From Osaka with...

Tower of the Sun in Banpaku-kinen kouen Osaka. The wikipedia page contains a bit more than what I needed to know about the origin of its name though...

Perhaps I should find it ironic that I’ve spent my first week in a supposedly technologically advanced country without an internet connection. Thankfully those days are gone and it’s back to my hikikomori-ing I go!... Or so I would like, only I now have to walk out of my room to another building to get that coveted wireless connection… Well beggars can’t be choosers they say.


My first week here in the Osaka University Minoh Campus (just to make things clear that I’m not here on some otaku pilgrimage, it’s actually SRS BSNSS and studying for me here… oh who am I kidding :P) has been memorable for the oddest of things – from the expected language barrier problems (it’s not called moonspeak for nothing… Most locals I’ve met so far are rather reluctant to speak English if at all and would rather bear my broken phrases and wild hand gestures. The most fluent English I’ve heard so far is from the cafeteria lady in our dorm, lol) to the unexpected unsavouries of dorm life (let’s just say you might want to consider it a while before you clean under you’re the bed in your new room...). Many thanks goes to our Malaysian senpais for guiding us through those first few days and giving us the head start we needed in experiencing this very new Japanese university life (quite different from what's portrayed n Moyashimon, fortunately or not). The hanami (flower viewing) at Banpaku-kinen-kouen is of particular note, it would be rather futile on my part to try to put the whole first time seeing a sakura-lined street experience into words, so here’s a couple of choice pics to compensate for that (bear with these though, I’m the kind of shutterbug who knows naught about light exposure and camera settings and whatnot -_-“)

Pink Supervisor?

Okay, after a while they all start looking the same... Photography just isn't my thing -_-"

On the anime front (This being an anime blog after all and this being the land it all comes from), suffice to say a second-hand television (the reception is actually affected whenever I move within the room -_-“) has been a small salvation from the lack of anime from the usual sources. Though I would like to remember my first time watching an actual anime broadcast on Japanese television to be something other than gawking confusedly at the first episode of Macross F which just appeared on screen suddenly as I flipped channels one late night... In the end I spent less time trying to figure out what was going on than the time trying to guess what show I was watching that involved green-haired loli and a woman singing in space. Having never seen anything from the Macross franchise, this wasn’t something I was planning on watching, but again, beggars can’t choose. I told myself the same thing as I watched the premiere of Kirarin Revolution’s third season -_-“ (I can’t believe it’s outlasting Full Moon wo Sagashite!). Also on the new season front, managed to catch Soul Eater which turned out to be a mashup of every shounen anime I’ve ever come in contact with, only with BONES giving it a little Ouran flair (Watch out for them arrows!). I’m crossing my fingers that I don’t miss Toshokan Sensou this week =P As for everything else I’ve missed, thank god for the internet again!

Well that's all for now, a week's worth of anime and blog posts on the Nano aren't going to watch or read themselves. And there's the whole fully settling down absorbing the local culture to do as well...