Last weekend I took a short sightseeing trip down to
Osaka. The vast majority of (most)
Japanese holidays are on Monday, which does me no good because Monday is a
regular weekend day for me. This time,
however, we had Saturday off (I still don't know which holiday it was,) so I
took Friday off as well to have a four-day weekend. As I'd mentioned in a previous post, Soee and
I had planned to go to Osaka together during the summer Obon holiday, but she
ended up having too much work and couldn't go.
She's working unbelievably hard right now and probably won't get another
chance to come to Japan before I leave, so I decided to see it myself and share
my experiences and photos with her. A
lot of people advised me to visit Kyoto or Nara instead, but I already had my
reasons for wanting to go to Osaka.
Besides, I like to get off the beaten track sometimes and see places
that are less touristy.
After the adventures I had traveling to Nikko and Seoul,
going down to Osaka was blessedly simple and hassle-free. My biggest challenge was dealing with the
umbrella I brought, which was too big to fit in my luggage; I never did end up
using it, but I felt better taking it with me. I took a limited express train from Iwaki to
Ueno at 11:20 AM and had lunch at a very good ramen place in Ueno station. I then took the subway to Tokyo station and
caught and express shinkansen to the Shin-Osaka station. One more stop on the subway took me to
Higashi-Mikuni station, a short 15 minute walk from the guest house I was
staying at.
I arrived at the guest house around 6 PM that night, a
little later than I had expected but not too late. The reviews had been overwhelmingly positive,
noting that it was in a quiet, charming community away from the hustle and
bustle of downtown. It was located in a
roofed shopping street above a dry-cleaning place, and was run by a very nice
couple with a small child.
They spoke
very good English and were quite helpful.
The guest house was quite nice, though the upstairs was a little chilly
and the stairs seemed almost dangerously steep.
Including myself, there were only four people staying when I arrived out
of a maximum of 12. My hosts explained
that they didn't usually have much traffic this time of year, so it was
relatively quiet.
It was too late to do much of anything that night, and I
was a little tired from traveling anyway, so I got some takeout okonomiyaki and
takoyaki (octopus dumplings) from a nearby open-air grill and relaxed at the
guest house. Osaka is known as a food
town, with okonomiyaki and takoyaki being the local specialties. The takoyaki I got were underwhelming, but the
okonomiyaki was quite good. I didn't
sleep as well as I would have liked, unfortunately, because I only had one very
soft pillow (I'm used to having two firmer ones.) My hosts got me another one the next day when
I mentioned the problem, so I slept better the next couple nights. I got a breakfast of coffee, toast, a
hard-boiled egg and some kind of gelatin at a small café nearby. The owner was friends with a local AEON teacher,
and one of the customers had studied in Texas for a few years, so I wound up
chatting more than I had expected.
After doing some research, I decided to spend one day in
the Osaka Castle area and one day seeing the Umeda Sky Building and the Tennoji
area. The guest house had some
information about a special pass that offered unlimited subway travel and free
passes to most of the sightseeing places.
The plan was to get the two-day pass for ¥2700, but I needed my passport
to purchase that one and I had accidentally left it in my bag at the guest
house. I ended up getting two one-day
passes instead for ¥2000 each, which was a lot more expensive but still saved
me money. I also ended up going to the
Umeda Sky Building first because I'd seen it from the window of the train. It's a rather unusual structure, with two
towers that connect to a circular top; I understand that it's quite a popular place
to get married. I did get a great view
of Osaka from the 40th floor, though! Plus, it had an interesting exhibit on other 'sky' buildings of the past, present and future.
My next stop was the JR Osaka Station City, which has a
very cool computerized water clock one of my Art Institute friends told me
about. It's easier to see than to
explain, but basically it has a number of jets of water that are turned on or
off to form words, numbers and pictures.
Since it was around 1 PM by that point, I thought I'd get
lunch in the station and then go to Osaka Castle. It turns out that Osaka Station is a popular
place for lunch, though, because even with two floors of restaurants, every place
had huge lines. I didn't want to waste
an hour waiting to eat, so I went down to the basement to see about some cheap
sushi or a bento (boxed lunch.) Luckily
for me, the bottom floor had an okonomiyaki grill with only a few people
waiting!
With some food in my stomach, I went to find the best
route to Osaka Castle. While I was
looking at my map, and older gentleman came up and asked where I was trying to
go. He then walked with me for close to
15 minutes to get me to the right line.
I'm pretty sure he worked there, though at the time I didn't know if he
was a worker or just a helpful stranger.
Either way, I was very grateful for his help.
The first place I had wanted to see in Osaka Castle Park
was the Osaka Peace Museum, which was dedicated to the horrors of World War
II. It had exhibits not only on the
American bombing and the effects of the war on Japanese civilians, but also on
Japanese war crimes committed in China and Southeast Asia. It was a very somber and sobering experience,
but it was encouraging to see the country taking responsibility for its actions
during the war. A final exhibit on world
history after World War II and the Doomsday Clock argued for world peace and
the importance of not forgetting the stories of the past.
Next, I wandered through the park and made my way to
Osaka Castle. The original castle burned
down hundreds of years ago; what stands today is a concrete reproduction of the
exterior (outside) with an eight-story museum on the inside. The museum has exhibits on the life of Toyotomi
Hideyoshi, a celebrated general and politician who unified Japan, as well as
the history of the castle, time period, and other important figures of the era. The view from the top of the castle was also
quite impressive.
I left Osaka Castle around 4:30 PM, right when all the
major tourist attractions were beginning to close for the day. There were still a couple things I could do
that night – ride a giant Ferris wheel on top of a department store and go to a
spa. I decided to save the spa for the
next night, and got an excellent night view of Osaka from the HEP Five Ferris
wheel. The staff had taken my picture in
front of a green screen before I got on, and when I left they asked if I wanted
to buy a picture of myself on the Ferris wheel for ¥1000. I knew it was kind of a tourist-trap deal,
but I went ahead and bought it anyway. I
couldn't find anything I really wanted to eat in the department store, so I
headed back to the guest house and got some yakisoba from the same place I ate
at the night before.
I spent a couple hours chatting with Soee before going to
bed, and was introduced to one of her closest friends, Bomi. Bomi's going to start teaching English at a
public school in Seoul soon, and we joked about what a wild coincidence it
would be if we ended up teaching at the same school. It was definitely good to make her acquaintance! We talked for a little bit about the respect
teachers are given in Korea (and the relative lack of respect in the US,) and
then I went to bed to rest up for another day of exploring.
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