Tokyo-Nagoya-Osaka

Today got up with Yuki and Daragh as they got ready for work as we had to head to Tokyo Station to catch the Shinkansen to Osaka. With the flexibility of our 2 week Japan Rail pass it also made sense to stop in Nagoya, approximately half way, to bring Schiz releases to Record Shop Answer.

After figuring out we needed to get off at Osu Cannon subway stop we wandered the wrong way from Answer but found a Laughin Nose affiliated store in a covered streets. Tshirts, zines, etc. Pawed the former, bought the latter. Then as we were walking in what we hoped was the direction of Answer but looking for a place to eat, Craig exclaimed 'Tacos and Beer!' as he pointed. I thought it was a cruel joke but it was actually Unos taco shop pretty decent bean tacos served by rockabilly guys with wicked dos.

Making our way a couple of streets over with our record shop guide in hand, cross referencing it with an English map we found Answer and met Kenji who is an awsome guy. Although we expected to find more Japanese Hardcore we stayed a while to dig for things to trade Schiz stuff for. The only thing was that the longer we lingered in the store looking the Kenji gave us. Kinda made us move quickly as this show of super niceness, which we encountered throughout our visits in Japan, was a little hard to take, and we only had so much room in our bags.



We found this park nearby that had a mini Mount Fuji in it. I had to run up it just to say I made it to the top of Mount Fuji. The park was also home to one of the most disgusting bathrooms I have ever been in, yes may be filthier than those in the Apocalypse, ABC No Rio, and Speak in Tongues. Maybe it was the fact that you had to squat close to the puke and piss covered floor as opposed to balance over a toilet seat that mad it so gross. Sorry for writing about it in such detail but it really made an impression on me.

We walked back to the station and stopped in a beetle shop on the way just for fun. I couldn't get any photos but it was a musty place with terrariums full of big bugs that would take a few shoe bashes before getting squished good. But I guess they are sensible pets for people in cramped quarters. We also passed a funny signboard for a tattoo shop.


We met Randy outside the Hep 5 building a few subway stops from the Shin-Osaka and headed to Ignition and King Kong Record stores. Then we headed to the Umeda Sky Building, this 173 meter tall building made up of two main towers connected by the "Floating Garden Observatory" on the 39th floor. It was a great place to check out the skyline, but the spectacular view was not represented in any of the photos I took. Drat.

After Umeda we decided to head to Randy's place across the river in Juso for homemade tacos as opposed to heading out for some booze under the cherry blossoms at night. This sounded like it could be a lot of fun but we were tired and it was getting late. Juso was only one stop from Umeda but we managed to grab the wrong train (Randy was biking), so we took a rather scenic route. The tacos made it well worth it tho.