Thursday, May 10, 2007
April 17, a simple tour of Osaka.
In keeping with the running theme of “Less, but awesome”, we didn’t do tons of stuff today, but we had a great time.
Do to geographic concerns (it was close to the hostel), our first stop was Osaka castle. We ended up getting on the loop line at rush hour, but we got seats before tons of people showed up, so we were okay.
We got to the castle a bit before it opened and walked around a park surrounding the castle to burn time. Our first impression was…well, the park was a shantytown. People had built homes all over the park out of tarps, planks, and ropes tied between trees. I wondered why they weren’t just kicked out, but I guess that’s for the Osaka Police to know.
Walked along a bike path for a while and saw a bunch of cats getting hounded by ravens. Jess walked over to say hi and the birds flew off. The cats remained indifferent to her presence.
We walked around to the front of the castle when it opened. We slipped in while 50 tour groups had their pictures taken in front of the castle. Slick.
It was a recreation of the castle and the outside was certainly magnificent. Gold trim and everything. The inside was a museum, but it was a seriously neat museum. We started at the top and got a really nice view of the whole city. Floor 7 was a history of the man who united Japan (before Tokugawa). There was no floor 6, oddly.
Floor 5 was amazing. There was a painting commissioned about the big final battle outside of Osaka between Tokugawa and the entrenched forces that was, essentially, the last battle in the unification of Japan. It was really just amazing. We stood and watched for 10 minutes while a video explained all the details, pointing out all the generals involved, little scenes within the picture, and all the big battle fronts. The second half dealt with the aftermath: celebration for the victors, people fleeing Osaka, and bandits taking advantage of the confusion. Really an amazing painting, though we didn’t get to see the original.
The fourth floor had weapons and armor, so I was stoked. There were lots of full suits of armor, some truly legendary sword blades, and all sorts of other intricate pieces. The third floor had other weapons: bows, long pikes, etc. Second floor had information about the castle restoration, the first floor was just the entrance. Really interesting sight.
We had lunch on the way out. I had katsu don and udon, and jess had hamburger…which is really more like meatloaf the way they serve it. Good stuff. We got some vanilla-grape ice cream afterwards, too, which Jess just LOVED.
Then off to the Osaka Aquarium. Wow, Wow, WOW! I think I took more pictures here then anywhere else on the whole trip.
Otters up close, sleeping on their backs and playing in the water. Sea lions at play! Dolphins! And the gigantic main tank that had a freakin’ WHALE SHARK! WAAA! Absolutely amazing! There was this huge central tank with stingrays and all manner of huge fish and this younger whale shark just swimming around. The fish tended to follow the manta ray and the whale shark around, which was entertaining.
There was also a tank themed after the Amazon rainforest with some of the biggest fish I’d ever seen! Huge!
After that we hung out in a mall where I played at an arcade I found a bunch. Shooting games, a Taiko drum game, and a whole lot of Mario Kart 2. The arcade machine actually prints and accepts cards that list your progress in the game. I saved mine, I unlocked a few neat cups, so I felt good.
After that, we had lunch at the food court. Jess got some pizza and I had Okanomiyaki. Pretty good again, but the really interesting part was that I got some shaved, dried fish or octopus or something on top, and when I opened the box, the stuff was moving all over! It must have had to do with the drying and re-moisturizing, but the little flakes were wiggling and shaking all over. Weird, but tasty.
After that we came back to the hostel and rested up.
-N
In keeping with the running theme of “Less, but awesome”, we didn’t do tons of stuff today, but we had a great time.
Do to geographic concerns (it was close to the hostel), our first stop was Osaka castle. We ended up getting on the loop line at rush hour, but we got seats before tons of people showed up, so we were okay.
We got to the castle a bit before it opened and walked around a park surrounding the castle to burn time. Our first impression was…well, the park was a shantytown. People had built homes all over the park out of tarps, planks, and ropes tied between trees. I wondered why they weren’t just kicked out, but I guess that’s for the Osaka Police to know.
Walked along a bike path for a while and saw a bunch of cats getting hounded by ravens. Jess walked over to say hi and the birds flew off. The cats remained indifferent to her presence.
We walked around to the front of the castle when it opened. We slipped in while 50 tour groups had their pictures taken in front of the castle. Slick.
It was a recreation of the castle and the outside was certainly magnificent. Gold trim and everything. The inside was a museum, but it was a seriously neat museum. We started at the top and got a really nice view of the whole city. Floor 7 was a history of the man who united Japan (before Tokugawa). There was no floor 6, oddly.
