Kogitsunemaru-kun says AKEOME!

Sorry for the intense radio silence. I lost my blogging space for the last half of the year, and while I started many a post, none have yet to be compeleted.
I DID, however, finish a quick video on my new year! It includes some peaks at my lucky bag purchases, family life, food and a local shrine! You can check it out below.


Universal Studios Japan just released info on the new attractions at Universal Cool Japan, so I hope to have a translation of that up by this week! Then some much delayed posts on Kyoto aaaand.. something else I can't remember at the moment.

★Peaces★

Mugiwara Store storefront.

I've been on something of a One Piece boom these days, can ya tell? But it's not been without rhyme or reason; it's just summer! And summer = oceans which also = pirates, the clean, friendly, non-scurvy kind that you see on the TVs. Disney really missed out on cashing in on pirates every summer the way One Piece does.

Ace on display at the front of the shop.

Anyway, enough rambling, especially seeing as the Mugiwara Store is much less related to summer-ness and much more related to expanding the One Piece empire. In Osaka, there are two Shonen Jump shops, one with a replica of Thousand Sunny sitting in the middle of the shop, but that alone is not enough to satisfy that masses. And so, the Mugiwara Store has finally dropped anchor within Q's Mall in Abeno, Osaka City.

Located on the 3rd floor, the shop is fairly large and packed with a lot of One Piece goods, most of which I've never seen at Shonen Jump stores or the USJ events (not that I got that often, mind you ::cough cough:: ). That is to say, there are a lot of One Piece things to be had.

Yankee-fied OP characters (as if Dofla wasn't a Yankee).

"Pinched" OP character key chains.

Items range from small items like key chains, stickers and pens, to everyday items like bento boxes and bath bombs, to your larger, character goods like t-shirts, towels and hats (everyone loves a good OP hat. I have 3 orz ).

They also carry CDs and artbooks, though you might have better luck at a Book-Off or Mandarake price-wise.

One Piece manga from various countries.

Overall, I'll rate this as a must-see for any dedicated One Piece fan visiting the Osaka area. They have point cards that come with free postcards as you fill them up, in case you needed incentive to shop. And even if you only consider yourself a sometimes fan of the show, there's quite literally something for everyone, as long as you have the time to look.

Official Links

Mugiwara Store Official Website

Shonen Jump JUMP SHOP Official Website

Abeno Q's Mall Official Website

One Piece Official Website

Access Info:

〒545-0052
大阪市阿倍野区阿倍野筋一丁目6番1号 あべのキューズモール 3F
(Osaka-shi, Abeno-ku, Abeno-suji 1-6-1 Abeno Q's Mall 3F)



Located at the cross-section of JR Tennoji Station, Kintetsu's Osaka Abenobashi Station, and the Midosuji/Tanimachi Line's Tennoji Stations. The shopping mall is directly across from the Abenobashi Station, but leaving from the JR exit, you'll need to take the pedestrian overpass to the mall. Going from the subway (particularly the Tanimachi Line) is a tad more confusing so I would suggest you consult the overhead signs (written in English), or head for the JR station, then navigate your way from there.

Once inside the mall, you'll need to navigate your up and around to the 3rd floor. It'll be toward the back of the building, near Ito-Yokado and right next to an video game arcade (in case you needed some more excuses to spend money).

More photos will be up at the WeLoveKansai tumblr. Questions, comments and concerns always welcome! And happy shopping!

I pose with every Ace statue I can find xD

★Peaces★

Cheap & Easy 第1 - Don Quixote

Who doesn't like things cheap and easy??
The answer is NO ONE. And when living in one of the most expensive cities in the world for expatriates, so it's best to get a deal whenever you can. In this post, I'm gonna to try to lay out a couple points for saving money on household goods.

Keep an eye out for sale days.
A lot of supermarkets in Japan have certain days picked out as sale days. One market near my place usually has sales on Tuesday (pretty arbitrary), and AEON's also tend to have Tues/Wed sales.

