Mahjong – Saki

Day 17 – Mahjong!

So first real day in Tokyo.

Decided to check out the closest ‘big’ city to my room. Which was Ikebukuro, a developing city for the youth. And maybe even travel on to Shinjuku.

All I can say about Ikebukuro station, it’s a maze. When I finally got out, I was greeted by these owls. The owl has a special connection to Ikebukuro as I see them everywhere including owl café’s.

Walked around for a bit and found a “Mahjong School” but nothing much special on this side of the station. As I was heading towards the local Pokémon Center, I crossed the station to the other side and BAM. Here’s where live happens in Ikebukuro. Shops eight floors high, advertisement boards everywhere. Just abig buzzy shopping street.

On my way to Sunshine City, the mall that has the Pokémon store in it. I walked past a small anime event. It was apparently the Animate Girls Festival -Animate is one of the biggest anime and manga chains-. So cosplayers everywhere in the park and surrounding stores.

Arrived in the mall I got to the Pokémon center and bought the stuff I wanted and got also got a Yokohama Pikachu card as a gift there.
This mall also hosts a small Shounen Jump amusement park, J-World.

For lunch I took the elevator up to the 59th floor to enjoy a nice view over the city while eating this hamburger.

I then walked to a Buddhist temple around 15 minutes away. It’s really crazy to see how big this domain is, in the middle of a city like this, surrounded by skyscrapers.

Then I went to do some more shopping and eventually went back to that Mahjong School. Played two full games there, lost the first one. But won the second one with a 200 point difference! I’ll definitely be going back here. Automated tables are a bliss.

For dinner I went for some chicken again.

Day 3 – How far can I push my luck?

Today would the best test towards how far I can push my luck. Leaving the foreigner friendly Tokyo for Osaka down in the South.

Breakfast was almost the same as yesterday, the fruit bagel was replaced by a ham & cheese one. Which I could only applaud! After breakfast it was time for a shower and check-out.

Time to travel to Osaka! But first I had to exchange my JR-pass. Best station to do that according to my travel route would be Shimbashi. After asking for the ticket office twice I found it and got helped pretty quickly there. Finding the correct platform didn’t prove any problem either. On my way there I picked up some stuff to eat & drink.

On to the Shinkansen! Think I had to wait only 15minutes for a Hikari Shinkansen. Which wasn’t that bad.

During the 3 hour travel I wrote up the last blog-post as I had the time then. The start of the travel there wasn’t much to see outside either, and I had a pathway seat. Halfway the gentleman in the window seat left and I could take that spot (and the power supply!).

Now it was time for the Melonpan I picked up to be consumed. To my surprise, this one wasn’t as expected. It was filled with peanut butter… bleegh.
I payed for it, so I finished it,but next time I’ll pay a bit more attention to the packaging to stop this stuff from happening.

Arriving in Osaka I quickly noticed it was a lot cooler than in Tokyo. Walking around in my T-shirt was quickly out of the question. I went to my hostel to check-in and returned to Osaka Station as it is home to the Osaka Pokémon Center. Found there this weird Mahjong-looking game. But it’s more off a 20-games-in-one-box thing, using tiles.

After a brief visit it was time for my usual stroll around the area. Found some nice viewing spots. With gardens on buildings, really crazy stuff. Back on the ground I found this pathway dedicated to Billiken filled with restaurants and an arcade hall. the poor fellow can’t touch the soul of his foot, so if you scratch it for him, he’ll bless you with good luck.
Tried my hand on a crane game for a Roy Mustang Figurine, but to no avail 🙁
There was even this one game, where you’re simulating being a train driver. With pedals, levers and all. It had even a manual with it to properly explain how things worked.

Dinner time! This time a combination of my last 2 real meals, Udon noodles with curry sauce. I’m not really a foody, but this was just fine. Nothing special to write about actually. Except that these buggers are slippy as hell.

That was my first day in Osaka.

Oh yeah, before I forget. At one point there was a Giratina raid going on, you could hardly pass this mass of people. Some even had five cellphones on them.

Day 0.5 – We’re slowly getting there

It’s pitch-black outside and 12 o’clock for my body. But it just turned 6 o’clock here in Beijing. Looks like today/tomorrow will be a though one.

Normaly I’d be in the air at this moment. But as the universe wanted yesterday was one hell of a day.

After a night of ‘rest’ (yes ‘rest’, I don’t know if I even slept due to the anxiety of sleeping trough my alarm, missing my next flight) the day started well.

Had a nice breakfast, left my room and waited in the lobby for my cab driver to arrive. Luckily they had a computer there we could use, although the keyboard didn’t work.. so getting to any site was a tedious work of copy-pasting letters out of yahoo articles. I say luckily, as the cab driver was 30 minutes late… Thank God I asked them to pick me up at 9:00 so I’d definitely be on time in the airport for my flight at 13:30

Finally I can enter an aircraft to Asia. It isn’t a direct flight, which sucks but it’s getting me on the way. My rebook got me an isle-seat at the pathway. But I wasn’t really bothered by it.

The flight started out great when I was browsing the gaming options of the console.
Whenever I see the word “Mahjong” on any computer, I fear it’s the American pair-seeker. But to my surprise it was a Riichi Mahjong game! Time to get my game on and warm up for when I’m in Japan.

After that game food was served as I started watching the Incredibles II.
A tuna(?) salad with Pasta, chicken and tomato sauce and chocolate mousse as dessert.

By now it was time to try and get some sleep in, but I’m not sure that really happened. As I eventually started to watch the first ‘new’ Power Rangers movie followed by Taxi 5.

After landing I experienced my first “asian busride” as we were escorted in a jampacked bus from the plane to the arrival hall. Passed the border without any problems.

So here I am, sitting at my terminal waiting for my flight in 3 hours. Luckily light is starting to show outside so that should help keeping me awake.