NEW LEVEL OF AWESOMENESS: "Video Killed the Radio Star" in Japanese! (performed by Lolita No. 18)

I just got back from Osaka about an hour ago, after enduring a massively delayed train ride in a smoking car (the non-smoking car was full; that's the last time I let my host dad convince me to save money by not getting a reserved seat).

I had a great time though. My day started early on Fri with a bus ride to the next big town south of me, where I caught a train up to Tennouji. Two transfers later I was strolling home, and after 3 years I still remember exactly how to get back there. Host mom was working late and host dad got tied up with one of his clients, so I killed time by strolling around my old 'hood, which actually means I hit the used cd and video game stores and bought stuff. But I'll get to the swag later.

Pretty much as soon as I get back to Osaka I remember why I gained 20 lbs living there: the food is fantastic, and my host family doesn't exactly serve the healthiest cuisine. I gave myself permission to eat whatever I wanted this weekend since I mostly eat conbini bento and sushi on my own, and I certainly took advantage of that. Fri night was that famous Osaka specialty, okonomiyaki, followed up by cake from the local bakery. Yeah, off to a good start.

Sat host dad and I were supposed to go to Kyoto with my host brother and his family for some hanami action, but due to work and family delays, we ran out of time (the flower park closed at 5, and we were at lunch til 4:40). We ended up going to a park in Nara, but the cherry blossoms hadn't bloomed yet (weather's been pretty weird around there lately). Lots of ducks, though.

Sun I had lunch at home with the fam before meeting up with a JET friend of mine from Chicago and his gf, and we headed out to Den Den Town. For all you Tokyo-centric folk, Den Den Town is Osaka's answer to Akihabara, it's the electronics district. We hit up tons of used video game and capsule toy stores, and I bought stuff because I ALWAYS buy stuff when I visit a big city (and it's usually the same stuff: cds and video games, and I fed my gachapon addiction a bit too). Because I was with my friend and his lady, I couldn't really make good on an offer I made a while ago to look for Uchiha porn at Mandarake, though. Then I headed home for a family dinner with everyone: host parents & grandma, host bro & his fam, and host sis.

And today I made my way back, home-made bento in hand, and freaked out about missing my connection home since the train was running super-late while gagging on stale cigarette air. Fortunately they took that into consideration and had a train waiting for us, otherwise I would've had to wait for an hour and a half for the next one to get in.

So that's probably not a very interesting account, and I guess it wasn't a very interesting weekend in terms of big events, but I had a great time just hanging out with my host family, eating tasty home cooking, and marvelling at how fast my host nieces are growing (they're 8 and 23 months).

And now, the swag!