Osaka

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No photo with this one as a section of the Japan photos appear to have to have been mislaid, when we find them we'll post them!

Our arrival in Osaka early evening took us straight to Dotonbori for dinner and a search for a suitably kitsch Love hotel. Many were entered and many were left for not being kitsch enough. We finally settled on an S&M dungeon! For those who do not know what a love hotel is, in a country of 100 year mortgages passed down from generation to generation, families living together in small houses and sex before marriage traditionally taboo, some hotels are available by the hour for the young (and those who should know better) to indulge in a romantic tryst in private.

Far from being seedy places they are generally really well decorated and furnished with a Jacuzzi, televisions in the bathroom, guaranteed clean sheets and excellent room service (for both food and, ahem, non edible items). You even get Playstations and Karaoke machines as standard. To cap it all, as they are generally not used by the locals at night, if you arrive after 10pm you can have the room until midday the next day for a much cheaper price than a hotel room or Ryokan.

To keep the anonymity you enter reception and there are pictures of each available room and its price on the wall. Pressing the appropriate button gives you a receipt which you take to a small low window and pay the pair of hands that appears from said window before going off to find your room. In this particular hotel the stairs lit as we climbed them to lead us to our room without seeing a single other person!

Whilst at the club in Tokyo we were advised to check out the live punk scene in Osaka so, after much internet detective work, we found a club we thought we might be able to find that had some bands on and set off. Pipe 69 turned out to be 2 rooms on the second floor of a small shopping back street. Completely silent on the outside, we climbed the stairs and paid our entrance fee and opened the door. LOUD is not the word - we crossed the tiny room in virtual darkness and grabbed a couple of beers before turning our attention to the four boys thrashing the living daylights out of both their instruments and the soundsystem. There were about 20 people in total in the club and we soon realized that pretty much all of them were members of the other bands (or their girlfriends) that were to come that evening. Everyone was very friendly though (for some reason they were very insistent that I never had to queue for the toilet and always made me go before them) and we chatted to most of the bands, although I think they mainly wanted to know why on earth we were there! Several beers and new friends later we headed back to another love hotel and our own private karaoke party late into the night.

And there ends our Japanese adventure. On to China: Part 2……

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