Showing posts with label Osaka. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Osaka. Show all posts

Sunday, October 10, 2010

大阪、もう一度
Osaka Redux

Yes, I went to Osaka again today. And it was absolutely a good idea. Even if I did get five hours of sleep last night. I stayed up until 2:30 in the morning to watch the first episode of A Certain Magical Index 2, and then woke up at 7:30 to have breakfast and go out to meet my friends in Osaka. Apparently I looked really tired, but I didn't feel it for some reason...

今日また大阪に行った。昨日の夜は、五時間ぐらい寝たけど、本当に楽しかった。まあ、昨日の夜、とある魔術の禁書目録IIを見るために二時半まで起きてるし、朝は七時半起きて、朝ごはんを食べて大阪に行った。友達によると、眠そうだけど、なんとなく僕は眠くないと思った...

So anyway, I took the Keihan main line again, this time all the way to its terminal station, Yadoyabashi.  From there, I walked to Hankyu Umeda station to meet my friends, who ended up being kinda late... But no matter. Because then, we went to a Pokemon store in Osaka. That was amazing. Only the Nintendo store in New York City can compare to this. I went a little nuts, I admit... bought three cell phone straps and five little Pokemon figurines. Oh well, it didn't cost all that much.

とにかく、京阪本線を乗って、終点の淀屋橋駅に降りた。そこから、阪急梅田駅に歩いて、友達と会った。友達はちょっと遅かったけど、かまわなかった。だから、その後、「ポケモンセンター」と言う店に行った。それは、すごかった。ニューヨークにある任天堂の店は関係がある。多分ちょっと買いすぎた...携帯ストラップを三本買って、フィギュアを五つ買った。高くないけど...

From there, we hiked our way back to the Umeda subway station and made our way to Nanba. Our destination, Dotonbori, our goal... well, we didn't really have one. Of course, I wanted to track down an arcade, and that I did. We found two, in fact.

その後、地下鉄の馬で駅に行って、なんば駅を行った。旅先、道頓堀、目的...別に何でもない。僕はゲームセンターを見つかりたい。見つかったよ。二つ。

The first was early in the day. Sadly, there was no Dance Dance Revolution machine in sight. There was, however, fun to be had. First came an interesting little game by the name of Mobile Suit Gundam: Bonds of the Battlefield. (link to Wikipedia) It's a multiplayer battle game where people can side with either the Earth Federation or the Principality of Zeon and engage in large-scale battles.

一つ目は...残念だけど、DDRのゲームはなかった。でも、楽しみがあった。まず、機動戦士ガンダム戦場の絆と言うゲームだ。(リンクは、ウィキペディア)たくさんの人はして、地球連邦軍かジオン公国軍と一緒に大型戦闘をする。

... Here, let's just let the pictures that one of my friends took explain.

...友達が取った写真は一番いい説明だと思う。


































Basically, it's awesome. Understand? Okay. Moving on.

基本的に、かっこいいよ。分かった?よし、次。

There was also that drum/taiko game that every anime fan probably remembers from Lucky Star (that's where I saw it first, anyway). It's called Taiko Master. (again, Wikipedia) Since I have a ridiculously good sense of rhythm, I'm not half bad at it. My arms hurt like all get out by the time I was done with that game, though.

そして、太鼓のゲームがあった。太鼓の達人と言う。僕のリズム感がいいから、上手だ。でも、ゲームをした後で、腕が痛かった。

So once I was done being a geek, we moved on. Lunch was ramen, and really good too; I don't do ramen that often, but I actually kinda liked it this time. Other than that, there was a lot of random exploring of the city...

さあ、オタクになることが終わった後で、ゲームセンターを出た。昼ごはんはラーメンだった。おしかったな...僕はあまりラーメンを食べないけど、その時は好きだった。そして、的のなくて歩いて...

Oh wait, arcade number 2. I don't think I've ever seen an arcade six stories tall before. And the billboard marking its location was visible from practically two blocks away. Needless to say, I had high hopes...

あ、二つ目のゲームセンター。六階もだよ!見たことない。そして、サインは遠くで見えた。もちろん、僕は楽しみにして...


















Oh yeah. It's been a while.

久しぶりな...

I promptly got on the pad and commenced with the making a fool of myself. Seriously, Only My Railgun was a 9 (on the new difficulty scale that runs from 1 to 20); how did I get a C? I've forgotten my second song, but Saber Wing in the third slot went no better. Damn it all... why is it that I fail so miserably every time I play DDR in an arcade?

僕は早くDDRをして、バカな業績を始まる。まったくもう...only my railgunと言う曲は、9だから、どうやってCがとった?僕の二番目と三番目の曲は同じく。しまった...なぜDDRはアーケードでするたびに、悪くなる?

At that point, with my arms sore from taiko games and my legs sore from DDR, I figured it was about time to cut my losses and head home. But there will be more Osaka in the future. I've finally found some really good arcades, after all.

その時は、腕が痛かったし足が痛かったし、帰る時だと思った。でも、また大阪に行くよ。やっと、いいゲームセンターを見つかったから。

Sunday, September 26, 2010

大阪城
Osaka Castle

First, I really should apologize. It's been a week since I've been to Osaka Castle, and I haven't posted anything about it at all.

まず、誤らなくてはだめ。大阪城には一週間前に行ったけど、全然話していない。

Here's some more awesome pictures to make up for it.

これ、かっこいい写真!

So anyway, this last week has been a week of days off. The 20th was Respect for the Aged Day, so Monday was an off day, and then the autumn equinox was on Thursday the 23rd, which means we get the day off. Considering all the free time that I had last weekend, then, it seemed an excellent time to go check out Osaka.

とにかく、先週は休みの日がたくさんあった。20日は敬老の日だったから、月曜日は休みだった。そして、秋分の日は木曜日、23日だったから、それも休みだった。暇な時間がたくさんあったから、大阪に行けるよ。

And yes, I know that that castle in the picture isn't "real". It was destroyed several times, actually, and the castle that exists today was rebuilt in modern times. Likewise, the interior is a modern museum, and bears absolutely no resemblance to a Japanese castle.

はい、はい、この城は本物ではない。何度も壊した。今日の大阪城は現代の物だ。そして、中は歴史の博物館だし、昔の日本の城じゃない。

But you know what? It doesn't matter. Because that castle looks really damn awesome.

でも、かまわない。この城はとてもかっこいいだもん。



I mean, come on! It's a freaking castle! Why can't the U.S. have any building that looks that cool?

城だよ!なぜアメリカにはこんなかっこいい物がないか。