Osaka

The trip to Osaka began on the Shinkansen or Bullet Train. The bullet train made the trip from Hiroshima to Osaka in record time. The trains are quite confortable and seem to make the supersonic journey with little effort or worry to the passengers it carries.

The modern Bullet Train (Shinkansen)


Shinkansen seating

I arrived in Osaka late in the afternoon. My first task was to sort out my return journey to Hakata. This proved to be quite diificult to achieve as nobody in Osaka station seemed to want to take responsibility for the open ticket that I was carrying. Eventually, after visiting many tourist bureaus and bullet train representatives I was able to lock in my ticket.

My next task was to catch the subway to my residence for the next two days. The place that I was staying was found through a concept named Couch Surfing. It basically involves a network of thousands of people throughout the world who are kind enough to offer their spare beds/couches/floor space to travellers whom for whatever reason do not want to stay at a hotel or hostel. If you wish to contribute to the network, check out the Couchsurfing Web Site.

The person that I stayed with, John, is a New Zealand born English teacher who has been living in Japan for 8 years. He was also hosting a couple from Texas at the same time.

After finally working out how to purchase a ticket, with a little help from an American girl, I made my way to the subway station. The train arrived and to my amazement, the carriage that I was about to enter was reserved for Ladies Only. I can only attribute this to the many stories that I have about women being accosted by the wandering hands of Japanese men (and possibly curious Japanese women) in the packed subway trains.

The "Ladies Only" Carriage

I eventually made it to John's house and had a chat with his well travelled hosts. John was kind enough to offer us his skills as a tour guide for the night.

First stop was dinner, a place named Potato Circus. The menu consisted of many small dishes, each costing around $3.50, including the always rewarding glasses of beer.

Our next stop was a quick tour through the heart of Osaka. Our first impression was that it totally outshone (literally) Picadilly Circus in terms of a visual sensory overload. These people really love their flourscent lights - more than the Koreans it would seem.

The lovely lights of Osaka

John then took us to an area where young Japanese dancers can practice their stuff. According to John, the dancers were allowed to occupy the area between the hours of 8 and 11pm, as long as they cleaned up after themselves. The irony of the area was that the majority of the teenagers were breakdancing. This is a dancing culture that traditionally attempts to rebel against the rules of society. However, they are rebelling within the confines of what is deemed to be acceptable behaviour in Japanese culture. Additionally, after each short session of break dancing, the teenagers would sit down with their traditional Japanese fans to cool themselves off, whilst completing their dinner of rice eaten with chopsticks. I doubt you would ever see that picture in the Bronx.

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Sunday began with a journey to Japanese Buddhist Temple. This was a relaxing and enjoyable experience. The Buddha statue is apparently one of the largest in Japan. The Temple also offered a small garden to the side of the cemetary and the main temple. The garden had an immediate calming affect on me. Although it was simple in design, it offered relaxing waterfalls, ponds with lillpads and goldfish and small trails. I spent a lot of time here, taking photos and enjoying the serenity of it all.


My next stop was the Osaka Aquarium. They advertised that they held a whale shark in captivity. This I had to see. I have seen many television shows that depict the beauty and tranquility of the plankton-eating shark. Sure enough, after beating the crowds of people, and viewing an assortment of otters, king penguins, sloths, dolphins and countless fish, I made it to the tank containing the whale shark. The shark itself was relatively small, 5 metres (about 15 feet) but nonetheless was a graceful and peaceful creature. I would love to dive with one in real life.


After the visit to the aquarium I decided to eat lunch. Upon parusing through the many assorted seafood restaurants, I came across an Australian restaurant. They advertised Australian beef meals for around $9. This would have been great if they weren't serving minature pieces of minute steak. Oh well, I guess the Japanese are fascinated with Australia so at least they can pretend to get a taste of our culture. I would imagine (and have witnessed) that they would be fairly put off by some of our pretend Japanese restaurants.


My last major attraction for the day was the Osaka viewing platform. This was a unique building which had a viewing platform high in the air, suspended between two buildings. The lovely part about this is that the lift to the top is on the outside of the building, and see through, so you get to watch the ground disappear as you ascent around 70 floors up. To add to the feeling of "gee, I'm really high up!" is the see through esculator that raises you the last couple of floors to the viewing platforms. However, the view from the platform was quite spectacular, especially as the sun was setting. It brought out the true beauty of Osaka.


Monday involved a visit to Osaka Castle. Unfortunately, the rain had set in, taking away the opportunity to a lovely sun soaked day in the grounds of the castle. Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading about some Japanese history and viewing some of the artifacts on display at the castle.


The highlight of the visit would have been the random snake that I came across whilst trying to get a decent photo of the castle. I had ventured to the rear of the castle, passed through come grassy areas submerged by water and found higher ground. The poor snake had decided that it wanted the same view of the castle as me. Unfortunately, it seemed to be afraid of my size and decided to slither away.


Another interesting aspect of the castle, is that it is surrounded by a large area of parkland. The eye catching feature about the park was that it appeared to accommodate a number of homeless people, who each seemed to have their own personal blue tarpaulin to live in. I decided to do a little research on what these tarpaulins are all about and came across an article which gives a little insight in to the lives of Japan's homeless.