Saturday, August 18, 2018

Japan - Osaka


My first day in Osaka started early. I was so excited to be in Japan, that I woke before my alarm. I was very hungry, but the day before I was too tired to go to a shop. So I decided to get something on the way. I know Japanese usually don't eat on the streets, unlike Turks who regard every green space as picnic grounds, but I also know that Japanese forgive foreigners. 

Not too far and on my way I dropped into a 7-11. Now what I didn't see on any video while I prepped for my trip was that most products only have Japanese writing on them. In Hungary as most of our products are made for an international market, you'll see everything on them in 6 languages. In Japan in English you sometimes see only the product promotion. What it is you have to guess based on pictures. For example, there were different kinds of coffees. I'm lactose intolerant, so knowing if there's milk in it is important. You see that the cans all have coffee, but the difference, not a clue. I picked one that looked good, and same went with the water. Food was harder though, as I'm allergic to nuts and can't have mushrooms. The rice balls had English on them, so I picked up a salmon one. I also spotted a banana flavoured chocolate. I paid and was on my way. I drank the coffee right away, but had to walk for ages to find somewhere to throw it out. 

The night before I downloaded an offline Osaka map. It turned out to be useless, as for the question where I am, it had no idea. I ended up trying to work out on my saved pdf maps where Namba station was. I knew they had a tourist information center there, and I had a couple of questions. I found it surprisingly easily, and on the way found out that even at 9am pachinko parlours had lines in front of them. 

At the center I met this lovely young lady, who explained everything. I showed her my detailed itinerary, and she told me that the Osaka Amazing Pass would be perfect. I could ride the metro as much as I wanted, get into Osaka castle and even up to the observation tower at the Umeda Sky Building as long as I got there before 6pm. She also got me on the free WiFi and even told me how to get the day bus pass in Kyoto. I gave her one of my cards. So if you're reading this, thanks for everything! 

On the WiFi, I looked up how to get to the castle. I was very glad for the pass as I didn't have to negotiate the ticket counters. I also figured out that as long as I didn't get out of Google maps, it would still tell me where I was, in spite of not having saved the map itself offline. Negotiating the metro wasn't very hard, but I've lived in a city with a metro. 




I found Osaka Castle easily. There is a park surrounding it, which is very clean. There were many people  exercising in it. I passed a small Lawson’s and some people were eating around it. I went in the first gate to the inner moat. I watched the small boats pass while I ate my riceball. An older man stood next to me and took glances at me. Maybe he was bothered by me eating there, but I didn’t care much. Or he was just staring at the blonde girl with big boobs. You never know. Then I went into the castle. The climb up was steep in the heat. At the entrance I didn't have to wait, as I didn't need to buy a ticket. Going up to the structure itself, they had placed sprayers to freshen up the air and spray everyone. It was so nice. 

At the door into the castle I had the option of going up the stairs or the elevator. At first I wanted to take the elevator, but the line was long. At the stairs, they recommended that you first go up and then view each level on your way down. Most people did what I did, and stopped on the way up. Going up is harder than down. I only really viewed the two air-conditioned artifact levels. They had some interesting things like screens, armour, other pieces, but also scrolls that really didn’t mean much. I guess if I could read what was on them, or maybe do some sort of linguistic comparison to present language, then I wouldn’t have just glanced at them.

There were more levels with detailed dioramas, but I’m not a fan and I was behind in time, so I skipped those. On the top I made up for not being able to take pictures of the artefacts. I took several of the panorama, and even videos of every side. It was pretty crowded, but people behaved respectfully towards each other, and we all managed to get what we wanted. It reminded me of the Galata Tower in Turkey, where there was a lot of pushing and shoving. 

I quickly went down and tried to find my way to the metro. It was hard, because silly me closed the map app, and I couldn't find WiFi. Through the help of maps placed around, I managed to get to it, and the cool station was a welcomed rest. They also have WiFi. However, getting there took longer than I expected and I was falling very behind on my schedule.


