Not too many pictures today. There are some things that you really wouldn’t want pictures of.
We got a slow start and went to this old-school coffee shop for that’s underneath the Hankyu Umeda Station for breakfast. It’s half-smoking but it didn’t seem too smoky to me. It’s full of old guys looking at horse racing newspapers since there’s a giant OTB office right near the hotel.
Then it was off to do some shopping. The list of places Mariko wanted to go wasn’t too long, so I figured out how to get to an Autobacs Auto Supply to see the weird things she could get for her JDM car. It was near Namba, which is OK, but we came back through Shinsaibashi, or as I call it, China. For years it’s been full of Chinese shopping tourists. But back to Autobacs – it’s just a car parts store but it’s kind of fun. I saw at least three white guys come in to check it out and leave almost immediately. Yeah, fun but not all that much to see unless you’re looking for weird Japanese car gadget like cup holders or tiny garbage cans that fit into cup holders, Rain-X of multiple varieties, etc. You can also buy tires and have your car worked on if you live here.
So on the way back we went to “Strawberry Mania” and wanted to eat inside. Unfortunately they didn’t open and we both wanted to get the heck out of Shinsaibashi so we just got soft cream smoothies.
Some of you may recognize the weird tourist standing there. There’s another Strawberry Mania store near the Dotombori Bridge, but this one is much calmer. I took a poor excuse for an Instagram photo. The drink was very strawberry-y and I’d recommend it if you are cursed with having to be near this area.
On the way to the train station I saw a young blinged out SE Asian kid peeing on the wall behind the Louis Vuitton store but not only was he painting the wall, he was also walking along with his dick out peeing everywhere. Yeesh. It’s not like it’s a bad area. Right next to the Louis Vuitton store is a Bulgari store and the Apple Store is across the street.
Anyway, we got the heck out of there and went back to Umeda and had lunch. Souffle omurice!
Sadly, that’s the last picture of the day. We went to a couple of book stores to look for JDM kei car books for Mariko and also Loft where we bought some ridiculous stuff. Or at least I did. I got a ceramic coffee filter, the kind where you don’t need paper.
We weren’t that hungry at dinner time so we had combini dinner. I didn’t take a picture of the sando and Famichiki. Then Mariko was off for an expensive head massage and I went to Raffine for an hour-long massage. It was relaxing and not that intense and that’s it for the day!