Ever since the Seishun 18 tickets became available again, and I just happened to check the HRC website, I knew that I would have to make a trip to the 3 nearest Cafes (Nagoya, Osaka, Universal Studios Osaka) to pick up some pins. And for this trip, I was able to round up some other devote followers of the HRC religion…er I mean those awesome restaurants to go along with me. Michael has been to a bunch of HRC’s in a ton of foreign countries (and despite him going to school in Grand Rapids, he hasn’t gone to any of the same ones in the US as I have..hmmm) and he hadn’t been to any yet in Japan, so I was able to convince him that going to 3 HRC’s in one afternoon was a good idea. Hehe. That and the fact that, for 2300 yen, you can go all the way to Nagoya (usually ~$15 each way) and then go all the way back to Hikone and go to Osaka (~$18 each way), well…its just neat. So the plan was that right after the Friday Project we would ride our bikes to the station and first go to the Nagoya HRC, and then turn around and go to the Osaka HRC and end at the Universal Studios Osaka HRC. The HRC at USJ (got that?) was the logical place to end up just because it was the farther away of the two HRC’s in Osaka, and they are having their 5th anniversary as of March, and so they had this nifty new burger that if you ordered it, you would get an anniversary stuffed gorilla with it. I had also talked to a few other people who were going to be running some errands in Osaka that day, so they were going to meet us at 7pm at the USJ HRC.

So Thursday night I had a really hard time studying for the test just because I so wanted to get out of the JCMU building and go somewhere, *anywhere*. I didn’t go anywhere for ’spring break’ which was pretty boring, and there’s nothing to do around JCMU during the week and all the people I hang out with are doing homestays and so they aren’t around the dorms in the evenings. Friday morning, the test went by fast enough I suppose, I can’t really say how well I did on it yet, since our reading section was this horrid bit about this first English speaking guy to get to Japan, how the Shogunate arrested him and forced him to teach English to this group of samurai who also knew Dutch (back in the day, the Dutch were the only foreigners allowed to enter and trade with Japan (which is why today you can go to Nagasaki and look at tulips and windmills)). So finally the test was over and we then had to sit through another Friday Project, which was Aikido once again. Unfortunately the group of students this semester didn’t do anything quite as exciting as the last group, and so I didn’t get to see more gaijins tossing Japanese people over their backs. Ah well. Once the project was over, I went back to my room and got ready to leave, during which time Brian decided to join our little pilgrimage. Brian and I rode on ahead, and planned to meet Mike at the station at 1pm, because I first had to go grab some money and then hoped to go to Al Plaza to see if there was anyone that could possibly open my watch and put in a new battery. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find anyone that could do that, so I had to go on yet another trip without a way to check the time (which is really very inconvenient when it comes to train schedules). By the time we got to the station, Mike was waiting there for us, so we all bought our Seishun 18 tickets, and I also attempted to buy tickets on a night train that runs from Tokyo to Maibara, hoping that Brian and I could use that when we come back from Tokyo next week, but for the second time at attempting to get tickets, I was unable to because they were already sold out. So it looks like we’re taking the Shinkansen back instead (which isn’t so bad really, its $100 but its is fun…and only takes about 2.5 hours).

