Sunday I went to the Hard Rock Cafe in Osaka once again. My main reason for going was to obtain pin #6 of 7 in the Guitar Case series, and luckily it was not sold out. Unluckily though, the Fashion Statement pin for Osaka was already sold out. So instead, I settled for a guitar with a dog on it, since 2006 is the year of the dog. Since I’ve met my goal of visiting all 7 Hard Rock Cafe’s in the country, and managed to visit 3 of them twice, lets recap.

September 17, 2005: Visited the Nagoya HRC on the way back from a fun day at the World Expo in Aichi.

October 30, 2005: After a spontaneous trip to Osaka following a morning in Nara, Cassidy and I stopped at the Osaka HRC to have our food served to us by waiters and waitresses dressed up for Halloween.

November 19. 2005: After a 2 hour long search for a hotel room in Fukuoka, Cassidy and I drop off our bags and head out to the Fukuoka HRC (my sole reason for travelling all the way to Kyushu). Getting to the HRC just as a concert was getting out at the nearby Yahoo! Dome, we had to wait a bit for a table, but eventually had a nice meal in a somewhat louder than usual HRC, where they played only Japanese music.
December 19, 2005: After a loooooong series of train rides to pick up Nick at Narita airport in Tokyo, we stopped at Ueno station on our way to the guest house for a bite to eat at the Ueno Eki HRC. This HRC is the only one in Japan to have a completely different menu. Things were cheaper too! Picked up #1 in the Guitar Case series.

December 20, 2005: On the way to Roppongi Hills, we got slightly lost before finding the Tokyo HRC. Since I had eaten here on my previous visit to Japan, I went in and bought #2 in the Guitar Case series along with some other goodies, and skipped dinner.

December 23, 2005: The Emperor’s birthday! Took a break after visiting the Imperial Palace, and went to Yokohama at night to visit the Yokohama HRC. Picked up #3 in the Guitar Case series as well as had yet another tasty cheeseburger.

December 26, 2005: Universal Studios! The Universal Citywalk Osaka HRC isn’t actually inside of Universal Studios (or USJ as they call it here), but it gave us a good enough excuse to go into it. On the way back out we stopped for dessert only (and I convinced Nick to actually order a beer), and I picked up #4 in the Guitar Case series.

January 2, 2006: Visited the Nagoya HRC for the second time, this time on the way back from Ise Shrine. Picked up #5 in the Guitar Case pin series and my only in the Fashion Statement series.

January 15, 2006: Spent the last of my two Seishun 18 tickets on a trip to Himeji Castle with a new classmate, Katie. On the way back I dragged her along with me to the Osaka HRC where we had some food and I picked up the 6th and last pin I’ll be getting for the Guitar Case series.

I thought about adding a picture of each of the 7 HRC’s with my standing in front of them, but I thought that might be a bit too obnoxious. So instead, I’ll post pictures of all the pins I have accumulated thus far:

The guitar case pins (maybe I’ll watch Yahoo! Japan auctions to see if someone is selling their pin from Fukuoka…):

All of the other pins from all 7 Hard Rock Cafe’s:

All together!:

My one regret about going to all the HRC’s in Japan is not making it to the Nagoya HRC in time to buy an Expo pin. They sold out in ONE DAY!!! I was so mad…I was going to be visitng it in all of 3 days but nooooooooo….well, there’s always Yahoo! Japan auctions.