Himeji Castle+Art Fair, Osaka Gyoza+Games

I thought about it and realised what my blog was missing: square photos.

Himeji: nice little city. Got a really famous castle. Had a little look round, really striking.




Himeji City art fair: I think the artists were mainly from Himeji and not professional. A real mix, from the more traditional styles to the out there. Sculpture, pottery, painting, photos, was really interesting.




We ate at a place called Uotami, which is an Izakaya. In general in Japan, they believe in specialism when it comes to food, so most restaurants only serve one sort of food. Izakayas are the exception, serving a little of everything, making them good for a large gathering or when you feel like lots of different things. This one was really cool, you order your food by selecting it via a wireless tablet PC docked on the side of your table. Still cannot get over how cheap eating out can be here. In a moodily lit private booth that's almost like a tiny room in itself, we ate till we literally couldnt move, tempura (deep fried stuff), tacoyaki (octopus balls), sushi, kimchee, japanese omelette, little bit of okra, sukiyaki which included ramen, slices of different meat and a massive plate of vegetables to cook in the delicious broth over a hotplate on the table, and a litre of beer to drink, and walking out paying just a shade over a tenner... man (and this was the most I've paid for dinner in a while). Did I mention they played jazz (including a small combo version of Jaco's 'Invitation'). For the first few weeks back I'm gonna feel England is robbing me over food prices all the time.

On Sunday we headed to Osaka. I'm not really into food. But one thing I really love is Gyoza. So I think its Genius of Namco to put videogames (namco funpark) and gyoza (gyoza stadium) in the same building, Namco City. We played some games downstairs first, there are some really different games, for example about 20 people sat at individual terminals looking at a massive screen playing computer horse racing playing what appeared to be a bookies sim(whats the point?), or these ones which have large tables where people bring their own special card sets and move them around to control troops in a ancient war sim. The most interesting is the new Gundam (giant robot) game (in the picture below). There are about 8 little 'pods' which show a 180 degree view, and you pilot a giant robot, battling against the others. People are SO INTO this. There is a giant flatscreen monitor showing an overview of the battle which people are glued to, there is a HUGE queue for it staffed by a lady in a fake Gundam style pink uniform taking names, and they distribute printed maps of the areas you can fight in so you can plan your game well ahead of time. I think I want to play this once before I leave Japan, but for then it was all about taiko game. Then we went upstairs and tried loads of speciality gyoza (foot long gyoza, pink, orange and yellow gyoza, gyoza with spring onion on the top in a thin sauce, thick beef gyoza), it was fantastic. Writing this, I want some gyoza so badly right now.




I rounded off the week of doing stupid things (puncturing a tyre, losing my keys) by leaving my spare keys in Ouzumi, making my total journey home about 4 hours (when its should be less than 2). If only I'd listened when I was a kid when my dad told me to engage my brain before doing things. I think its too late now.

Ive been trying to set a budget for the weekends, as I keep spending way too much money. I kind of failed again this weekend for various reasons, but this one I don't feel guilty about. Found it in Beams, how could you not buy it?



Thanks, Japan.