Japan Trip Day 8: Osaka

All good things must come to an end and this is the last day of my holiday. Last day is always reserved for food and last minute shopping so I woke up later than usual this morning (still earlier than my friends). I went back to Don Quijote at Dotonbori to get 2 sets of jinbei, wasabi kit kat, and a Japan sling bag. It was a dilemma about the sling bag as I was torn between its utility and my needs. I like the design and all that but usually I carry so many barang-barang that surely this sling bag cannot fit. In the end I decided to get a discounted one (1900 yen from the original price 2900 yen) so that I could get the tax free. Alamak stupid me for not reading properly. The thing about tax free in Japan is that different shops have different requirements. I thought 5400 yen purchase in Don Quijote was the requirement but actually it was 5400 yen for consumables and 5400 yen for non-consumables. The tax free was not applicable to me as I bought a mixture of consumables (kit kat) and non-consumables (bag and jinbei).

Next destination was Kuromon Market which was bloody crowded as compared to the weekday when I went there with my friends earlier this week. It was crazy but I spent almost 10000 yen just for food and in a market. I don't want to think too much about it but they were good and they are in my stomach already. I tried not to overkill my stomach and my wallet so I decided not to get the kushiyaki, the fried stuff, and the croquettes. On the way there I passed by a vending machine that had the banana milk that I saw in Kyoto so I had a very happy brunch.

Grilled squid for 580 yen, Matsuzaka beef for 2500 yen, Wagyu sushi for 1500 yen, and Ootoro sushi for 2800 yen

I returned back to Yodobashi as there was a new section to celebrate Final Fantasy 30th Anniversary.  I bought the postcard set as well as the plushes that I missed the preorders. I also bought Chocobo card game hoping to sell them :(

With that, I declared that my holiday is over and I would only spend the rest of the day somewhere near airbnb. I kaypoh to check Mandarake Grandchaos again and as what I expected, the spot where Heero and Relena that I bought previously was taken by the matching SDX Divine Knight Wing. Ouch!! After googling, I discovered that this was actually offered by Premium Bandai Singapore earlier this year for $160 and Mandarake price was only 12000 yen. I went back to repack my items and then I decided to just buy it!! On the way to the cashier, I saw Aladdin & Jasmine figures from Tomy Disney Magical Collection for 1000 yen and 1200 yen respectively. These are figures from ages ago as I remembered the last time I saw them was in my early years in Singapore. They are so old that I cannot even find a decent google images of them.

SDX Divine Knight Wing

Can replace the head with Heero's head

It was not 6pm yet and after walking passed the photo studio where I made photos on the first day, I finally decided to be thick skin and do another session. This time I picked a darker and boring colour kimono. It was the same lady as last week and she still remembered me. I told her that I wanted more half body shots and if possible I wanted different poses. She was very nice to help to create more poses and gave suggestions when I wanted a lying down pose. Lol. The shop actually had a quiver property leh! Arrgh.. should have worn that too last week when doing the bow and arrow poses.

While waiting for the photos to be printed, I went back to Dotonbori to try gyoza from a shop that I passed by this morning. The gyoza was quite disappointing though.. Although I wanted to take away, the gyoza was not packed in a closed container so I ate it in front of a shop that played AAA Niji video on loop. Lol. This is one of the videos that usually I watch/listen on repeat at home too leh. Really a sign to go home soon. Starbucks was still crowded with the queue snaking outside the shop and it looks like I do not get to try any Starbucks in Japan.

After collecting the latest photos, I bought a wagyu burger from Amerikamura area just a few steps further from Mandarake as well as takoyaki from another store near our airbnb. From the 3 shops around, I think this is by far the best.

And that's all :( Sayonara T_T huhuhu