Floor 5 was amazing. There was a painting commissioned about the big final battle outside of Osaka between Tokugawa and the entrenched forces that was, essentially, the last battle in the unification of Japan. It was really just amazing. We stood and watched for 10 minutes while a video explained all the details, pointing out all the generals involved, little scenes within the picture, and all the big battle fronts. The second half dealt with the aftermath: celebration for the victors, people fleeing Osaka, and bandits taking advantage of the confusion. Really an amazing painting, though we didn’t get to see the original.
The fourth floor had weapons and armor, so I was stoked. There were lots of full suits of armor, some truly legendary sword blades, and all sorts of other intricate pieces. The third floor had other weapons: bows, long pikes, etc. Second floor had information about the castle restoration, the first floor was just the entrance. Really interesting sight.
We had lunch on the way out. I had katsu don and udon, and jess had hamburger…which is really more like meatloaf the way they serve it. Good stuff. We got some vanilla-grape ice cream afterwards, too, which Jess just LOVED.
Then off to the Osaka Aquarium. Wow, Wow, WOW! I think I took more pictures here then anywhere else on the whole trip.
Otters up close, sleeping on their backs and playing in the water. Sea lions at play! Dolphins! And the gigantic main tank that had a freakin’ WHALE SHARK! WAAA! Absolutely amazing! There was this huge central tank with stingrays and all manner of huge fish and this younger whale shark just swimming around. The fish tended to follow the manta ray and the whale shark around, which was entertaining.
There was also a tank themed after the Amazon rainforest with some of the biggest fish I’d ever seen! Huge!
After that we hung out in a mall where I played at an arcade I found a bunch. Shooting games, a Taiko drum game, and a whole lot of Mario Kart 2. The arcade machine actually prints and accepts cards that list your progress in the game. I saved mine, I unlocked a few neat cups, so I felt good.
After that, we had lunch at the food court. Jess got some pizza and I had Okanomiyaki. Pretty good again, but the really interesting part was that I got some shaved, dried fish or octopus or something on top, and when I opened the box, the stuff was moving all over! It must have had to do with the drying and re-moisturizing, but the little flakes were wiggling and shaking all over. Weird, but tasty.
After that we came back to the hostel and rested up.
-N
Labels: Aquarium, Arcades, Castle, Japan, Osaka
April 16, ‘O’ cities.
Well we slept in this morning, all the way to 9:00! Which, by the way, is 4 in the afternoon back home. Yeesh. Got out of the hostel and took a streetcar back to the rail station, thus completing the list of every kind of public transportation known to man.
We had some time before our train left so we walked around Hiroshima station and found a supermarket. I got some rice…things. Seaweed wrapped triangles of rice with stuff in the middle. I really liked the one with fish. Yummers. Unfortunately, I can’t read the label, so the stuff in the middle is always a surprise.
The plan for the day was to make our way slowly up to Osaka, stopping at whatever little place we felt like. Our first stop was Okayama.
Okayama’s main attractions are a castle and nearby gardens. The castle exterior was very nice, but we had our backpacks on and didn’t feel like marching all over, up and down floors, having to take off our highly complicated hiking boots.
We saw this cat on the way up to the castle. It was really friendly and was super-pleased to let Jess pet him. Then, right when we left, another Japanese family tried to go up and pet him. Cat wanted nothing to do with them. Jess has super-cat-powers.
The garden, on the other hand, was gorgeous, huge, and well worth the effort it took to lug our bags around. There were all types of different section with different plant types. We just caught the end of the cherry blossom bloom so the ground was all carpeted with pedals. There were also immaculately groomed bushes, trees, islands and the like. Really pretty.
We stopped to eat lunch under a branch by the lake, which was really picturesque and nice until a swarm of pigeons descended upon us. We kept them away, though.
There was a larger building with lots of arts & crafts inside, huge lake and waterfalls, and even a tea house with a river running through the middle. That was my favorite, I think. I want a river running through my house.
We went back to the station and decided that little stop-offs weren’t quite worth the effort, what with backpack-lugging and figuring out public transportation at every little different city, so we just made our way up to Osaka. Jess, adorable again, fell asleep on my chest.
We found our way to the JR local lines and took the main loop to our hostel. A businessman chatted with us about our travels (in English) which was pretty nice. Jess gave him one of the little American keychain trinket things we brought to give away to people. Jess is getting pretty good at handing those out to helpful people.
The hostel was pretty acceptable, but the beds felt like they were just boxsprings.
