Aioi

Today was pretty mellow. I slept in after a late night of sushi and drinking. No hangover, though. I win! I got to talk with Jen, which was awesome. Then I spoke with Mike and Dana, who offered some useful tips for this blog. Then I decided to get out of the house. Which I've been doing a lot.

I didn't want to go to Himeji, because I'm going tomorrow. I definitely considered Osaka, but it's not super close, and I got a late start. So I figured I'd go check out Aioi. Aioi is two stops away on the train, but it's much larger than Kamigori. That being said, there's not a whole lot to look at. I wandered around for a while, then stopped by Lawson's to pick up something to eat for lunch. Lawson's is like 7-11. I ended up down by the river, and it was very nice. Not the river itself, just sitting by it with my tonkatsu sandwich and Chu Hai.





I then made my way back to the station to return to Kamigori. On the way, I stumbled upon Aioi Sky Lanes, the local bowling alley. I had very little interest in bowling, but I happen to know that bowling alleys usually have an arcade. This was no exception. But the arcade here was small. The only real standout was a machine called Densha de Go! 3, or Let's Go by Train! 3. It's a train simulator.



After that I went home and watched Howl's Moving Castle, and an awesome show with a ton of stand-up comedians.

Today's drink of the day is:

Real Gold


Real Gold is an energy drink that tastes like gummy bears. It's delicious. There's nothing super special about this drink. It's just that every time I see it, it instantly reminds me of Jennifer. When we were in Tokyo in October, we found an arcade just so we could smoke a cigarette. We ended up in the back by the vending machines, and we bought a couple cans of Real Gold and played Taiko Drummer. Except the cans we got had an angry looking dude on them.