LIVE-streak

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Shar

It’s been the spring of live concerts for me. I never really went to concerts in the US — mostly because concerts I wanted to go to were on weekdays when I had school or work, and also because I didn’t really have the money. Another thing that put me off though was that it always seemed really difficult to get tickets. In Japan, it’s a little bit easier because instead of having to go to the ticket office, you can just go to the convenience store, punch a code into a machine, and if you’re lucky the transaction will go through.

I went to two concerts during the spring break: SCANDAL vs. BUDOKAN on 3/28 in Tokyo, and TsuShiMaMiRe SHOCKING ONE MAN TOUR at on 3/31 in Osaka. I wasn’t too worried about getting tickets for TsuShiMaMiRe because they’re more like an indie band, but SCANDAL is really popular right now, and it was at the Nippon Budokan! The tickets went on sale on a Saturday at exactly 10:00 AM, so we went down to our local 7-11 and mingled for a few minutes until the time slot opened up. It was a little sluggish at first and I thought maybe we wouldn’t be able to get tickets, but we did, and in a good location too. We found out later on a fan-site blog that the tickets sold out within the hour.

With Mizue (Drums) of TsuMiMaMiRe at SHOCKING ONE MAN TOUR 2012 at Fandango, Osaka

Anyway, I’m on a bit of a LIVE-streak now and I really want to see a few more concerts before I leave Japan. Some artists are very high in-demand, so sometimes tickets don’t go on sale to the general public (or they do at an even later date, after tickets are already sold to die-hard fans). Lady Gaga is one of these artists. She has three shows for the BORN THIS WAY BALL 2012 at the Saitama Super Arena this May, so I entered the lottery-system for the Saturday evening show. I thought, What are my chances? It’s LADY GAGA, and it’s a LOTTERY system. I am probably not going to get a chance to buy tickets. But, lucky me, I did! And I got good seats too — standing area on the ground. I’m not quite up there being smashed against the catwalk, but I’m not up in the stands either where binoculars would be needed to make out the speck that is Gaga. I’m really excited!

Okonomi – Just the way I like it

Posted on September 30, 2011 by Shar

I took five steps into Dotonbori and admist the crowd of people, I happened by chance to spot a friend of ours who we haven’t seen in maybe three years. We had a good night. We walked over to Amerika-mura and he treated us to beer, tea, and 48 balls of takoyaki. That’s a lot of takoyaki.

With only one night in Osaka though, I wanted to make sure our siblings could enjoy the true eating-in-Osaka experience, so after scarfing down 48 takoyaki, we went to an okonomiyaki restaurant in Dotonbori. Osaka-style okonomiyaki is my favorite, but I later learned in our trip to Hiroshima that the boys prefer Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki. Maybe it’s because Hiroshima-style is more filling with soba noodles. I like all my ingredients blended together though, and I’m not really a fan of yakisoba.

Lastly, we stopped by Daruma to have a sampling of kushi-katsu. We just ordered a stick each of kushi-katsu, fried cheese, and fried mochi. We were really full. But we couldn’t turn down having ice monaka for dessert, either.

First Cabin – Compact Hotel in Osaka

Posted on September 29, 2011 by Shar

First Cabin is a compact hotel in Namba, Osaka in the Midousuji-Namba Building. We stayed here for 1 night during a summer promotion for only 3,300 yen. The regular fee is 4,800 yen for one night, or 900 yen per hour for day use.

The concept of the hotel is to provide a modern, stylish and relaxing atmosphere at low rates cheaper than a business hotel, but with similar facilities to that of a an airport member’s lounge or a first-class airplane cabin. The rooms are gender-separated for safety. Each person has a single bed in a small, private compact room. Rather than a door though, the rooms are closed off with a curtain, similar to capsule hotels. The rooms contain one locked drawer for personal items and a 32″ TV at the foot of the bed. There are also larger lockers available on the floor. Additional pillows and blankets are also available at no extra charge in order to make your stay more pleasant. The bathing facilities are shared (sento) and are actually very comfortable. There is also a shared lounge room for chatting with friends (since the rooms are in a quiet zone), which contains magazines and manga for reading. The hotel itself is very conveniently located just outside Namba Station exit #13 on the Midousuji subway line. Very easy to find, and walking distance from Dotonbori and Nipponbashi Den Den Town.

For more information, please visit: http://first-cabin.jp/en/store_midosuji-namba

Eating our way through Osaka

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Shar

The Lost Blogs #16

Only one thing comes to mind when I think of Osaka: 焼き yaki! Yaki-tori, okonomi-yaki, tako-yaki, yaki-soba. Yaki-everything. Everything grilled!

We spent a weekend in Osaka back in January. Traveling by local trains to save money, it took 4 hours on the way there, and 5 hours on our return trip. We stayed in the strangely decorated Dotonbori Hotel, which has recently been featured in a blog as being one of Japan’s most stylish strange hotels. Actually, the hotel itself is not that strange. It has weird human-sized face statues on the outside, which made it easy to find, but the interior is that of your average business hotel. The rooms are small and basic, but clean. The rooms can also be quite cheap, especially considering its location in Dotonbori. It’s also only a few minutes walk from the city subway exits.

On our first day in Osaka, we spent our day in Umeda, also known as the Kita (North) district. We were able to do some shopping inside the HEP (Hankyu Entertainment Park) complex, and also had lunch and dessert in their food court. The dessert is one of my highlights of this trip. Have you ever eaten ice cream from a shoe before? I hadn’t, which is why I knew I just had to order the Cinderella Parfait, which came served in a glass slipper.

Cheese Katsu-don

In the evening, we headed to Namba, also known as the Minami (South) district to explore Dotonbori and the Shinsaibashi Shopping Arcade. We skipped Den Den Town because we’ve been to Akihabara in Tokyo before, and we also skipped seeing Amerikamura as well. We were mostly there for the food. I ate some of the best okonomiyaki I have ever had at Mizuno Okonomiyaki, where the food was actually cooked for us by the chef. Then, we ate at Daruma Dotonbori, which is supposedly the original kushi-katsu restaurant. I always thought that the original kushi-katsu was pork, but it is actually beef. The skewered cheese and skewered mochi were also very delicious. On Sunday, we stayed in Dotonbori to continue our food itinerary. We ate yakisoba for breakfast, followed by a serving of takoyaki.

Our last stop in Osaka was to visit the reconstruction of Osaka Castle. The castle was destroyed in 1615, rebuilt in the 1620s, and then struck by lightning and burnt down in 1665. The reconstruction interior is now highly modern and even features an elevator for easier accessibility. The museum is large and can take a couple of hours to see everything, especially if you take your time to follow the 3-D video tour. I thought it was a little strange.

Although it is one of the largest cities in Japan, I feel pretty satisfied with having spent just a weekend there. It is famous for its food, and I tried everything I wanted to eat there. But, I’ll probably be making a repeat visit for a day to show my sister around. Mmm. I can’t wait to eat okonomiyaki there again.