The Bookstore is EIGHT FLOORS?! A Trip to Umeda with Riyo

So today I went to Umeda, which is the central part of Osaka City, with my speaking partner Riyo. I met her at Osaka Station, and this being my second time using the trains ever, my journey there was....interesting. I made it on the first train okay (thanks to the helpful extremely detailed instructions written by my housemate), but the second train loop I got on it the wrong way, so I had to get off and turn around...but because it was a loop it was okay.

Once I finally arrived and met Riyo, we first ate in the train station in what I would equate to an extremely squished food court where everyone stands around tables and eats food. I had ikayaki for the first time. This is squid. I still don't know how I feel about it.

Then, we decided to first head for the bookstore. The eight floor bookstore.

Eight floor bookstore.

That has an entire floor of manga. I was excited. We did not look for an English section, but I am sure it is there. But we did run around in the manga section. There is one manga I am particularly interested in because it is now out of print in America, and I cannot find it translated anywhere. I may or may not just buy the rest of the series in Japanese and bring it home with me, as an "investment in my future." It would be about 50 dollars though, so I need to think about it.

Then, we headed for Animate, which is the anime chain store in Japan. I am on the hunt for phone charms, but I did not find any good ones. I did find some folders for school though.

Then we went to HEP, the giant super mall with giant whales in the entryway.  I kid you not, we don't know why they are there either. But we did some purikura, and because Riyo has a real phone, I can show you some! She only sent me a couple, I'll have the rest later:

It's really fun. We also played the Taiko game, and we both sucked at difficult level, so it was fun! Then we went to dinner at an udon restaurant, even better, and shopped around at some of the stores in the mall.

On the way home, I took the trains in all the correct directions, except even though the damn sign SAID the express train was arriving, somehow I got on the Sub-express so it took a little while. I don't know. It was fun! Here are some pictures!

~Rosie