Don Quixote seems to use a 'time-sale' type method where, instead of choosing one day for sales, sales with run for a few days for select items before switching to sales on different items. Also, since Don Quixote sells groceries (mostly processed food), clothes, electronics, cosmetics, medicine, bikes and brand items, you can find sales on a wide range of items!

Unfortunately, because sale items rotate fairly often, they may sell out pretty quickly and if it's a limited run item, it won't be coming back. Sad Panda :<

Tip: If you want updates, join Don Quixote's mailing list (Jpn only), which will also allow you to print out coupons!

I love sale items :)

Definitely pick up household goods on sale days!
That photo was from a recent shopping trip on Saturday (I usually avoid Sat. crowds but the sales are good!). I was able to pick up all of these items for under 2000 yen (about 19USD) which is great because a lot of these items are things you don't pick up often! If they had been regular price, I think this trip could have been 3000 yen + easy.

Cleaning supplies tend to be especially pricey in Japan, but if you can pick up 詰替え用 (tsume kae you - refill), it'll help your budget! I would say the median regular price for all these items is about 348 yen (which would bring the total to about 1740 yen, almost 2000 yen without the other non-sale items!!), but I was able to pick them up for about 120 yen.

Everything I picked up, sale and non-sale.

You might be wondering what a few yen matter, but why not make every yen count? With the consumption (sales) tax increase from 5% to 8%, it does not seem like the cost of living in Japan will become anymore reasonable.

I have a few other tips for saving yen, but I'll save those for another post. Trying to keep it short and sweet these days! :P

★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★

Check out that snowstorm trying to engulf the Daimaru building!!

Well, it didn't a rather poor job because 30 minutes later...

...

...

...
 
 It's like the storm didn't even happen. No snow on the ground, it was even a smidge warmer outside.

Mother nature is playing mind games, no doubt.

But that hasn't really helped my winter blues. Along with cold and uncomfortable weather, passing the days in ridiculous amounts of clothing that ususally end up making me sweat more than keeping me warm, my electronics have been throwing a fit. First my mp3 player (which resurrected itself), now my PS3. Except there is no ressurection this time. Only YLOD or the yellow light of death. And this marks the second time my PS3 crapped out on me. I made angry faces at everyone for a week, especially since Sony's customer service was of absolutely ZERO help. A word to anyone who was thinking of dragging along you American goodies, the company won't cover the shipping from overseas. Nor will the send you a box so you can send it to them (to be fixed for ridiculous amounts of money when it SHOULDN'T BE BROKEN...AGAIN).

Yea, I almost jumped to the Wii ship, but then I remember all the good times, all the man hours I've put into completing my sphere grid on FFX.. my golden Chocobo from FFVII, Kratos ripping the head off a shirtless snake-lady.. *le sigh* I won't be buying a new PS3 (mine is backward compatible all the way to classic PS), so I'll either save it to get repaired when I move back stateside or try to fix it on my own. Cue disaster.

So in a measure to relieve some stress.. I bought these. BEST SNEAKS EVER. I originally wanted spikey ones from Glad NEWS but I've realized now.. I will NEVER fit into a pair of GN shoes. Ever.

So I wandered down to the basement of OPA, and lo and behold, these called out to me from the CO&LU shelf they were occupying. I'm thinking about adding spikes to the black PVC parts, but I don't have enough spikes for both shoes. I must needs find a spike retailer.. Ame-mura should have something :D
I also ended up ordering these GOLD DOT because... I needed comforting. NEEDED it! D:
Can't wear any heels now because I'll lose feeling in my toes BUT.. when spring comes... Gloriousness...

All that's left is a pair of platform sandals.. preferably in some hippie-tastic color. With ankle-straps and feathers :D

Glorious.


The week before that, I gave my two-weeks (well, actually month and a half) notice. The hours, I can't commit to anymore, especially because I want to take some Japanese lessons this coming spring and try to take the JLPT (N3).