I was trying to get to the shinto shrine to the South, but I couldn't find the connecting line once I got off the purple metro line. There was nothing underground, so I went up thinking that maybe it was another station. I found a big shopping centre there, which really didn’t help matters. I saw a Lawson's, and wanted to get a water and get on their WiFi. There, I noticed that the Buddhist temple, Shitennō-ji, I wanted to see was not very far, therefore, I headed in that direction. I was also right next to a Abeno Harukas, Japan’s tallest building, which has an observation deck too. I thought of going up, but it would take a lot of time, and I originally didn’t plan on going up there, because the area itself wasn’t that interesting. The other building I wanted to go onto was much closer to the sea and the main river in Osaka.





On the way to Shitennō-ji I could observe the streets. There were a lot of Christian crosses on buildings oddly enough. 
















I finally reached it, and I went inside my first Buddhist temple. I wanted to visit it mainly because it was one of Japan’s oldest temples. It was originally constructed in the 6th century, but of course as it goes in Japan, burned down a couple of times since then. However, they always reconstructed it by the original design.



At the entrance, there were two scary statues. They are called Niō, and they are supposed to be the protectors of Buddhist temples. I couldn't go into the main area there, but to the side. There was a ticket, but with the Amazing Pass, it was included. There are three buildings there. I first went into the one in the middle. Initially, I wasn't sure that I could, because the monk was performing a ceremony. However, an attendant signalled that I could. Sadly, no pictures. The atmosphere was special with the chanting in the background, the large Buddha in the middle, the pictures on the wall and the incense in the air. I so wanted to take a picture, do a video, something. I wanted to preserve the memory of the moment. Once I was outside I felt so elated. I was high with the feeling of such an authentic experience on my first day. 

I went into the tall structure, but it was mostly just stairs up that you do barefoot, so I skipped that. The third building was a long one in the back. It could have been easily missed, as there was some construction going on in front of it. I'm guessing preparations for some sort of festival. Inside there were two statues. One sitting Buddha and one standing. They were so beautiful, my hand was itching to capture all that beauty on a photo. I went outside with regret and then left the inner grounds. They were extensive and full of interesting statues, buildings, and worship places. My ticket was also good for a garden, and I looked for it, but couldn't find it. So instead I took photos of the rest of the grounds. There was a big temple that I thought of going in, but a sign outside said that tourists shouldn't go in, so I didn't. Instead, I took pictures of the cute turtles swimming around in the pond in front of it.



I left, as it was really time for me to get to the shinto shrine I've been meaning to visit. On the way it was incredibly hot. I was really starting to not feel very well. The sun was in my back, and there was very little shade. I was holding on just thinking that I would be somewhere with an air conditioner soon. I reached a metro station finally, and went down. I put my card through, and tried to see which way I need to go. However, the signs didn't match what I had on my phone, and the colour of the line was wrong as well. Thus, I came to the sad conclusion that this was the wrong line. However, where was the correct one then? I looked around, but didn't see any indication of another line anywhere. So I went back up into the heat. 

I stood on the corner, not making sense of where I was or where I was heading. In my desperation, I spotted a small map to the side, and on it the line I was looking for. It said to go to the other side of the road and round the corner. I followed it, and that was when I realised my error! I had been looking for a metro line, when it was actually an urban train! I got on, made sure that I got on the right vehicle, and sat down. The train also had AC luckily, and I could finally feel myself cooling down physically and emotionally. 

It took a while for the train to actually start, and then it kept heading South among residential houses that only had a few storeys. I paid attention to the sign that had the stops, and after a long ride it was finally time to get off. I presented my Osaka pass, but I was informed that that wasn't good for it. I was sure that the girl said it was, but apparently she was wrong, or I misunderstood. 


