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Today was a very busy day. I still have my cold and I had to get up at six this Sunday morning in order to walk the monster that is Marrosan. This weekend is when everyone in Japan gets their biannual bonus so Reiko`s sister got a room for the night at the Westin Hotel in Osaka city centre as a present for her and her mother. This left me to do the dog walk. (It`s always in the morning on a Sunday for some reason.)

I went for a quick ten minute walk and then couldn`t get back to sleep when I came back. At about 11, we set off for Umeda which is part of Osaka city centre. We live on the edge of Osaka so getting there means a thirty minute walk to the station, a twenty minute train and then a twenty minute subway journey. When we got there we went to a German Christmas market that was going on there. Six thousand miles and still no escape. They had lots of German sausages and other food and Gluhwein or mulled wine as well. I can speak German but living in Japan, I mixed it in with some Japanese so I would ask for two glasses of Gluhwein in German and then say onegaishimasu and arigato. It was really good to be talking German. I had forgotten how much I missed it.

Reiko won fifteen quid on Pachinko. I yet again crashed and burned. Crashed and burned. Then we walked around and found a large event promoting a new phone that lets you download music to it. We got given a free ten minute carriage ride pulled by a talkative Japanese bloke with our own mobile phones and oversized headphones to listen to. The songs were all in Japanese but the quality was amazing. Here is a recent article in the Japan Times about how these things may pose a threat to Ipods and other MP3 players in the future. At the moment however they can`t store as many songs as the mighty MP3 players.

Reiko and the rest of the female Shiraishi dynasty went to watch a play in the evening so having sufffered cafes and the shame and near mortal sin in Japan of blowing my nose (which is very rude in Japan) loudly in such an intimate location, I took the opportunity in the evening to go to Yodobashi Camera Osaka - a massive electronic store on eight large floors stocking the latest and greatest electronic gadgets. I fondled expensive digital cameras for a bit and then had a look at the new PSP and Nintendo DS. I did a few laps on Ridge Racer on the PSP which was amazing and Super Mario 64 DS on the DS which didn`t excite me as much. Both required queuing for about fifteen minutes behind a throng of Japanese from six to sixty. They were both good graphically although the PSP is superb with a large and detailed screen and the system was light and streamlined whereas the DS was bulky with small screens and gimmicky and hard to use touch pen. I don`t like it but I think the Japanese will.

Here are some other pictures from today:

This picture deserves it`s own post. For now let`s just say it`s a funky lion.

Before you think the Japanese are getting a bit overexcited with David or that it`s all gone to his head, this is David Beckham advertising the fact you can watch Real Madrid`s games on cable provider WOWOW.