a bowl of nattou or fermented soybeans out on the table for my friends to try it. I enjoyed putting them on my rice, but the guys did not. The smell and the stickiness was just too much for them haha. After breakfast, we left Niihama and caught a limited rapid to Okayama station. It took about 2 hours, but we all slept on the train to kill the time. At Okayama, we transferred over to the Shinkansen train. It’s been awhile since I rode the Shinkansen so I was very excited. The shinkansen ride from Okayama to Shin-Osaka didn’t take too
much time and we got to Osaka by 1pm. We decided to do lunch so we ate some Osaka specialty… Takoyaki or a rough English translation would be Octopus Balls. Now… I’m not a big fan of raw octopus because of the suction cups and just imagining it in my mouth just gives me the heebie-jeebies. But if its cooked and hidden in a ball of batter covered with hella sauce… then its all good. My friends and I asked a person at the information center for 
recommendations of good takoyaki nearby Osaka station and she showed us a couple. We ended u
p at a stand where we ate the takoyaki as we stood. It was a crackin takoyaki stand and it was crowded. I ordered takoyaki with hella green onions and mayonnaise and boy was it hella delicious. I’m definitely gonna get this again if I ever return back to Osaka. I hella recommend it for others! ;D
After our lunch, 
we toured around Osaka. We checked out American Town or Ame-Mura and people watched. We also checked out the stores there and took bunch of pictures of the Japanese take on American fashion, food, and culture. For me, the best part of visiting of American Town was eating at McDonalds and buying some 150 yen prized. During the last week of March and early April, McDonald had this campaign and sold all sizes of fries for 150 yen. Small, medium, or large… whatever it was… it was all 150 yen. Since I love French fries…. I could not let this offer go to waste. I bought some large fries with Brian for a snack and we were very happy. Why 
pay 150 yen for a small when you can get a large for the same price. This American mentality of getting your bang out your buck or quantity over quality was still strong in me. I believe its part of my 
American culture. Haha
After our tour of Osaka city, we went to check in at our business hotel were staying for the night. We booked our hotel the night before and we were all wondering where we would be staying at…. Because the price per room was like20 bucks and under… we very worried about why it was so cheap…. And we found out why when we got there. Our hotel was located in a pretty shady area and according to Brian… our room looked like the ones you see in those horror movies. Not to mention…. It was pretty shadynasty dirty. Haha But it was for one night and it was cheap so we went with it. We dropped out shit and headed out to Dotombori to do some sightseeing and get something to eat. We walked down the Dotombori shopping arcade and came across a sushi restaurant which had this buffet deal for 1500 yen. It was a kaiten-sushi and we wanted to eat some fish. We split into smaller groups so we could be seated quickly, and we ate our heart out. Brian and I didn’t mean to…. But we ended up having an eating competition. We ate so much that our stack of plates were hella high. I believe we ate over 25 plates of sushi. We were all hella full and wanted to walk around to burn some calories off and whatnot. We walked around and enjoyed nightlife Osaka.
We wanted to party so we looked for a bar orclub to do so. But…. Because it was a weekday… nothing was open. We were very disappointed…. And the bars that were open were hella upscale or they were one of the hostess bars. We eventually ended up at a Shakys Restaurant and try out their all-you-can-eat & drink deal for 1500 yen. We were all full from the sushi dinner we had early so it was a pretty ridiculous thing to do. Haha. 
We left Shakys after our two hours were up and we went searching again for a club or bar to party…. But like I said before… it was a weekday and nothing was open. It was very lame…. Only hostess bars were open and we were not into those. We ended our night by going back to our “horror movie” hotel. Brian, Rishi, Marlon, and I decided to look around the shady neighborhood of our hotel and took some pictures along the way. After we discovered that there was nothing open except for more of those hostess bars…. We went home to sleep with the ghosts that were waiting in our rooms.
The next day… on the 31st, we headed out to Nara to go see the Big Buddha and say hi to some deer. We left our horror movie hotel at like 8am and took the limited train to Nara. For breakfast, we had some Mister Donut because the guys wanted their coffee and Pon De Ringu. We walked for like 20 minutes and once we found some deer in the distance…. We knew we were close to the Big Buddha of Todaiji Temple.
We took some pictures of the temples and shrines within the Nara Park. We were blessed with numerous cherry blossom trees in full 
bloom. We also took pictures with the famous Nara deer. Marlon-san bought some deer crackers and started feeding them. A bunch of them started surrounding him and trying to get his crackers. They tried to eat his clothe thinking he was made of the deer cracker. When I told him that the Nara deer bow to you before you give them their crackers… Marlon-san did so and had the deer bow to him. All of us noticed that the deer bowed to us when we had our hand up. I guess the deer assumed we had something in the air. But then… we all decided to something funny. It was mostly Marlon-san and 
Brian-san who did it, but they bowed back to the deer whenever they bowed to them. It was hilarious watching them and the deer bow back and forth. They were being so Japanese. I’m glad that I got a video of them doing it.
Once we bowed enough with the deer, we entered Todaiji Temple to check out the Giant Buddha. As always, I was amazed with the size of the great Buddha. Enormous and valiant as always. I think Todaiji Temple is one of my favorite temples in Japan. Not number one though ;D Anyhow, since it was a weekday… there weren’t that many people visiting the temple that day. Hence… there weren’t that many people lined up to go through the famous hole of enlightenment. This hole is located within the pillar and represents the great Buddha’s nose. Anyone who can go through it will reach enlightenment. Marlon, Rishi, and I decided to take the challenge and 
try to squeeze through the hole. At first, we were hesitant that we could actually go through, but we simply went for it. Marlon went into the hole first and it was a piece of cake. I went in next and it was hella easy to go through. Rishi went last and it was also easy for him. The three of us successfully went through the hole and we were 
now three enlightened dudes. 
After being enlightened, we left Nara and headed back to Osaka to 
catch an okonomiyaki lunch. We found a restaurant near the station and we enjoyed our okonomiyaki. I got a regular okonomiyaki with cheese and mochi. I hella recommend this combo to everyone out there! It is the freakin bomb! Off the hizzle! After our lunch, we grabbed our stuff and went straight to our next location: Kyoto.
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