The things you find in convenience stores!

Our mission for today was to find a motorcycle helmet for John.  He discovered on our last trip that the helmets that come with the rental scooters don’t fit him properly, so we needed to find a comfortable alternative.  Osaka has a whole section of a main road that consists of nothing but motorcycle shops (groans and rolls eyes) so after our 200 yen breakfast we bought an all-day subway pass and went helmet hunting.

We found this at a convenience store along the way.  Yes, it IS a boiled egg in a cardboard box!

Before we reached our goal, we said ‘konnichiwa’ to a man standing outside a hotel.  He invited us in to see a free concert which was about to start.  We asked him why it was free and he said that because of the rain, they did not have a full house and wanted to fill the seats.  It sounded like a good opportunity to see some Japanese entertainment (and have a sit down), so we deferred the helmet hunt and went in.

In the foyer we were given a bag of sweets and a fruit drink each.  The first performance was by a man who sang about Japan’s earthquake/tsunami disaster, accompanied by a taiko (big drum) and an electric guitar.  The audience appeared to be quite moved and I noticed a few people dabbing at their eyes and noses.  After their performance, the MC came back on and did a few magic tricks and then a lovely Japanese lady in a gorgeous tulle-draped spangly white dress performed some songs which I think were love songs.  After a few more magic tricks from the MC, the show was over and our helmet hunt resumed.

John enjoyed looking at the vast array of bikes but when we told a young man in one of the shops that we were wanting an inexpensive helmet, he said that theirs were all quite expensive and gave us directions to a couple of discount variety shops which sell helmets.  The first shop was called “Japan”.  I was so pleased that we found itby ourselves, because I didn’t fancy asking anyone “can you tell me where Japan is?”  They had a helmet which was OK, but we decided to take the subway to the other shop in case they had more of a range.  By the time we got there, my feet were killing me.  Fortunately they has some ladies shoes on special so I was able to change out of my boots and set my poor squashed toes free!

John found a $35 helmet which will see him through the scooter trip - and will hopefully perform its function if necessary.
 

                                                This is NOT the helmet that John chose

We subwayed back to the hotel for a nanna nap and to do some laundry before setting off on one of our favourite activities – the nightly excursion for dinner.

 

Having a drink while waiting for dinner to arrive

After dinner we went to look at Spa World which is a complex with several floors of exotic public baths.  We collect the scooters tomorrow so we’re crossing our fingers that the weather will clear up as forecast.

The view from our hotel window - including Christian Church

One of the Spa World baths