11 November 2015
Also theres Oso
The covered shopping streets of Oso in Nagoya
I found the covered pedestrian area of Nagoya, so it does exist.
It is further South of the big department stores and is called Oso.
It is largely second hand shops, which I thought was fantastic, old toys, cameras, electronics, guitars, but also clothes, bikes, swords, shoe horns and tooth brushes.
It seems to be more of a day time area, as a lot of stores close at 6pm, including strangely the restaurants.
You must however, be careful of bikes, they come from anywhere, at top speed, they dont care that its a pedestrian mall. I nearly got run over twice, but someone else got hit and then yelled at the guy who hit him who ran off wheeling his bike.
Since most of the eating places were closed or closing, I retreated to top floor of department stores for dinner, Mitzukoshi had the best selection, but also the highest prices. Often the price wasnt clear and there was no choice but to buy the set meal with all kinds of stuff no one wants to double the price.
For whatever reason, Japanese restaurants are showing part of the price in Chinese (they presumably share numbers with Japan). Now I can read this, but I dont really understand why they dont show the whole price using the characters, perhaps Japanese people dont know the character for one thousand?
My long march home went through the park in the middle of the road, where I got to see lots of small dogs, really bad skate boarders, pop star dancing idol practice, homeless people city, an area closed off by police, and strangely, blind people painting.
There was a bunch of what I am sure were blind people having the scene described to them as they painted squiggles onto their easel.
On my way to Oso I went past an entire street of xmas decoration shops. Litreally 20 stores in a row. What do they do the rest of the year?
Perhaps xmas is year round in Japan now.
The temple suggested the start of shopping streets.
Wherever theres a temple, its to pray for a bargain.
Theres a network of 4 or 5 covered mall areas.
I tried on a maid outfit.
Then I waved at the giant cat for a while, whilst smoking teenagers got uncomfortable by my presence and left.
Crazy cyclists.
This second hand guitar shop was awesome. Its a shame I dont need or want anything.
I wasnt particularly hungry, so ordered what appeared to be a small meal in the plastic window version.
It was however quite large, and came with some flower petals, clear noodles that may have been potato or possibly tapeworms, and 3 green beans. Perhaps they are magic beans.