I approached Osaka with a bit of a heavy heart, I knew this would be the final city in my great journey. Kyoto had left me feeling a little solemn and lonely, and so I arrived.

I’d taken one thing from Kyoto that’d kept me in high spirits! This Game of Thrones deck box for Magic the Gathering!

Despite having my awesome deck box I was totally lost, and for the first time I received help from a random Japanese couple. Osaka is known as the South of Japan. Osakans love good food and are known for being much more social than the rest of Japan. The couple who helped me spoke perfect English and even went so far as to call my hotel. It was a breath of fresh air, and I wish I’d gotten their emails, but the punk rock couple, he had a mohawk if I recall, was gone before I could even so much as say thank you.

I should say I dug the feel of the city immediately.  It reminded me of Tokyo, but it felt somewhat less distant. The whole city seemed less formal, less imposing, and more open. I should say I felt more at home in Osaka than ever before, and being the final leg of my trip I decided to take fewer photos.

The hotel actually had a laundry which was welcome as I was running down to my last pair of socks. That being said when I visit Japan again I am going to bring a classier wardrobe, I swear I was the most underdressed guy in the country.

I enjoy nerdy culture, and I’d heard Osaka’s nerdy district was on par with or better than Tokyo’s so I headed out, and found a department store section completely dedicated to build-it-yourself Gundam Models. 13-year-old me owned a few of these.
On a hunch, and a hasty google search, I roughly ventured to the area of a hidden card shop. Well not so much hidden as tucked into a highrise along with other such shops.

I arrived to find the place in disarray. I would later figure out that the place was closing, and this was the last day of their operation, but at the time I was wholly confused.

Walking back I passed a lively cafe, and in the warm weather here, people congregated, but they congregated with each other, smiled and spoke earnestly. The whole feel was completely different to the hustle of Tokyo or the imposing nature of Kyoto.
I returned to the hotel with the spoils of my geek Journey, I got nearly 150$ in magic cards for 1 dollar. It was amazing. I am only sad I didn’t realize that they were closing the next day forever. Nonetheless, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity, and amazing first day in Osaka.