank top (that I thought I would need but now turns out I won't. Rage) :/ I feel like I should go running or something to make up for it but.. I hate running. (loove Yoga though :3)

The leopard print top (like I need more leopard print things!?) I thought would be great for summer since it's super light-weight  and lets a lot of air through. And it's smexy.










My new babies!! I love these shoes so hard ;w; They're pretty comfortable (even moreso if you don't have wide feet like meeeee). I plan on wearing these all throughout summer and as far into winter as I can.


AND THEN. Some outfits from the past few weeks :)

This I wore when hanging out with my nice. It was still pretty cool outside at that point, so I kept the long-sleeve button up handy. Then I realized it made me look a lot like Garth from Wayne's World D: (minus the blond locks).

But that's not really a bad thing :D

Party time! Excellent!!

I would add a comment on freetime, but.. I still don't have much of that. I've been taking major steps on improving my art skillz, which means hours and hours of working at my computer. A blessing and a curse. D:

But I get out sometimes too. Nothing planned, so the photos are quite random and seemingly unsorted. But they sort of are. Sorted I mean.



A captivating sunset over the Namba cityscape :D
Now that the weather is warming, I can stand out on my balcony and wait for more sunsets to photograph.

But with the tornadoes and 2 minute storms covering Japan these days, I have a feeling that the typhoons aren't too far behind. Dang :/



I also went out to a drinking party I guess. It was more like a get together of old friends, but seeing as Shota and I weren't a member of the old-friend-set.. Whatever, we drank and had an awesome time. Turns out on girl (the girl I'm with in this pic) is about as crazy about video games and animation as I am. Which is rare. We geeked out on everything from famicon's to ps3s. She was also the only member of our group that knew Cowboy Bebop (how is that possible?!).

So after lots of drinks, we went out to the arcade because we all get the urge to dance on a virtual stage and shoot zombie Terminator bots. Right? Right...

Then I went out to the KERA Shop ARENA in Big Step in Amerika-mura. I was picking up my horn hair barrettes (!!) and basically I've been wearing them ever since. Shota said they're fitting when I'm angry. >:)

A couple outfit shares then I'm out~ :P

I wore this to a fashion show KERA magazine put together with the local trade school Vantan. I took some photos of the event plus some video, but I'll upload those in a later post. :)
They were also doing a snap meeting for the magazine, so I wanted to put together this comic hero-inspired look.

It's a little crazier than what I've worn recently but.. I like that. I miss dressing crazy, the hair dying and piercings that went along with that. I'm still promising myself to start all that up again when I make the grand return home. :)



The low-key look for the meet-and-drink with those gaming girls. I actually ended up ditching the Litas before I left home though. In the end, stumbling around drunkenly in JCs, however fashionable they may be, is not a good look.

No inspiration here other than comfort and sleekness (? not really).










And the last bit, a new piece of jewelry..! I've been waiting to get my hands on an earcuff for a long, long time. I'd seen a lot of cool ones online, but once I saw this badboy in the KERA shop, it was a done deal. Not only skulls, but the cuff part is a skeletal hand. Neat..!!♪

It was only 2380 yen, so the material isn't good if you have sensitive ears (mine get itchy), but a coat of clear nail polish is supposed to fix that.

We'll see.

That's all for this post. There will be another daily life post soon plus the post sharing my pictures from the KERA event. All in due time. >:3

★Peaces★