Day 321: “Check Is This!”

Kyoto – Osaka – Kyoto, Japan

The plan was to visit some landmarks in Osaka. But my my, I got stuck the entire afternoon in Osaka’s hippest district named “Amerikamura”, literally translates as American village. As the name suggested, all the hipsters here dress and act like how they assume Americans do. Dickies, Levi’s, Oshkosh are cool here. Beach bums look of California kids are also popular. Hip-hop and rap blast out loud from the jumbotron in the square. Stores put English word like “Check is this!” (“Check this out”?).

My reason coming was mainly to scavenge through the cheap second hand clothing stores of Amerikamura. I was in dire need of new clothing. Almost all that I’ve been wearing during my trip are falling apart. The torn shirts and pants that I clumsily mended simply won’t hold for much longer. The fabric had been rendered so thin, they’re almost see-through.

I left Osaka with a pair of bright yellow pants at a discounted price of ¥1950 ($25), a long sleeved polkadot shirt at ¥1250 ($15) and a Hello Kitty earphones at ¥400 ($5). Thinking about it now, all these pieces are too bright, cute  and happy for backpacking trip. I’m so going to look out of place in places like Nepal and Egypt.

Anyway, places I didn’t get to see in Osaka: