Tonight we are in the city of Osaka (大阪市), nightlife capital of Japan

And joining me, as I eat and drink my way through the city, is Mr. Pete Donaldson

I'm on my holiday, so I'm ready to get funky

Osaka (大阪市) is Japan's second-largest city, although with a population of 20 million

It's still larger than the likes of London, Los Angeles and Paris

Undeniably grittier than Tokyo (東京), Osaka locals have a reputation for being laid back and outspoken

And in my experience generally friendlier from the Tokyo (東京) counterparts

There's no easier place in Japan, to strike up a conversation with a stranger and tonight is no exception

As we learn the local dialect from some students pretend to be cool

Take a nostalgic trip to a retro video games bar

Incinerate our mouths with Osaka most popular dish

And even throw in an elaborate Blade Runner-esque, neon lit montage sequence

Hopefully by the end of our night, you'll have some extra ideas and what to do, the next time you find yourself in Osaka (大阪市)

We all know, all good nights out start with a decent meal, given that Japan's second largest city is often referred to as Tenka no Daidokoro, or the Nation's Kitchen

It seems fitting to kick things off with Osaka Style Okonomiyaki pancakes

Easy to eat and hard to pronounce, Okonomiyaki typically consists of batter, pork, shrimp and shredded cabbage

Smothered with mayonnaise worcester sauce and dried bonito fish flakes

And in this case, I've ordered some extra cheese, partly because my greed knows no bounds and partly just to piss off Pete

The fact that you added cheese to this concoction, Chris, means that it's very hard to cut

Those chopsticks skills

I can't really, I can't get on it, because there's a permafrost of cheese underneath

This is a good way to start the evening, if you come to Osaka (大阪市), one dish you need to try, okonomiyaki

It'd be a crime to miss it, but given all the, all the drinking, we'd probably end up doing tonight

It's a good place to start out, we've actually got our first drinks here, some sake (酒) and Pete

It looks like Pete cut his finger in a glass

I'm having my favorite drink that I often have in Japan when I do visit, it's called a Red-Eye. Chris, what's in it?

Red-Eye, beer and tomatoes

P: It's beer and tomato juice. C: That's disgusting

P: Beer and tomato juice. C: Can I try it?

Is it literally just beer and tomato? How can that work?

Not even any spice in it

It's just fizzy tomato juice

That is just fucking horrible

I think, I'll just stick with the sake, do we even have that in the UK? Good, let's keep it away from the UK

God, no

Well, we're stuffed full of okonomiyaki, we've had our sake and now the night can truly begin

Isn't that right, Pete?

Let's do this!

We need more? How many more? I'll take them all

Whilst in many countries of the world, drinking alcohol in public is either forbidden or frowned upon

In Japan, not only is it legal, but very common to see people out drinking in parks and open spaces

And there's nowhere better to do that in Osaka (大阪市), than the dynamic and vibrant neighborhood

of Amerikamura, quite literally America town

One of the fashionable centers of Japanese youth culture for over 40 years

and just to show Amerikamura's dedication to all things American

They've even got a replica Statue of Liberty

Looming overhead, it's just like America, isn't it

This stuff, 9 percent drink, it is so fucking lethal, I don't know what they put in it. Have you had this before?

Have you not? oh, you're in for a treat, alright it's weird, I'm quite alcoholic resistant. Is that a word?

I'm quite good with drinking alcohol

Doesn't really affect me, but this, 2 cans of this

And I'm straight off to Narnia

If you ask anybody who drinks this stuff, any foreigner who comes to Japan who drinks this, they'll testify that this is a potent drink

Let's see it has an effect on Pete

I want to meet Mr. Tumnus, to America town

Well I'm not drinking that again

Oh, it's horrible

Doesn't taste like apple, it tastes like cyanide

What apple, there is apples?

There's lemon, there's orange, blueberry and we got Apple

But it doesn't taste like apple, it tastes like gas, like petroleum

Do you feel like you're in somewhere that is, is different right now?

Lot of kids hanging out in the circle

It looks like a level from Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, a lot teenagers hanging about, a lot of people with thick, chunky BMX tires

Just lads with a lot of street wear on

You cross one street in Osaka (大阪市), you can hear like hip-hop music start playing, you see all these crappy clothes shop start cropping up

And then it looks like this, there are a load of BMX's around

After just 10 minutes of moping around drinking

Pete and I, successfully blend into America town, when we find ourselves being invited over to join some friendly students

I'm happy

These nice locals, are going to teach Pete some Osaka dialect

What is Osaka dialect for cool?

So I am from the north of England

I also have a different accent to everyone else

To sort of say, yes, in my accent

Why aye man

P: Newcastle, why aye man

Really?

Yeah, why aye man

Aho means stupid

Hey guys, Amerikamura, get a drink, rock up, meet some people have some fun, and now, it's on to the next place

Not only are there some amazing retro systems in here, there are also some amazing stuff we never got in England

We never got even in Europe, this is great, thanks for bringing us here, Chris

You're welcome Mr. Donaldson, I'm a good friend

You are a good friend

So guys, we're now in a videogame bar and I'm about to kick his ass at Bomberman

on the Nintendo Super Famicom or as it's known in America

The SNES

The Super Famicon was before my time, I was born in 1990 and I was too young for this, but I did had Bomberman on the Gameboy

So that's why I learned there the rules, the ways of Bomberman

The ways of Bomberman or ancient Japanese art of the way of the Bomberman

I'm bottom right, guys

Top left

What's that? Is that guy riding a fucking squirrel or something?

Games bars are once a lot more common in Osaka (大阪市) and Tokyo (東京), where you can sit down drink and relax

Whilst playing retro video games in a relaxed environment, more reminiscent of being a friend's house than at a bar

Sadly however, more and more are closing down under pressure from large video games companies

So my advice is try visit one, while they still exist

In hindsight, this games pretty fucked up

I'm a guy laying bombs, while riding a kangaroo, who-who's dreamed this up?

No, no, yes, yes, I won, yes and a celebratory

Celebratory Chicken McNugget, there you go

Celebratory?

Like the chickens never laid an egg

The taste of victory

In any other YouTube situation, he didn't insist on doing something twice

But because he's won, I know for a fact, this is the final time will play this game

Yeah

We're done here

Osaka (大阪市) most popular dish, can be found on almost every street corner in the downtown area and the often smell the sweet sizzling batter

Long before you spot the stand the side of the street

Wow, that was a lot of alliteration, wasn't it? This my friends is Takoyaki

Literally fried octopus balls, we have two flavors

Salt and sauce, and the sauce is worcester sauce

What is the salt? Just salt?

Just salt, what is the salt?

I want the juice sauce

We can share, Pete

I will start with salt

This was 350 yen for five balls, which is about 3 dollar 50, very cheap

That's bloody good, ain't it?

It's super good very hot though, your mouth is about to be incinerated, so be careful

I have these before and they are hot for about the half like of uranium, like 50 years

They look so inert, but you know for a fact there is molten hot takoyaki inside

So what it is, it is basically it's kind of batter

with mayonnaise and fish flakes on top and worcester sauce here and inside we have sliced up chopped up octopus

Which some of you may not like the sound off, but actually it tastes amazing with the batter, with the mayonnaise, with the sauce

I'm still, it's too hot for me to try that

Pete is good to do it though

Get close of Pete crying

Yeah, to hot

Look at his face

The shop staf are captivated by Pete's inflamed face, look at how red Pete's going, ladies and gentleman

Because they're so delicious, you want to put them in your mouth right away

And I realize that sounds a bit weird, because we are eating balls, you want to put them in your mouth, really really quickly

But they're just so hot

It would be a crime and absolute crime to come to Osaka (大阪市) without trying takoyaki though, like

For me, what's Pete, what are you doing, Pete?

I'm cooling it by, there's a breeze coming down this Avenue, so I'm letting the ball linger in the breeze

If you come to Osaka (大阪市) and you come to eat takoyaki, bring a windsock

Know which way the winds going so you can cool them down

You burst yours

I burst it, my takoyaki ball has exploded

So the other day, yesterday I think, I asked you guys what we should do in Osaka (大阪市), one of the most popular things that came up was karaoke

Now I hate filming karaoke, because of copyright issues on YouTube, it's a great way to get this video taken down

Removed off YouTube and my entire evening of filming and editing going up in smoke, and yet we are going to karaoke

Right now, so it's going to happen

So it's just going to potentially put the whole video at risk, but it's going to be worth it

Because we're able to hear Pete Donaldson sing

So the way karaoke works in Japan, you get a room to yourself, you get a booth and you get a little touchscreen

Panel like this, you put in the song you want, hit the button and off it goes

So simple as that

Even I could do it at 1am

Even Pete Donaldson could do it and it's all you can drink as well, it's nomihoudai

Which means you sit here for like 2000 yen, which is 20 dollars

you can drink as much as you want for 2 hours, and that's pretty fucking good

The good thing about karaoke is, it's all in one room

The food is fried chicken, already have that in that basket there, it's gone

Fried chicken, drinks, It's all there, songs music, drinks, relaxation, karaoke

You could be in here for 2 or 3 hours and

I'm out of love, I'm so lost without you, I don't know the rest of this song

Well guys, we've done our karaoke for 90 minutes, I can't feel my voice

I want to go to bed now

I want to go to bed, but we've got one more thing to do, Pete

We've got reenact a scene from Blade Runner, we've gonna have scenes of you

Walking along with some slick music, after that you can go to bed

Okay then

Well I hope you enjoyed our little music video with Pete in, it was very rushed we made it very quickly

I say music video, it was just a clip with some music and Pete walking around the slow-motion

Yeah, they turned off some of the lights, but we did have the food, we've did enjoy the karaoke

Well one of us did

We did enjoy the lights and the fun times

And we even played a little bit of Mario Kart and I definitely won, bye

He didn't win, but at least he learned some Osaka dialect

That's all for now though guys, will be back same time tomorrow with Kobe beef

Kobe beef

No matter where you are might be watching from out there the big wide world, thanks for watching guys, and we'll see you tomorrow

I have to say, if I was on death row, I have to decide one meal, this meal that we've just had

would probably be it

This is Pete Donaldson's hotel room, ladies and gentlemen

I was washing some clothes and they weren't quite dry, so I had to spread them out

Pete, it looks like your suitcase exploded over your fucking room, what's going on?

Don't even want to look around the corner and see what there is

I'll leave you to it

Night

Good night, Pete

Good night