Getting on the train headed for Maibara, we had to switch to a couple of different trains on our 1.5ish hour ride to Nagoya, where we had to get off of the JR like and go one stop, to Fushimi, on the subway to get to the HRC. Once we got there, we went inside and bought some pins, and Mike and Brian signed up for the HRC Members card (which basically you pay them 500yen, and they give you back a card with 1000yen on it to use at a future visit, and each time you buy something, you get 5% back onto the card-every time I go to a HRC with someone I tell them to get this since you get $5 free but no one ever listened to me….Brian and Mike are smart though ). After buying our various memorabilia, and taking a few pictures, we hopped back on the subway for what would be a longer-than-expected trip back through Hikone and onto Osaka. I had hoped to make it to Osaka by 4pm so that we would have plenty of time to go to the HRC in Osaka first, and buy some memorabilia, and then go to the HRC at USJ to meet up our fellow JCMUers. However, by the time we made it to Osaka station, it was approaching 6:30pm, and so we changed our plans by going to the HRC at USJ first, because I was worried we’d be late and I didn’t want those meeting us to have to be waiting forever. We had a few close calls on the trains from Osaka station to the loop line: almost getting stuck in the doors and then I got us on the wrong train at one point, so we had to get off and go back a few stops. But, we managed to make it to Universal Studios at 7pm on the dot. When we got into the HRC we went inside and looked around but the two students we would be meeting hadn’t arrived yet, so we grabbed a table for 5 (which surprisingly the place wasn’t all that busy, I had expected us to have to stand in line a bit) and proceeded to wait. And wait. 30 minutes later they hadn’t gotten there yet so we decided to order our food. I was going to get the anniversary ‘Blue Kong Burger’ which the first 2000 people to order it would get this free King Kong plushie….but in the end I decided to cave in and get my gold old standby, the Bacon Cheeseburger. And it was amazing too, once again. Brian and Mike also got burgers, mostly because we’re all starved for red meat in Japan. After finishing our burgers and generally enjoying the atmosphere, and because it was Brian’s 21st birthday the next day, we got the waiter to play the birthday rock music and bring out a dessert with a sparkler on it as the waiters and waitresses came over and made a lot of noise with tambourines. We thought he was going to get a free little cake, but unfortunately we were wrong on that account. The whole singing and tambourine-ing thing was also a bit anemic, since only 2 of the wait staff showed up (the place was a bit dead that night) but it was fun regardless. The best part was afterwards, some woman comes over with a Polaroid and took everyone’s picture, and then Brian got this awesome Happy Birthday button with our pictures on it. And a 20% off card for the gift shop. I guess I know where I’m going for my next birthday….

After finishing the dessert that I ordered (thinking that if I got a dessert they’d bring out a free little cake, oh well), we paid our bill and went down to the merchandise shop for more pins! By the time we were done shopping, it was around 9pm, and since we had made a detour to get back to the USJ HRC in time to meet the people that never showed up (turns out they got to the HRC and waited outside of it, and didn’t come inside to check to see if we were already inside, and despite this being obvious miscommunication on both sides I was given a lot of grief for it which I didn’t appreciate and was pretty hurt by), we were now worried that we might not make it to the Osaka HRC in time for Brian and Mike to get back to their station and for Brian and make his transfer train back to his homestay. We got back to JR Osaka station as quick as we could, and it was about 9:45pm when we got there. We asked the station attendant how long it would take to get to Honmachi station, next to which the HRC was located, and he said 5 minutes, so we decided to go for it. Despite some confusion on my part of how to get there on the subway, which also involved having to run to get to an incredibly packed train, we did manage to make it there unscathed. And to our great disappointment, when we got there we found the place to be absolutely ROCKING. There was a DJ playing music live, a ton of people inside doing karaoke, and a big sign outside of it advertising discounted drinks. We were really disappointed that 1) we hadn’t come here before going to USJ, and 2) trains don’t run all night so we couldn’t stay to party along with everyone else! But, we bought our pins and then rushed back to the subway to get back to JR Osaka station. We managed to get onto a New Special Rapid bound for Maibara, and for the next 1.25ish hours we stood for a while, then finally got some seats. Because of their homestays, Brian and Mike got off at Omihachiman, while I continued on to Hikone. However, not half a mile from getting into Hikone station, the train slowed down and came to a complete stop, and the conductor came on the PA and said a whole bunch of things I couldn’t understand along with a ‘taihen gomen’ which roughly translates into a ‘we’re really sorry’, so I figured something had gone wrong. They kept saying that whatever the problem was, it was in Maibara, and so we continued to sit, unmoving, for another 20 minutes, until finally we moved the 4 blocks to the platform and I got off, still not knowing why we were delayed. The next 20 minutes was the routine riding back to JCMU in pitch blackness because my light doesn’t work, followed by me not being surprised to find the front sliding doors to JCMU which are supposed to be locked at 10pm (by a student? I don’t know who is supposed to be in charge of it) still open at 12:10am. Its really a good thing Japan is such a safe country, but regardless I can’t say that makes me feel safe at all( however my dorm room remains locked at night when I am asleep, just in case).

All in all, I had a really fun time riding around on the trains and visiting all the Cafe’s. I wish it was this easy to visit them in the US!

And now pictures!

Birthday boy, and Brian and Mike standing outside the Osaka HRC:

Three new pins from the Cherry Blossom series (more to be had in Tokyo next weekend!):