Japanese toilet

This is the female wash room in one of the floors in Lumine.

Though I have not used one in Japan, I really love the fact that they have a powder room in all of their wash rooms. It's really handy for females who would love to touch up their make-up without hogging the sink area. Moreover, these come with bright lights that is good for make-up application and with sockets for your hair straighteners or curlers.

Simple bidet

Simple button design that even those who cannot read japanese could easily interpret.

This I like! Females would know what this is. No need to step on any pedal to open it or use your hands to lift any covers because spot that black rectangular area on the top right? It's a sensor, just move your hands over it and it opens up nicely! 

Another thing I think is really useful for mothers is this little baby chair. When travelling alone, you need a safe place to place your child......

Then there's the toilet seat cleaner! Who doesn't love a toilet that care about hygiene?

Automatic flushing system is not uncommon even in Malaysia. However, sometimes the sensor just doesn't work that well and we'd have to push the button to flush it. This one here.....just move your hand over the sensor, no need to touch anything!

Taking trains in Osaka

I really took a lot of trains this time round. 

One thing I realized is that all the platforms look different. Well of course, since they are of different lines and companies. Plus the platform and also differ depending on whether the train is underground or above ground. 

Underground platform. More common in the city, e.g Namba area.

Above ground. This one was taken at the bay area. See that little 'box' there? If it's too cold outside, you can sit inside to wait for your train. I guess it works the opposite way during summer.

People usually queue up neatly behind the yellow line. At busy stations there will be station masters telling you to queue in 2/3 at behind the line to make the queue shorter.

Then when the train arrives, please move to the side to avoid blocking others.

One reason why you will never board the wrong train. 

I think it is quite impossible to board the wrong train in Japan. With this you will know the train type, whether it's a normal train or limited express, where it is headed to and the time of arrival. Usually if there is anything out of the ordinary, the notices can be found there too. If something is late or stalled for even just 30 seconds, a notice will be out.

Chairs for your to sit while you wait for your train.

To make the ride more pleasant, there are signs everywhere in the train and even through the PA system.

You can usually hear:

1. Please stand behind the yellow line as the train is approaching

2. Please make sure you do not leave any of your belongings on the train

3. Please silent your phone so that you do not disturb others

4. Please do not block others

etc......

Good manners = Pleasant ride

Well, ppl are usually either reading, sleeping, sending texts or playing games on their phone in the train. I think they have mastered the art of sleeping while standing and maintaining balance.

There are also announcements asking the passengers to totally switch off their mobile phones or other similar devices. I think I hear it every single time I get on the train. At first I was confused, but according to Keio's website (http://www.keio.co.jp/english/manners/), it is because they may interfere with the pace makers especially at the priority seats area. 

erm....this one says it's illegal to do anything pervert.

Be careful of the moving doors.

I find it amazing when there's a woman in super high heels who can maintain her balance, without holding onto the railings, while I'm like holding onto the railing super tightly. Such good balancing skills~

Then there's also these sign boards and maps

Thanks to this, you will never have to get lost in Japan! Conveniently located at every station is a sign board that tells you where to exit depending on your destination. And once you exit, you will find a map to tell you your exact location so that you can navigate to your desired destination.

Shopping arcades

In Osaka, there are soooo many shopping arcades or streets. Of course the more popular ones includes shinsaibashi and ebisubashi. But there are soooo many more. Every single day, we will be shopping in at least one.

They all usually follow the same layout with a covered roof.

 But if you look up,  you will realize that the designs and decorative items are all different.

Love the snacks and drug stores there~!!! Especially the drug stores, I think at least one every day. You can get whatever you need there: mints, snacks, drinks, toiletries, make-up set.......and everything else. hahaa.....

After our day at the bay in the aquarium and tempozan market, we went back to Namba to explore Ebisubashi-suji~

There we spotted 551 Horai which is really popular for their pork buns there and has many branches. In Japan, you can even order frozen products at their stalls and have them deliver to your house address.

This little one here sells "Cyuuka Poteto" aka chinese potato, which to me is not that chinese....hahaa. It's basically sweet potato coated with a thick and crunchy sugar coating. Yummy~ but a little too sweet for me.

