Pokemon Center (Osaka Trip, Part 2)

-Austin

It was incredibly hot at the festival, much too hot for me.

So we raaaan, we raaaan so far awaaaaaay.

We decided to leave the festival after about 2 hours and go to a place that Nygel wanted to go. A place that ALL Pokemon fans must go when visiting Japan. One could call it the mecca for Pokemon fans. Yes, that is right, I am of course speaking of the Pokemon Center!

Before going to the Pokemon Center, we took a break near a fountain to plan our travel path.

We fed the pigeons too. Tons of pigeons in Japan.

After our brief planning, we set off on a bus to a nearby JR Loop Train station.  The Osaka JR Loop is a railway that runs in a circle around Osaka. Many cities, including Tokyo, have a similar railway. For those of you living near Charlotte, NC, the JR Loops functions similarly to the interstate 485 around Charlotte, except with trains instead of cars.

After we arrived at Osaka station, I took a moment to take pictures of the superstructure of the train station. It is actually quite amazing (at least to me).

The Pokemon Center in Osaka is located at Osaka Station on the 13th floor. Osaka station is actually a huge tower that has 27 floors with a hotel and restaurant at the top.

So, finally arriving at the Pokemon Center, Nygel went off to go.. nerd out over Pokemon. Elijah and I wandered around the store looking at stuff. I decided to take pictures, so.. here is a LOT of pictures.

I warned you :p

So yeah, after that we headed back towards home. Was fun and we will be returning to Osaka in the future to actually explore the city more. And probably more Pokemon. Definitely more Pokemon.

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Note: The second line of this post was reference to the song called "I Ran" by the band named "A Flock Of Seagulls.  Good song.

So I Heard You Liked Trains

So Japan put trains on its trains! So now you can look at your favorite trains while you ride on trains.  But seriously though, there are a few trains that run around the Hirakata area that have Thomas the Train and friends painted all over them. I believe there are a bunch of custom painted trains that run throughout Japan.

 I remember watching Thomas the Train as a kid. I had the wooden trains and I would watch the movies ALL the time. Come to think of it, I watched Barney, the purple dinosaur, as a kid as well. I hope there aren't any trains with Barney on them.

O.o