Laptop STILL broke but had an AWESOME day with Yuka and her sister!

So skipping the fact that laptops suck, I had a rather awesome weekend! Went out last night with some people from MySpace and Atsushi and we all blew a good 40 bucks each on alcohol and food from Outback Steakhouse (7 PER Corona...). Atsushi had to leave (poor guy had to work the next day) and we all just spilled over across the street to a bar called Heaven`s Door where we drank 1 or two moxed drinks (2 vodka tonics here), then tequila shots, then some drink that was supposedly the strongest drink (can`t remember the name), which only myself and Oya-san (whom I just met last night) were MAN enough to drink. I downed mine and felt the burn, but it didn`t take me any further into being drunk than I already was at the time, after that we just had some more fun/hilarious random stories about life in Japan and America (Scotland for Clare) and just had an awesome night. We decided to taxi it home, because it was too late to take the train, they were done for the night. Had an awesome night of sleep before my day with Yuka at the aquarium.

So skipping all the morning crap I would usually type about, I met Yuka at Takashimaya in front of the clock (if anyone ever actually visits me in Nagoya, I will show you this place, it is THE meeting place at Nagoya Eki) and we proceeded to grab some udon at a nearby restaraunt. During our conversations during lunch Yuka offered to help me book hotels and buy shinkansen tix for my Obon adventure. So we headed to the bookstore at T-maya and checked some maps and hotel guides. During our research, Yuka got a call from her sister saying she wanted to join us to the aquarium, and of course I didn`t mind, the more the merrier. When she met us we ended our hotel reseach for the moment and followed her sister (damn her name escapes me right now) to Nagoya ko (Nagoya port, I may have it wrong though, either Nagoya jo or ko, bad memory plus long day...). Her sister was only one to know how to get there which is why we followed her.

Watching Yuka and her sister interact was hilarious! Her sister is kinda someone you can tell has a lot of fun joking around and such, and there were lots of moments where Yuka would maybe try to stop her from embarassing herself by asking me questions in English (she spoke a bit of English, just a bit) and her sis was so gung ho with asking me questions about anything in English, with Yuka behind or next to her lookign embarassed for the whole family, it was just too funny! She was cool people though and we all had fun together. Anyways back to the aquarium...

We got there after a subway trip with one transfer (man I gotta learn Japanese so I can do stuff like that all the time) and we entered probably the coolest aquarium I have ever been in. Now without pics to do the talking, and me without the drive to type up every moment like I normally would, I will just spam random memories from the trip. We got to see a pretty decent sized Orca (uhm kojira in Japanese, well it is whale) and several iruka (dolphins). It was funny because Yuka`s sister was so quick to give me the Japanese name of everything we saw, kinda overload for me, BUT highly informative. We saw a tank that had a school of over 3,000 sardines, it was a sight to behold (I took video and pics). I saw honestly the largest crab I have seen in my LIFE (giant spider crab). This thing would eat a full grown rottweiler if they ate meat. We saw some HUGE turtles (kame) and then behind them their tiny babies swimming in a little tank (imagine a room full of tons of KAWAIIs being shouter, but they were cute, I will admit it). We saw a dolphin show, which was no dif than one I have seen at Seaworld, but fun because it was ALL in Japanese! I was having father tendencies watching this little boy climb on the railings during the show while his parents were about 14 steps up from his newfound playground, but he never hurt himself, and I didn`t have a heart attack. More happened, I just can`t remember, but once my laptop is ok I will post pics and then probably make an addendum to this post.

We eventually finished and Yuka`s sister had to go to work (she works at a manga kissa like I am at now) so Yuka and I went to the SAME manga kissa I am at now to research hotels and book them for me for Osaka and Tokyo. It took time, I am not 100% confident things will go well, but things are booked and I drew some crappy maps from stations to hotels to concert locations, to Disneyland... Wish me luck this week... Next stop was to Chikusa train station to buy my shinkansen tix to and from tokyo, then FROM Osaka to Nagoya (I didn`t buy my return because I was waiting for a call from Saki to see if I would be able to hang with her, but no call, so now I know when I will return.)

So there it is. An AWESOME weekend in Nagoya from me, yet AGAIN! Plus I also am all booked and ready for my Obon adventure, AWESOME! Now I just need to fix the damn laptop so I can post from home and stop spending money for the train then fee for the manga kissa (key-sah. short for kissaten, which is cafe).

OH I remembered something from yesterday that was interesting, well to me. Aparently there was one of the world`s largest cosplay events in Nagoya at Oasis 21。Now I am not into cosplay, anime or manga but I love the video games. So I get out of Sakae station and hear One Winged Angel (if you have played and beaten Final Fantasy 7, you know this song WELL and you LOVE IT!). I see a huge stage and a girl and a guy dressed as Cloud and Tifa from FF7 and they were doing some form of play in front of HUNDREDS of onlookers! Kinda cool to see in person! Later on that night I found out I missed 5 guys dressed as Gundam mechs, complete with smoke machines attached to the costumes and everything... sugoi ne...

Oh well, next year right?

Now with pictures!!! Here ya go!

Nagoya Aquarium Pics!