So... after gathering at Namba Station Tao gave us 1 hour of "free time" to roam around. Our big group quickly split into small groups and disappeared in the middle of the masses. HY, TY, SY and I (yes, I know it sounds strange but the initials of their names are really like that, kk) got separated and decided to check out the Shinsaibashi-suji (the famous covered shopping street) that was nearby.
One of the ufo-catcher featuring LINE (messaging app) mascots. Seriously, doesn't the bear look like it's being harassed by the other two? No matter how I look at it it seems wrong... kkk
Actually we didn't do that much. We just strolled around, took lots of selfshots, then entered this area were you could take Purikura (which we did - of course, yay!) and also tried our luck getting some ufo-catcher plushies (We failed). SY (the glasses girl) turned out to be a huge Nameko (the mushroom mascot that is famous from a "grow your own mushrooms - app" - whatever ^^' ) fan so I started calling her Namekochan.
Japanese Purikura Booths are scary! First of all, the photos are taken much too fast, you don't even have time to change pose (just sticking out some V peace sign and that's it!), then finding the right "Corner" to decorate the photos is hard too... and lastly the limited choosing time during decoration - super stressing! After finishing and waiting for our prints we were all exhausted, haha. AH!... not to mention the huge eye enlargement which might look cute on Asians but makes me look like a Manga-figure... or an Alien.
Two photos and a short movie to give an approximate idea of how many people were around us. It was truly jam-packed and people were walking fast, so despite being a shopping area it didn't feel relaxed at all. Well, we still had a lot of fun!
1 hour passed by much too fast, we met the group at the same spot and moved to the next location for our Welcome Dinner. We entered the Italian restaurant "La Pausa" and enjoyed our first (and in Osaka famous) 食べ放題 , which means All-You-Can-Eat. We could order as many Pizzas, Salads, Pasta as we wanted and get soft drinks anytime but just for a limited (90min) time span.
The restaurant was very small and our huge group just filled it completely. I laughed when I saw intimidated Japanese couples at the door who didn't dare to come in and take a seat since we had kinda 'claimed' it our territory. We were mixed with the Japanese language partners and had our first try to talk about any plans we had for our stay in Osaka and so on. All in all we had quite a nice time ~
Below some photos of the area around the Italian restaurant. I thought the trees were decorated very beautifully.
Hope you liked the travel diary of the first day and look forward to the next one - we'll be going to KYOTO! Look forward to it! ~
