Celebration Indulgence

And no, not of the eating turkey variety.

For those who haven't already heard it, Japan doesn't celebrate Thanksgiving.  The day was just another day, like Halloween, and dinner was some sort of noodle/tuna/cheese dish.  I am rather bleh about missing it, and while I know y'all meant well, didn't appreciate the constant reminder in the form of "Happy Thanksgiving!"

I recommend playing this video while you read the rest of this post.

This weekend, from Friday the 26th to Sunday the 28th, is the opening of the new Osaka Pokemon Center.  I tried to get a group together, but there were significantly less people interested than I thought there would be.  The group that dressed in the Pikachu suits for Halloween were getting together later, so we didn't even end up meeting with them.

I did go with Ryan (from my language classes) and Elizabeth, and we had a blast.

When we arrived at Umeda station, we somehow missed the 20 billion signs denoting the opening (as the new center was actually in the station) and wandered all the way to the old location.  We ran into a Japanese guy there who was nice enough to walk us all the way back even though he'd already been and was checking out a few of the unique features of the old center (like the castings of three pokemon's footprints outside the door I missed last time; Pikachu, what I assume was Torchic and something I couldn't figure out).

The new center is on the 13th floor of a shopping center attached to Umeda station and is much less crowded than the last one was.  There was a person in a Pikachu suit taking pictures with little kids right inside the entrance.

There were a bunch of new plushies and seasonal merchandise in addition to the limited-edition opening goodies.  Seasonal stuff featured the new starters (whose English names have been released, btw: Snivy, Tepig and Oshawott) in Christmas get-ups as well as New Year's stuff featuring Darumakka, the pre-evolution of Hihidaruma; both of which are modeled after Daruma dolls--a Buddhist good luck charm.  Individuals, companies or partnerships will make a wish and paint in the first pupil on the doll.  When the wish comes true, they will fill in the other pupil.

With our wallets significantly lighter an hour or so later, we headed back to Hirakatashi eki where trading promptly occurred.  I knew my 12 Arceus would come in handy. I still have 7 of them.  Elizabeth had to head home, so it was just Ryan and I for dinner.  We went to a gyoza restaurant where you got all you could eat in an hour for 500 yen.  We were probably there an hour over talking and geeking out before heading back to campus for an hour or so before splitting and heading home.

At home, Misa turned on the evening movie and I ended up staying up til 11 watching Ghost instead of going to bed early like I wanted.  It's been a long time since I've seen it all the way through.  Misa and Okaasan went to bed before it was done (and without saying goodnight), so Otousan was surprised to find I was the only one up when he got home.