Then this here is my FAVOURITE~~!!! GYOUZAS~!!!! Omg~ I could eat this every day man~

10 pieces~~~ for only like 300+yen~ Soooo cheap!!!! Love it!!! If there wasn't sooo many things to try in Osaka, I could have more of this but then we wanted to try a bit of everything so..... :(

The people who worked there was so nice. We had no where to go and decided to just sit at some chairs out side their shop to eat. Then their staff came and served us hot green tea free of charge~

Then it was more clothes and shoes shopping along the shopping district. We found that many of the shops do not carry XS shoe size. Cousin's feet is so small that many of the time, even the smallest shoe in the shops are at least 1-2cm too big for her. Quite surprising~

I got hungry again not long later because the weather was soo cold~ What better that a bowl of ramen with hot soup to warm ourselves up?

This is the standing counter at Kinryu Ramen which is a common ramen franchise stall in the Namba area. You will spot one every 200m? They sell fast ramen.

This particular one is at the side of the street and has no seats, just a standing bar. You order from a machine, wait for the guy to cook your ramen, top it up with kimchi/ spring onions/ garlic/ togarashi and you can now enjoy your ramen!

The guy cooking my ramen~

Me enjoying my ramen. Just a normal ramen, nothing too special, but it really made me feel all warm inside~

Kinryu Ramen can be easily spotted thanks to it's bold shop designs with dragons popping in and our of the buildings.

Kukuru seems to be really popular. I wonder if the food is really that good or is it for another reason.........which you will know if you take a cruise ride there as there will be a spectacular "octupus show", if you know what I mean.

 

Last but no least, how could I not snap a picture with Glico before heading back to the hotel~

Media Café Popeye's メディアカフェポパイ

Ta-da Media Café Popeye's at 8F of  Green Chapeau Building building just near Hankyu Sannomiya station.

Might be hard to spot as there's really not much signage outside, but there is a very obvious one in the lift.

The reception area, the colour of the lights changes every few seconds.

For less than 3Kyen/ person/ night, we get 12h of stay with unlimited internet (a bit slow), manga, TV, soft-serve ice cream, coffee, tea and various soft drinks. There's also a shower room for us thought limited to only 30mins of use.

ROWS AND ROWS OF MANGAS!!

Really a great experience. I guess there is no other place in the world that you can do this besides

Japan. It's really very safe and everything is just soooo clean!

We opted for the non-smoking area. 

This is our pair-mat booth for 2 person (the next morning after we have made a mess....ok la, still neat right?)

Inside, there's hangers, a PC and a TV. If you want to play games, you can opt for a booth with a PS or game console I guess. They even provided jackets and blankets in case we feel cold.

Cuzzie used the PC to work while I watched TV.

This is the sliding door and there's a little 'genkan' for you to take your shoes off.

The dimly lit corridors so as not to disturb the others.

Corridor to our booth

The manga and drinks are all in the common area. FOC! :D

Some snacks for sale.

So thankful for the free hot drinks like hot cocoa, tea or water because the weather was so cold and I wasn't feeling well.

To use the shower room, just book a time slot at the counter. 

See the 2 white doors between the comics? That's the locked shower room. Amenities are all provided, even the hair dryer. No towels, but I supposed you can rent one at the counter. We brought ours so I don't know how much it costs to rent one.

opps....blur pic, but as you can see, there are towels available for rent.

This is the common female toilet.

As you can see, every thing is very clean.

With a cute one piece sign too.....thanking you for your patronage. hahaha....

You can't lock the booth, there's only a sliding door with a glass window and if you tip-toe you can actually peek inside someone's booth. But no one will purposely look into your booth through the glass window or above your booth. So it's safe! If you don't trust the people there, there are coin lockers available for large luggages and there's even a small safe in each booth.

Me spying on cuzzie....

Basically, if you switch off the lights to sleep, no one can see anything inside.

The booth next to our was a single booth with an arm chair and was occupied by a male who spent his whole night reading mangas.

There are actually many mangakissa available, some even have a females only section. The one that I stayed in have no females only section but it's ok.

This was such a great experience. I think I will try another mangakissa the next time I visit Japan.

This is the one I stayed at, Media Café Popeye's メディアカフェポパイ, and there is usually one in every city - http://www.media-cafe.ne.jp/tenpo/sannomiya2/service.htm#charge