Nothing opens early in Japan. Stores and restaurants open at 10 or 11 a.m. here. So waking up at 5:00 a.m. means that you have a lot of time to do nothing. And I failed to buy food for myself the night before, so I was pretty damn hungry. So me and Kevin ventured to McDonalds across the street since it was the only thing that was open.

McDonalds breakfast is weird in Japan. They have things I have never seen, including a hot dog. I opted for this thing that looked like a giant chicken nugget sandwich.


So, this thing had cheese, egg, hollandaise sauce, and and alarming amount of ketchup. It tasted good, but I could have done without the ketchup. I also got a coffee, and I don't know why I did that, because I don't even like coffee. I think it was so early, I was jet lagged, and was stumped because there was no fruit punch (a standard in Hawaii in every fast food establishment), so I spouted the most normal thing that came to mind. We had a lot of time before we headed to USJ, but nothing was open, so we hung around some more in the room before heading to Loft. It wasn't open, so I popped into the shopping arcade and got some cosmetics to kill time.

We rested a bit more before finally heading out to USJ. I usually try to avoid going to theme parks on weekends because crowds are crazy and I don't like people. But I put my anxiety aside for this one night, because it was Halloween season. And Halloween season at USJ and Universal Studios in America means one thing...Halloween Horror Nights. 

I love scary movies and scary things in general. Hell, I run a website dedicated to scary and unexplained events in Hawaii. So of course I am going to want to experience "horror" at a theme park! Kevin and I went around 4:00 p.m. to USJ because the festivities didn't start until 6:00 p.m. We decided to kill time by riding The Amazing Adventures of Spiderman 3-D ride. It took about an hour and a half to get through the line, and when we exited the ride, we were greeted by chaos. 

It was like walking out into a zombie apocalypse. There were crowds of people everywhere, but there were also SWAT type guys running through the park, zombies everywhere, and explosions. I believe USJ was going for a Biohazard-type apocalypse, as this year they featured their ever-popular Biohazard the Real attraction, where you get to shoot "real" zombies! What I mean is, you go through different stages in a group and shoot actors dressed as zombies, while your arm band tells you how much health you have left and if you have been infected. Kevin and I were dying to do it, but there was no way we would get in with that line. So I just snapped a picture. 

He spit at people (water I'm sure...I hope) as he walked by. It was pretty awesome. But not as awesome as if there had been were zombie Velociraptors or T-Rex's walking around. 

There were also signs indicating zombie zones so as not to scare your young children. The small kid part of the park remained as normal; no zombie Hello Kitty or Zombie Snoopy walking around.

There was also Biohazard themed foods!



In all, I had a really great time. It wasn't very scary, but it was certainly entertaining watching people screaming and running away. Also fun, people go in costume to the park for Halloween. Not all, but a lot do. This place is like my paradise! Here's a video of the action in case you were curious:

I guess because the store is so small, only a small amount of people could be in there at one time. There was a security guard there to usher people in. I didn't want to stand in that line, so I left and went to the Mandarake across the street feeling particularly grim. The weather was gloomy and it was raining, and it just mirrored my mood. I vowed to go back on a weekday, and when I did, I was greeted with this sight:

I tried to get my best picture of the store. what you see is a very long room, and a long table. I think it's meant to look a bit like a banquet spread, with candelabras and silver platters holding the items. On the walls on either side of the table were shelves that had goods such as bags and wallets and card holders. 

The store itself was very, very small. It looked large because there was a big mirror at the end of the room. In the White Queen Room, there were various edible goods such as cookies, candies and drinks that were Alice in Wonderland themed. There was ramune labeled "drink me" and cookies labeled "eat me!" It was all so cute. But again, that room was very small. The cash register was also located in that room. 

I did find many, many cute things there, though! When they posted these on their Facebook, I knew I had to have them. These crown necklaces are HUGE, and hefty, and only cost $12.00 each. 

For good measure, we also ate again at the first place we went to called Okonomiyaki Tsuruhashi Fugetsu located in the Midosuji Grand Building Store, located smack in the middle of dotonbori. We kicked it off with this thin pork wrapped in an egg, smothered in mayo, okonomiyaki sauce, and topped with katsuobushi. 

It's hard to say which restaurant I enjoyed more. Both styles were a bit different. I will say that Yukari's was easier to eat because you didn't have to cut through large strips of cabbage, and I liked the hot mustard. Gave it a nice kick. I also liked being able to add my own katsuobushi.