The train stopped right at the Sumiyoshi Taisha, so I went in. I was getting a bit hungry and my water was running out, but I still soldiered on. I liked the look of the place right away. There were trees everywhere, some with the ribbons around them that I think means that they are sacred. There was the washing station, and the famous bridge that I came to see, the Sorihashi bridge. It was very pretty with the brightly painted railing. However, climbing it was a bit steep. 

Over the bridge I entered the main part of the shrine. It was my first shinto shrine, and I liked it already. They had a stand for small guides, and there were plenty in English. Just what I needed! I checked out the talisman stand, and I got a few things. Cash only. Interestingly, this part of the shrine wasn't that interesting, but as I headed towards the back, there were more things to see. A lovely lake, a groove with flags that had its own atmosphere. There was also a shrine for Maneki Neko cats, the Nankun-sha, where you could get those cat statues that had one hand raised. You could get one of each, but I only got one with the left hand raised, which means the cat invites people and prosperity. The right hand raised means money and success in business. As I’m not much of a business person, I’d rather go for people. If you’re reading this, it’s working! Plus the place had AC. 

I visited the toilet, which frankly, could have been cleaner. Then I wondered around the shrine some more. I was reluctant to leave it, but I had to get to the Umeda Sky Building on time, because my Osaka pass only provided free entry in the summer until 6pm. I went to the train going back, and something came right away. I thought there was just one line going here, but as the last stop of the train was elsewhere as the one I came with, apparently not. However, it turned out great. That was actually the train I was looking for when I gave up and headed to the Buddhist shrine. Of course I never found it, as I was looking for something underground, and this was in a sort of a layer of the complicated walkways surrounding Abeno Harukas, a rather new skyscraper that also had a viewing station upstairs. 

Since I was right there, I went back to the Lawson's I got my water previously, and also went on the WiFi for instructions on how to get to Umeda. I wanted to pay with a card as convini were apparently one of the few places I could pay with it, but didn't just want to get a water. So I remembered that there used to be these refreshing towels. I looked around and found that they sold those. They turned out to be a lifesaver, as the cool cloths with the peppermint coating brought me relief on many hot days. 





I found the red line I had to take, and quickly got to the metro. I thought I was very much on time. I got off at the right stop, but there were no signs for the Umeda. There were some maps, but as good as I am at reading them, they never seemed to really tell me where to get there. As it turned out, the Umeda station is a labyrinth of malls, a train station, metro station and underground shops. It also had a ground level walkway and a higher walkway. I was running about, trying to figure it all out. After a while I realised that I needed to get on the other side of the train station. I entered it on the upper floor and found an escalator that went up even more. Then I managed to go over the tracks. There they finally had signs for the Umeda Sky Building. Which was still a bit away, and the clocks was relentlessly ticking towards 6pm. I made the rest of the way running, which was quite a feat, as by then my sole was in pain from all the walking. However, I couldn’t resist taking a quick picture of a great big green bear next to the Great Front Osaka mall. I reached the line for the elevator with 20 minutes to go, but the line was very long. I anxiously watched as people casually walked out of the elevator and more shuffled in under the guidance of a small young woman. As the doors of the elevator closed, she would bow before it. Same as the elevator was coming down, she would be ready with a bow before it to greet the okusama, and gracefully guide them towards the exit. This small ritual held an air of calm and beauty about it. 

I barely got onto the last elevator before 6pm. I thought my trial was over, but when the elevator doors opened, I came face to face with a long escalator. With a few minutes to go, I sprinted up, cursing my bad knees that protested against the action. At the end I was greeted by another lovely lady, to whom I showed my pass, and she waved me over to the guy who beeped me in. I nearly collapsed with exhaustion as the clock struck 6. 



I had to go up on another escalator, but this time I waited it out as it took me to the first observation floor. There I found a spacious room with windows, and I could sit down in front of one to have a brief rest. Of course, I couldn’t stay put for long, so I started to explore the floor. It smelled very nice as there was a café as well. Also, there was a sort of theater, but I didn’t go check it out, as I was getting very hungry, and I knew exactly where and what I wanted to eat.

