So… I blacked out last night, right? I find myself hanging out inside an underground passage like I belonged there – still drunk – right in front of the ticket gate for what I thought was a JR gate. There was no one at the ticket gate, and some people were going in, so I did too. I went to the toilet and became completely aware of the situation I was in. After I got out of the toilet and wanted to check the time, I realised that my phone was gone.
I panicked, and then saw someone in the ticket gate booth. I rushed to him to ask if my phone was seen here. When I got a negative answer, I immediately asked the man for a route to the closest police box. I walked the station for a while, asking another person for more guidance, but I ended up at a place that I didn’t know at all. I was starting to get panicked.
Having tried other exits to see if they looked less maze-like – they didn’t – I wandered around until I found myself in the more familiar street; it was the street I had seen the last of the people off at last night. I looked above me and saw that the clock was about 06:30. Having also calmed down during my walk back, I decided to go ahead and backtrack my steps to Tin’s Hall to see where I lost my phone.
Found this when I was looking for my phone
I walked and found myself at a familiar McDonalds; I knew that I was in the right track. I walked in and asked if there had been any lost items brought to them that night. The attendant came back with unfortunate news, so I thanked her for the time and started trying to find my way back to the familiar FamiMart from the night prior.
When I finally got to it, I found my lost umbrella under the bench in front of the store. I got in, asked the man behind the counter if he had any lost items, but he said that he didn’t. I moved on and shortly found the hostel the man from last night had guided me to, so I knew that the bar was right around the corner. I rushed and, as I had expected, found the bar closed, and no one inside.
A damn fine bar
I had no intentions of stopping my journey here because of my phone, but still I decided to give the search one more go; I decided to go to the JR station right above the underground passage I had been in. The walk was filled with uncertainty, regret and frustration, but I still found myself at the station soon enough.
At the station I went to the gate and asked if there had been any lost items given to them – to my amazement, there was. They asked me what kind of lost item I was looking for, and after having said that it was a phone, the man went to the back of the booth and came back with an object wrapped in paper. I saw on the wrapping that it said “Xperia” so my hopes got up. As the man then unwrapped it and handed it to me, I immediately powered it on and to both my amazement and delight, it was actually mine. I filled in the report that I was given and walked in to the station, with a figurative weight now off my shoulders. I took the train to the Osaka Castle Park (大阪城公園) once more.
Once I got out of the station, I finally started feeling my drunkenness slowly dissipating and being replaced by a constantly present headache, a really tired back and hunger. I was still dead set on walking through the park and seeing the Osaka Castle (大阪城).
The walking was slow as I concentrated on not making my headache worse and on taking pictures of the beautiful park I was in. After a while of walking, I found myself buying some ramen before actually moving in to the castle itself.
In the castle area I took a bunch of pictures before I actually got in to the Castle Museum – after paying the entrance fee, of course. Once in, I couldn’t take too many pictures inside due to it being banned on the floors with any sort of cultural artefacts. Even when I could take pictures, I decided not to, for I was just way too tired to think of that; I could barely concentrate after an hour inside the museum.
There’s a ton of value for your money at this museum, maybe a bit too much even; there was so much information and text that I had to start skipping some things in towards the last few floors due to my inability to concentrate and me having to start moving to my next destination. On the last floor I bought something to bring back from my journey and witnessed a random adult making a ruckus outside in the observation deck – I am not sure if he was mentally handicapped, but he was making noises and acted in a way that would indicate that he was. I started getting out of the castle area so that I could move on.
On my way to the station I took some more pictures and saw some sort of an performance close to the station. I am not sure what it was about, but there were bunch of people singing and dancing until the music cut and was replaced by another song; after that song had played for a little bit, the previous song started playing on top of it – I’m sure this wasn’t intended. I got in to the station after following what seemed like a train wreck and boarded the next train.
Due to how I was feeling at the time, I decided that Kyoto (京都) should be visited at a later date. Instead, I chose to go to Hiroshima (広島). I boarded the shinkansen there in Shin-Osaka (新大阪) and I was delighted to finally take my shoes off and sit for a while. The usual passing out went on until the train reached the station.
I got myself a hotel reservation at Court Hotel Hiroshima and walked out in to the rain, too tired to really take a closer look at my surroundings. I rushed to the hotel, got in and went to the bathroom. After that was done, I went ahead and wired my computer in to the network and started watching videos while on the bed. The clock was around 17:30 at the time when I started. Shortly after this, I passed out.
This is where the sixteenth day ends.
Withdrew: 0,000 円
Spent: 8,209 円
Remaining cash: 17,777 円
2,291 円 missing – damn.
Breakdown:
VM – 0,250 円
McDonalds – 0,874 円
Osaka Castle Museum – 0,600 円
Omiyage – 2,485 円
Court Hotel Hiroshima – 4,000 円