So I'm on the hunt now, who knows where I'll end up. I've always wanted to work in a bar... Then I could have as many piercings as I wanted :DD

So anyway, my co-workers and I went out for drinks and karaoke, which made me realize I'm gonna miss them. Sorely wish we had hung out more often, because they're a great bunch of guys and gals. :)

AND THEN.

This I found this behind my book case DD: Thank GAWD it's a tiny bookcase. But now I'm paranoid about any feint smell (this, mysteriously, didn't smell at all).
So yea, words to live by, BEWARE the MOLD. I had mold steal away a pair of awesome boots last year, and it tried to take a bag from me (saved it though). The best way to stop mold is, obviously, with prevention. So I've spread silicon gel all over my apartment. Everywhere.

And now I'll leave you guys with a little something Yuta, Shota and I found while walking down Shinsaibashi. Why is it there? Whose is it? Are they looking for them now? 

I could make up a billion stories for why these were on the ground, what about you guys??

Anyway, this was a pretty digusting blog post. Lots of mold, dirty panties and ranting. No good news here..!! Lol


Just another case of the winter blues. Here's hoping for better things come spring..!☻
★Peaces★

See the Spotaka sign? Yea, you know where this is.

Whoa, just get hit with a whirlwind of work, and I am pooped :/ But it's much better to be busy then bored out of your mind I suppose. I do wish I had more gaming time (I just got Playstation PLUS so I want sum free gaming!! :<)

Anyway, I finally took some time out today (Sunday) for a little Indian food and some shopping for Shota. He's not really a shopper, he also seems to hate spending money, but I think every now and again, we all get an urge to spend a little. There's definitely a euphoric and satisfying feeling to be gained. So shop we did!!

NOOOooOOooo!

The mission: New jeans (the old pair had a hole in the crotch) and a black Mickey M. sweatershirt (more on that later). The result: a big fat bag of awesome, definitely not 2 items. But you can't beat an outlet that's having a 50% off sale.








Trying on a skirt in the fitting room. I didn't want to buy anything, but if you ask me if I want anything.. I'll find something to buy. Bad, bad habit. I do really like that skirt though and I think my old one is shrinking and my booty is showing *rationalizing purchases*

Anyone in Osaka now should definitely hit up this WEGO (in Ame-mura) because it's closing at the end of January (the 29th I think?), and everything is ridiculously cheap. Like seriously. Go there. NOW.





ALSO! Here's a teaser of the Indian food. I've been meaning to write up about this place. It's cheap and really good, but depending on who's working, your curry will be a little different. But who can complain with 690 yen free curry and nan refill lunch sets? No one, that's who~







Ame-mura is full or shady looking buildings. It's like they built up Shinsaibashi and Namba around these decrepit buildings because they couldn't buy them from the owners. But I think that's gives the otherwise bling-y downtown a little old school flavor.

But the reason we were all up in this building was for this vintage shop! It's super tiny (like smaller than my apartment, and that's only 35m squared), but has some of the coolest clothes. Ever. Period. And the owner knows that too because they are not cheap (but most vintage stuff in Japan isn't).
But they still had my Lennon/Cereal Killer glasses, which I promptly purchased and wore for the rest of the day (until 7pm, when it was dark and I was in my apartment :o ). The lady working there said these aren't from America, because sunglasses tend to break during transit, so they're a vintage Japanese pair. Loooove them~~










Also, my outfit from Sunday. Wearing items from my lucky bags..! I feel kind of awkward having Japanese girl on my shirt. I don't know if it's referring to the tiger or me..?? And why 1984? My sister was born that year, but other than that... Maybe that's the year Wakatsuki Chinatsu was born too? Sorry, I don't really get it.. :x

Sorry this wasn't filled with info or anything. I'm not setting enough time to finish things (hence me writing at 3:40am.. oops), but I do have some things I want to share from new years. I hope you'll stick around for that :)

No other outings planned for January, but hopefully something exciting will happen in February so I can write about something other than walking around Namba/Shinsaibashi again.

Take care everyone!!
★Peaces★