Osaka Adventure Day 3

This day, I retired my hiking boots.  They've been with me for thirteen years, which is more than I can say for a lot of things I own.  I've worn them for girl scout camp (their original purpose), yard work, snow, vacations, climbing (part of) Mt. Fuji, and more.  One of the laces snapped (rotted) a few months ago and the insoles are worn way down.  The inside is chewed for years of on-and-off wear.  I asked the people at the hostel if I could leave them there or if I should take them with me.  Here is their last picture.

Goodbye, boots.  You were probably the best shoes to ever come out of a Walmart.

Cosplay event day!  After my fond farewell to my boots, we headed toward ATC Hall, out past the aquarium on right on the harbor.  Japan seems to like to have such event halls on such places.  It's the same in Nagoya and Tokyo.

I only took pictures of two other groups the whole day because it's KINDA REALLY AWKWARD.  But I really liked this Psycho Pass group.  ^o^/

I was Mori Ranmaru from Gakuen BASARA, a spin-off of Sengoku BASARA, and Ashley was Kasuga.

Have some pictures.

At one point, we were getting out of the elevator and the people getting in made me do a double-take.  OMGGGGGGGGGGGgg some cosplayers I've watched online for yearsssssssss.  *A*  I'm a big fan of theirs.  I guess they live in Osaka, but I was thinking Tokyo, so I never expected to see them.  I was pretty sure it was them, but it had been such a brief glance, I wasn't positive.  I dragged poor Ashley around to try to find them.  Alas, the venue was too large to look properly, but after as complete a sweep as I could manage, we went back to change out and head home.

THEY WALKED INTO THE CHANGING AREA A FEW MINUTES LATERRRRR.  I tried to confirm my suspicions without being too creepy.  I probably failed.//orz  I changed super fast.  My plan was to wait outside CASUALLY to ask for their photo when they tried to go to the elevator. MAUH HA HAAA.

SUCCESS.

IT WAS THEM.

I tried not to fangirl too hard, but failed in that.  I told them I was a fan.  I think they didn't really know what to do about that, but were sweet and let me take a couple of pictures.  I asked if we could exchange cards, and when I was offered the choice of the two by one of them, the other said to just give me both.

Ashley was laughing at me basically the whole time.  WHATEVER.  I WAS EXCITED, OKAY?

Time to head home.  We ate okonomiyaki at Shin-Osaka station.  It was pretty yummy.

I learned that if you buy a round-trip ticket for Shinkansen, it's cheaper than buying two one-way tickets. WHY DIDN'T I THINK OF THAT EARLIERRRRR.  We parted ways and hopped on our respective trains.  I ended up on Kodama (the slowest) because it was leaving first, and to wait for a faster train would have negated most of the time I would save.

At my home station, it was dark and cold and I reeeeally didn't feel like walking home, so I grabbed one of the cabs that always sits outside the station.  I didn't know how to claely explain where I live and I don't have my address memorized, so I just had him drop me off at the city hall. Expensive~~~  It was a really quick trip and it cost 750!  It's 650 for 1.5k, then they add on.  So you can see how close it was, but still so expensive.  I walked the last bit.

THE END