First off, I would like to apologize for the delay in getting another post out to everyone.  The trek from San Francisco to Osaka (via Hong Kong) was a long one, but after 24 hours plus of flight time I landed safely into Osaka International at 5:53 in the morning.  Though a bit longer than I expected, I was able to do a little shopping in the Hong Kong airport and even finished both of my Ghost Trick and Miles Edgeworth games.  I have spent the last two weeks getting settled in my new place, checked out some of the sites in Osaka, eat way more than my fair share of Okonomiyaki, and made sure to pick up my copy of Monster Hunter 3rd Portable. Hit the jump for more details and pictures of my adventures so far.

My journey began at 6am on a Monday morning.  From there I finished getting all of my stuff packed up and headed to the airport where some of my closest friends came to see me off.  After an hour of “see you later” and many many MANY pictures, I made my way through security and proceeded to wait for my 10:30am flight.  The flight from SFO to HKG was about 15 hours and we flew right over Japan.  I made sure to wave to my friends down in Tokyo.  I landed in HKG at 6:30pm local time and fuddled around until my flight at 1:30am.  This was a good chance for me to get adjusted to the time difference, and after sleeping on the flight from HKG to KIX (Osaka International) I was ready to start the day.  After an hour bus ride from the airport to my new place and I was finally home, sweet home.  Tadaima～

Luckily, a friend of mine from the States had moved to Osaka a few years back and so he has been showing me around the city.  Everything from Osaka Castle, to the best places to shop, and of course, he took me to places with awesome food.  Tako-yaki (fried octopus balls) and okonomiyaki are some of the foods that Osaka is famous for and oh my are they delicious.  My favorite is the Osaka take on traditional Okonomiyaki.  Normally, this is a mixture of cabbage, batter, egg, and various meats that are formed into a pancake shape and cooked on a hot plate in the center of the table.  Once cooked, they then slather on a layer of sauce and mayonnaise.  And while that does not sound awesome enough, in Osaka they add another component to the whole recipe,  Yaki-soba noodles!  As you can see in the picture here, it ends up being quite a large amount of food that can usually be split between a few people.  This one in particular had a decent mixture of chicken, pork, shrimp, and oysters.  Delicious!  And if that wasn’t enough foodage for you, check out this ground pork and eggplant curry dish and the chestnut banana cake tart.  Its embarrassing, but I had to practically had to stop myself from drooling…

Aside from the food, I have really just been enjoying walking around and taking in the sites.  I found a river that runs next to my place and there were people feeding the fish that day.  Just look at how many of them there are!

And last but not least, they put up this large Nintendo 3DS interactive booth at one of our major stations, Umeda. There are about 8-10 devices set up behind glass and people are free to walk up and try to experience the 3D technology.  Trailers for several titles, including Super Street Fighter IV: 3-D Edition and Resident Evil: The Mercenaries 3-D, are running and they are fun to look at if you can fight through the crowds.  As for the spokespersons, those of you that listen to j-pop or watch any Japanese dramas will know right away that this is the signing group, Arashi.  Their faces are everywhere in this city, as not only are they on all the posters and commercials for the Nintendo 3DS, but they are also the new spokespeople for KDDI Au (one of the major phone carriers here) to promote their new Android devices. At any rate, it looks like the Nintendo 3DS, like all handhelds in Japan, is going to be a big seller and the hype doesn’t seem to be going away anytime soon.

For the time being, I have started the new job in our Osaka office and things will only get busier from here.  Stay tuned for my future adventures and I will be sure to update you on all of the Capcom craziness that is here in Osaka (and there’s a lot!).  Until then!

[Edited By Moderator]