A Night in Namba

The CMK women invited me to join them for dinner and other fun stuff last friday (February 23) at Namba.
We eat at a shabu-shabu resto near Dotonbori. It was a "tabehodai" or eat-all-you-can resto. At first I was pretty excited and I ate a lot. But as time went by the food didn't stop coming so I was getting a little hyped and I thought "How the heck do we eat all this?!". There was just too much food. It would've been great if I could take out some and cook it at home another time. hehehe, Fat chance! So finally time was up and we had to leave the resto (there's a time limit to tabehodai restos here). Then came another shock to me, the bill was huge! (Next time I'll definitely think twice before going to a tabehodai like this.)

After that meal by stomach was so full that I was having difficulty breathing. We then took a ride on the "kanransha" (Ferris Wheel) near there. There were only three of us inside the ferris wheel car(Yoshi-san, Hirata-san, Me).


It had a really great view of the city and the ride itself was awesome since it has an aura of being in a spaceship. I took a picture of the view from the top most point. Really cool.

After which we had our picture taken at a "pirikura" and then we head on for a one hour karaoke. Yoshi-san did a great song number in there. She sounded fantastic.
Eventhough I went broke after, the night was fun. I wouldn't mind doing it again if I have enough finances. hehehehe

Shin Osaka Jammin'

I've always wanted to go to a jam session eversince I started listening to band music.
And finally my wish came true on the night of February 17. I went to Shiera and Jet's aparment carrying my case along with me. I got there around 8:00PM. Yuri and Diobert were already there.
It was really nice since Sheira and Jet's apartment was sound proof so even if we made a lot of noice through the wee hours of the morning nobody called the police on us.
We started the session with "Planetarium". This is the one of the songs from "Hana Yori Dango" series which is oftened played during Domyouji's lonesome moments. We also listened to some other songs that we wanted to play which included Goong's OST, Splender and Yellowcard.
People finally got worn out at around 3 am so we slept for a while there and went out early in the morning. I got to the apartment 8am the next day. I kinda' felt like a drunkard coming home at that kind of hour.

Valentines in Osaka

I was expecting Valentines day to be more festive here but I was yet again met with another disappointment. Maybe this season is only exciting for people who're still in high school.
February 14, I came in 1 minute late to the office despite the fact that I ran all the way. (Unlike Esaka, we have punch cards here in Bentencho, so lates are monitored). But despite the morning's misfortune I was still in tune with the season as I gave my workmates some chocolates.

I felt blessed those days for I am not as busy as I was in Esaka. ( I used to work even on holidays and weekends there) I finally had time to read mails and coordinate with people. That day, I suggested to the Osaka pips to have coffee somewhere and some of them agreed to go. We met in Umeda. We ate at the "tabehodai" (eat-all-you-can) resto on top of Hep Five. The food was not really that great, but I guess most of these types of resto are never that good anyway. We ended the night with coffee at the Starbucks near Hilton Hotel. This is one Startbucks that closes the latest in the city.

I guess I would have to say that the day's highlight for that day was meeting Chei, the Korean girl that Alvin brought along with him. Why?! Shhhh....because she said she and Alvin are just "friends". hehehehe.

Esaka Team Reunion

I finally got to meet my old Esaka teammates for another night of great food and intimate conversation last February 09. The place was a little far, and it was quite hard to find despite the fact that it was beside the main highway of Umeda. (Even Oya-san got lost upon going there!) The food was great as usual. That night was a seafood night. I don't eat fish and raw food so I made most of the time by eating all other dishes other than those which was still a great selection that included crabs, lobster and oysters. Ahhhh, heaven in little bites! One dish that we ordered there used an "almost dead" shrimp as a garnish. It was sorrounded with ice upon which some raw shrimp meat was placed. It was a really big shrimp. When we tried to poke it, it moved and we were kinda surprised. It was quite a scary food really. And I felt pity for the shrimp too. You see, when the people finished consuming all the raw meat, that shrimp is taken back to the kitchen to be cooked with the soup. When the shrimp was brought back with the soup I still ate it, it was delicious, though just a few moments ago I felt pity for it. hehehehe.

That night I learned about my previous PL's current working environment. Things are a little lonely for him since the people sorrounding him at present are too serious. I hope he'll still be ok despite being alone there. That night I wanted to take "pirikura" with everyone but time was running out and we completely forgot about it. Well, there'll still be other oppurtunities, I hope.

The Long Walk to Nakatsu

February 3: It was a bright sunny afternoon. I asked Mars to show me where the public library was and decided to meet him in Juso. After applying for a membership in the library we decided to go Umeda and Shinsaibashi. Many of you may not know this: Mars has no sense of direction but then so do I! It's always an adventure when we go on "laag" together since there's always a possibility that we both could get lost. hehehe. We decided to do a long walk from Juso to Nakatsu, luckily we didn't get lost. The view was great but unfortunately, my picture wasn't. It was the damn wind that made my hair look like it belonged to Diana Ross. Oh well, next time I'll definitely tie my hair down before taking a picture on a windy day.

But Mar's picture turned out pretty good. Lucky guy!

Esaka Team Year-end Party

The party was held at Nishinakajima Minamigata and I was on a holiday that day (December 28). 45 minutes before the appointed time I started walking the familiar route heading towards Midosouji station. There was an accident that night, the subway train stopped and the train lights were turned off. I had wondered if my groupmates got there fine. A few moments later they called me and told me that they were already outside the station. And so I met them and we headed out to the "nomikai" place.
Fujii-san was already there waiting for us when we got there. (As usual, I don't remember the name of the place but I think I can still pinpoint it's location.) As their conversation went on, I continued eating and drinking. I couldn't understand much of what they were talking about anyway so I gave up and just went on munching all food that I could munch.

Farewell Esaka

December 28 I went to Esaka to have lunch with other women officemates. I was already on vacation that started the day before. I went there a little earlier to take pictures of the places we often go to eat.

This was the place Oya-san often calls "Salary Man's Set Meal Food Store". We often eat here for lunch. We even ate here with Kaneda-san before she resigned from work.

This is where I ate my first kitsune odon.

I ate in this Indian restaurant twice. The ambience was realistically Indian and the food was great too.


This was a great pasta place. The pasta was of homemade style so they were tasty and exotic.

But sadly we weren't able to eat at those places during lunch that day. Instead we ate at Mos Burger.