After we returned from Nara, we met up with Tricia later that night to sample some of the Osaka night life.


This was nothing like what we experience with my coworker. We started out our night with authentic okonomiyaki! Me and Tricia got kimchi (Tricia had cheese with hers) but Kevin assembled his own, and it was the whitest okonomiyaki ever. He got potato, bacon, cheese, and an egg. He basically got breakfast. The Japanese version of huevos rancheros. We also got this delicious chicken that was wrapped in like, an egg crepe, and some yakisoba.

This was hands down the best thing Kevin and I ate in Japan, and we are still raving about it. After dinner, we headed to the bar owned by Tricia and her husband, Music Bar Butterfly. On our way there, we passed many hosts and hostesses trying to solicit you to visit their establishments. There were lots of signs around like this one:

Those are men, not women! This was one of the infamous host clubs. And I'm not going to lie, I am somewhat intrigued by them. These men just fawn over you and give you attention, but the only catch is you have to buy them drinks. 

Tricia warned us that their bar was small, but it was still surprising. I think there was enough room for maybe 7 or 8 people at the bar. But it wasn't cramped at all, it was cozy, especially when you are there with friends. We had a fun time playing music and drinking.

I was feeling good by the time we left the bar, and headed out to another one. I don't even know where we went. Things start to get a little bit blurry after this. I know we went somewhere called Kama Sutra, and I think we ended somewhere called Cinquecento? I don't even know how to spell it. We went to about two or three different bars. Keep in mind, we started our night around 8:00 p.m.

While we were at one of the bars, they had karaoke. And I just HAD to karaoke. After the song was done, there was a pixelated girl on the screen. Depending on how well you did, it un-pixelated different parts of her body. As I watched, nobody was able to reveal any exciting bits. So I thought, this might be rigged! So I sang my drunk heart out singing "Don't Stop Believin'," my karaoke standard, and lo' and behold, I got  BOOB! I felt super accomplished.

Japanese people know how to party. Bars don't close till like, 5:00am or something crazy like that, and there are many people in them at that time. But then by this time, most of them are belligerent. We knew our night was over after Tricia smacked a guy, who was really drunk, across the face! We took that as our cue to leave, and by the time we got back to the hotel, it was just about 5:00am. I had planned to do a day trip to Hiroshima that day, but there was no way that was going to happen. But that's okay, because I had the best night out ever!

Okay. I have to tell you guys about this place. So I randomly saw a blog post for this restaurant and it piqued my interest. I had never had tsukemen before, and this seemed like a pretty good introduction to it. Uni cream tsukemen? Yes, please! I love uni so, so much, but it's so dang expensive! Two pieces of uni nigiri here (Hawaii) at a nice sushi restaurant will run you about $8.00 at least. But this serving of uni tsukemen only cost $10.00! 

The hotel we stayed at was right in Shibuya station, and the restaurant was only a two minute walk, fairly easy to find with Google maps, as long as you know what the restaurant front looks like. 

This restaurant had a ticket system, which made ordering pretty easy. You could choose between two different sizes, 200 grams or 300 grams of noodles. 

The broth was extremely thick and flavorful. It didn't taste fishy, but tasted more like the ocean. It wasn't too overwhelming, either. It was just really, really magical. It just coated my tongue, and wrapped it up in an uni-flavored blanket. It was like an uni-kotatsu. Imagine that. lol I think that, if you are curious about trying uni, this is a good starting point. 

I know there's something where you can add the water from the boiled noodles to the broth to finish it, but I didn't even have room to do that (and I couldn't remember what it was called, anyway). I now know that its called "wari soup." So, if you are feeling up to the challenge, ask for some wari soup to finish up your broth. 

This place was so amazing I went back a second time, my last meal in Japan, and got the lobster ramen. 

東京都渋谷区道玄坂1-11-2

Tokyo, Shibuya-ku, Dogenzaka 1-11-2

Closest station: Shibuya

Open 11:30-15:00, 17:00-23:00

Saturdays 11:00-23:00

Closed Sundays

UPDATE

My friend went to Japan in October 2015 and Tairyo Makoto was gone! It was replaced by another restaurant. I'm not sure if they closed for good or relocated, but I hope they open somewhere else because this place is just too good to not exist anymore! Sad face!