The New Shopping Centre

Yesterday was a Saturday here in Osaka. But unlike Saturday's back home, everyone wakes up at the usual 8am and gets ready for work. Yuma catches a train two hours out of Osaka to Kyoto for university and Junya (his little bro) goes back to school for a Tennis club. It's full on.

Not wanting to sit at home all day, I grabbed a bike and rode out to have a better look at the new local shopping mall called Ario. As I rolled in, I was lucky enough to get the closest bike park to the main entrance of the whole facility (it's these little things that excite me). From the main entrance I walked straight to the food court with a goal in mind. "Don't forget to take a picture of the food before you scoff it down"! Since I was sure you all wanted a glimpse of Japanese McDonalds, I went there for what they call a Chicket Filleo set (wasn't game enough for the Teriyaki burger). The picture you see to your right is a M-sized set with coke that tastes nothing like coke in Aus, chips and a burger that's quite similar to the Australian 'Crispy Chicken Fillet Burger'. In accordance with my etiquette, I'd performed a disappearing act on it before heading out to have a better look around.

From the top level, I worked my way down, having a quick squiz of every clothes store, adventure store and Italian designer boot store (for the shop attendants of course). I did this all the way down to the first level when I came across 'where the boys hang out'. It was a massive arcade! Not as big as arcades like the one in the Crown Casino, but with more creative games. From digital fishing games, to gambling games, to drifting games, to horse racing games, they had it all. I can imagine this picture to your left would be exciting some of you 40 year olds out there who, under a bad weather forecast, would be denied a day out on the course. Not in Osaka! If it's raining here, leave your hats at home and come play virtual horse racing with a wide-screen, first class view of the action!