TacoCat’s Travels #90 (Japan 3.0): Visiting Pokemon Pals! 😺

Hey Hive/Steemit!

So if you didn't catch the last couple of posts, we're currently on a brand new journey in Osaka! It was quite a spontaneous trip since there was a super promotion on Philippine Airlines and we decided to just go for it during our mid-semester break back in Feb 2017! This was also the first Valentines' trip we took together!

Last week, we finished up our first day in Osaka by eating the most delicious grilled meat rice bowl I've ever tried! 

We also visited the Peanuts Carnival in Daimaru,

And spent our second day in Osaka exploring the Kyocera Dome and having lots of snacks!

But anyway, onto our third day! Let's go!

20 Feb 2017. Saturday.

We actually wanted to get Mcbreakfast today, but we woke up late, as usual. So we had McDonalds for lunch instead!

We always make it a point to eat McDonalds whenever we travel since they always have something special that caters to the local cuisine. And Japanese McDonalds is soo good! I don't remember exactly what burger this was, but from the packaging it looks like some chicken burger.

I was probably craving the crispy chicken nuggets. They were nice and crunchy and warm. The burger was alright; the bun was so nice and fluffy, but I think I prefer their bacon burger better, or something with a crispy patty.

We didn't really have much of a plan for today, and since we got up quite late there wasn't really a lot of daylight left. So we decided to just chill and go check out the Pokemon Centre here in Osaka!

We've only ever been to the ones in Tokyo, so I was curious to see the Pokemon Centre here in Osaka as well. They probably had the same stuff but it was always cool to see anyhow. And it's been more than a year so maybe they'd have new stuff too.

I wouldn't say I'm a huge fan of Pokemon, but I used to play a lot of the classic RPG games when I was younger. Actually one of the first games I ever remember playing was Pokemon Yellow! And I played every gen since then up until Platinum. Last year, I recently completed Pokemon Sword as well!

The store itself is located in Umeda, right near the Osaka JR station and is inside Daimaru Umeda. The store itself is pretty spacious (especially compared to donki hote) and it was surprisingly not crowded when we went there.

As expected there were a crap ton of plushies abound.

I couldn't recognise most of them, and those I did recognise looked different. But now I realise they're the Galarian versions of the older Pokemon.

This is probably all Pokemon fans' dream, right here.

There's just all kind of merchandise; from plushies to apparel, accessories, toys, even cutlery and snacks!

I can see if you're a super avid fan of Pokemon you could have your entire house decked out with all these Pokemon merch.

I thought some of the keychains and socks were really cute.

Even pouches and drawstring bags with different Pokemon on them:

Man, with over 900 different Pokemon, they can make endless amount of merch using different Pokemon!

That Team Rocket hoodie tho.

Oh yes this was back when Sun and Moon was the latest version.

Even more plushies! There were plushies everywhere!

If I wasn't so practical I would've bought some plushies. But man, now all I can think of is "what am I gonna do with it once I buy it" and, "it'll just collect dust".

But this Pikachu tho; so smol and derpy-looking:

And this huuuge one!

I think he weighed like more than 3kg or something, so I don't know how tourists would ever bring this absolute chomker back.

After taking a look around the whole Pokemon Centre and sending a ton of pics to my cousins asking them if they want anything, we went to visit other stores in Daimaru. And we saw a couple of our soft friends!

We have the sleepy bear plushies that look kinda like that.

I always forget what store this is; it might be Tokyu Hands but I know there are many stores that are exactly like Tokyu Hands, selling stationery and stuff as well.

Anyway, after walking around, we quickly headed back to Namba station to go see if Rikuro Ojisan still had cheesecakes to sell! We tried to buy one the previous day but they were all sold out at 8pm, so we had to hurry back and see.

Fortunately, we got there just in time to watch them make the cakes as well!

It was so cool seeing the process irl for once! I'd seen many videos on Facebook of how they make their signature cheesecakes but I've never actually seen in person before, until now that is!

And just 10 minutes later, here they are fresh out of the oven! The smell was so goood!

And just like in all the videos I watched, the staff would ring a bell whenever the cheesecakes were ready, and stamp the top of all the jiggly cheesecakes with their logo - Rikuro Ojisan's face! Here's a video of the jiggly cakes!

Thankfully, it wasn't too crowded and we managed to get a box not long after! Since our apartment wasn't too far from here we went back to try it immediately!

Look at Rikuro ojisan's happy face! Just like mine when I finally get to eat it. 😅

Just look at that perfect texture and consistency.

And here's a video of us cutting the cake!

It was soo moist and fluffy! Not cheesy or too creamy, and the texture was perfect! My only gripe was the raisins, but thankfully there wasn't much of a raisin taste in the cake itself so I could just pluck them out.

It was so good we ate 1/4 of the cake immediately.

And after resting for a bit, we decided to head back out in search of some dinner!

The weather wasn't too great though; it was cold and wet and it was drizzling slightly.

But we came across this small-ish shopping centre that had really nice lights out front.

We didn't go in though, since it didn't look like there was much food in there.

After that small detour, we started making our way back towards our favourite place.

To Dotonbori of course! It's definitely one of the most happening places at night in Osaka.

We passed by the other Donki hote that was here; not the one with the Ferris Wheel. This was another one just across the street.

And this was the first time we saw Mario Kart irl! As a long time fan of the series (and Nintendo in general), I was always so jealous seeing the videos of this on youtube! It looked pretty fun and interesting; but unfortunately you needed to have an international driving license to do this so we couldn't. And also we didn't even bring our driving licenses with us, not that it mattered.

Ever since I saw this irl, I'd always wanted to try it! And Sean and I promised each other we would go get an international license and try it out someday. But alas, we can't do it anymore! Because dang Nintendo just had to sue this go-kart company (originally called MariCar) for IP infringement. Nintendo has a tendency to be very unfriendly and super protective of their IPs (esp on Youtube) so this is frankly no surprise, but still a huge bummer. They forced the company to pay ¥50 million in January 2020, and when covid hit, obviously they couldn't survive and didn't reach their crowdfunding goal and had to declare bankruptcy.

Man, I mean I love Nintendo games and all, but it's such a bummer. They should've just collaborated with them or something. But I guess I geddit, it's just a small company and Nintendo can do it themselves if they really wanted to. Still, though, what a shame. Now it'll forever remain a dream.

Anyway, since we weren't too hungry we went to get a light dinner at one of our favourite places; tendon tenya! And as usual, I bought the set since I can never choose whether I want rice or noodles.

We did share the soba though since we weren't that hungry.

Sorry for the blur here! My front camera is not v good.

We decided to take a stroll through Dotonbori since there's just so much to see there.

And we also wanted to head to the arcade.

And of course, we ended the day shopping at Donki at midnight.

Anyway, that's all for now! Thanks so much for reading!

To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!

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Check out my previous post in this series!

TacoCat’s Travels #89 (Japan 3.0): Snooping Around on a Snack Sojourn 🍲

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