We went out to look for dinner and passed a bunch of cheap business hotels, stand-up udon eateries…pachinko parlors…transient-looking types…a homeless shelter… Suddenly I’m quite glad that Jess and I are together. I wasn’t really expecting anything dangerous, Japan being what it is, but the safety in numbers felt nice. I imagine we would have felt a lot better if I could speak the language. Imagine a dirty-looking old Japanese man comes up to us and starts jabbering at us in Japanese. “Aaah! Help! We’re being robbed…I think!” Meanwhile:
Eventually we found an eatery, even thought the menu was all in Japanese. I’ll just eat anything, so I asked for a recommendation and the guy pointed at something at the menu. Sure! I’ll eat that. Jess got some rice and vegetables and the recommendation turned out to be Kobe beef! The place was what I would normally think of as a ‘Korean BBQ’ in America where there is a grill in the table and you cook your own food. In Japan, though, who knows what they call it? Anyway, we grilled our beef and tried it out, and it was some really good beef! We ordered a second set. Yum!
Then on the way home we stopped at a ‘mart’ for some desert. Came back to the hostel, took a nice, hot, long, Japanese bath (and sauna) and then fell asleep.
Tomorrow…fish! Live ones, though!
-N
Well we slept in this morning, all the way to 9:00! Which, by the way, is 4 in the afternoon back home. Yeesh. Got out of the hostel and took a streetcar back to the rail station, thus completing the list of every kind of public transportation known to man.
We had some time before our train left so we walked around Hiroshima station and found a supermarket. I got some rice…things. Seaweed wrapped triangles of rice with stuff in the middle. I really liked the one with fish. Yummers. Unfortunately, I can’t read the label, so the stuff in the middle is always a surprise.
The plan for the day was to make our way slowly up to Osaka, stopping at whatever little place we felt like. Our first stop was Okayama.
Okayama’s main attractions are a castle and nearby gardens. The castle exterior was very nice, but we had our backpacks on and didn’t feel like marching all over, up and down floors, having to take off our highly complicated hiking boots.
We saw this cat on the way up to the castle. It was really friendly and was super-pleased to let Jess pet him. Then, right when we left, another Japanese family tried to go up and pet him. Cat wanted nothing to do with them. Jess has super-cat-powers.
The garden, on the other hand, was gorgeous, huge, and well worth the effort it took to lug our bags around. There were all types of different section with different plant types. We just caught the end of the cherry blossom bloom so the ground was all carpeted with pedals. There were also immaculately groomed bushes, trees, islands and the like. Really pretty.
We stopped to eat lunch under a branch by the lake, which was really picturesque and nice until a swarm of pigeons descended upon us. We kept them away, though.
There was a larger building with lots of arts & crafts inside, huge lake and waterfalls, and even a tea house with a river running through the middle. That was my favorite, I think. I want a river running through my house.
We went back to the station and decided that little stop-offs weren’t quite worth the effort, what with backpack-lugging and figuring out public transportation at every little different city, so we just made our way up to Osaka. Jess, adorable again, fell asleep on my chest.
We found our way to the JR local lines and took the main loop to our hostel. A businessman chatted with us about our travels (in English) which was pretty nice. Jess gave him one of the little American keychain trinket things we brought to give away to people. Jess is getting pretty good at handing those out to helpful people.
The hostel was pretty acceptable, but the beds felt like they were just boxsprings.
We went out to look for dinner and passed a bunch of cheap business hotels, stand-up udon eateries…pachinko parlors…transient-looking types…a homeless shelter… Suddenly I’m quite glad that Jess and I are together. I wasn’t really expecting anything dangerous, Japan being what it is, but the safety in numbers felt nice. I imagine we would have felt a lot better if I could speak the language. Imagine a dirty-looking old Japanese man comes up to us and starts jabbering at us in Japanese. “Aaah! Help! We’re being robbed…I think!” Meanwhile:
Eventually we found an eatery, even thought the menu was all in Japanese. I’ll just eat anything, so I asked for a recommendation and the guy pointed at something at the menu. Sure! I’ll eat that. Jess got some rice and vegetables and the recommendation turned out to be Kobe beef! The place was what I would normally think of as a ‘Korean BBQ’ in America where there is a grill in the table and you cook your own food. In Japan, though, who knows what they call it? Anyway, we grilled our beef and tried it out, and it was some really good beef! We ordered a second set. Yum!
Then on the way home we stopped at a ‘mart’ for some desert. Came back to the hostel, took a nice, hot, long, Japanese bath (and sauna) and then fell asleep.
Tomorrow…fish! Live ones, though!
-N
Labels: Castle, Garden, Japan, Kobe Beef, Okayama, Shopping