To go up to the open-air observation deck, you could take the stairs or the elevator. As I felt like I would die on stairs, I took the elevator. It was a bit of a wait, but I could do it. Upstairs, the panorama was wonderful. You could see the river, the sea, the sprawling city below you. The sun was just setting behind the hills, bathing the world in orange. There were a lot of people, but with patience I could get the pictures I wanted. Once I was done, I hurried down as I still wanted some pictures of the building itself during the day.


On my way down I quickly checked out the gift store, but didn’t get anything. Down was a lot faster than up, I didn’t even have to wait for the elevator. I got the pictures I wanted, and then went back in. I’ve heard that downstairs the foodcourt of the building was made out like an old street. It was very cool. I looked for the famous okonomiyaki place, Okonomiyaki Kiji, and it was very easy to find, as it had a line in front of it. As I waited, a guy came out and said that the wait would be an hour. I thought of going away, but I figured other places could also have a wait, and this place was on my list of things I definitely wanted to do. So I stayed.

The line outside continued inside, but sitting down. That was such a relief as my legs were ready to collapse under me. That was also a lot more fun as I amused myself with looking at the people, the guys making the food at the counter, just generally watching Japanese people interacting. In a way that was the best bit, as these are people I’ve been watching on TV for a decade, and now they were in front of me. Kind of like seeing your favourite actors, except these were real people. 


The restaurant itself was tiny. It had a kind of dirty, old look, which I found quaint. It had pictures all over the wall. The tables all had flat tops in the middle, and they usually finished the food off there. That was also where people cut the food apart, then passed the bits about. The groups would order multiple flavours, and take small bits of each. I saw people drinking beer, and I wanted one. There was also counter seating in front of the part that had the main cooking action going. It was interesting to note that they beat the eggs with some water.

I was hoping for a seat at the counter, and I was sure I’d get it, as it was the logical seating for a lone traveller. The tables were mostly for four or more people, and the counter was generally occupied by couples. I was finally seeing an end to my wait, when I was handed a menü. In Japanese, no pictures. I stared at it, trying to at least make out the hiragana, but I realised that even if I could read that, I wouldn’t know what it was saying, as the majority of my knowledge came from dramas. Unfortunately, none of them were about okonomiyaki. There was one that heavily featured tonkatsu though. Japanese drama makers, I see a gap!

So I handed the menü back, saying that I couldn’t read Japanese. I have to note here that besides a guy sitting with a group of Japanese, I was the only non-Japanese person in the room. So the waiter / cook asked me what I liked, and I told him that I’ll eat anything as long as it doesn’t have mushrooms or nuts. But I knew okonomiyaki doesn’t have nuts inherently, so I was just concerned about mushrooms. They are a concern as they give me extremely painful stomach cramps. He advised me that the most traditional form was the pork one, so I got that and a beer. He asked if Japanese beer was okay, and sure it was! I like to keep my alcohol local.

I was seated at the counter, so bonus! They had an older Japanese guy sit next to me, because he was alone too. A neat thing about the seating was that you could raise up the seat, and underneath there was storage for your bag. The seating was also raised a bit, but they had raised foot stalls too. As they took my order beforehand, I was served my beer right away, and my okonomiyaki was already cooking. The main guy, who seemed like quite the character, was taking a break at the time, so I was just looking at the guys. A server girl also brought me water. 

I got pushed my food in front of me, and was told it was ready. So I started to cut it up with the little thing, and eating it with the chopsticks. Of course, it was piping hot, so I would cut it up into little pieces to cool. I drank my beer, which was good. The okonomiyaki tasted wonderful. Not too spicy, the pasta a bit crunchy with delicious bacon strips inside. I was so hungry! But halfway through, I was starting to feel full. I haven’t eaten much in the past two days, and my stomach was the size of a pea. So I ate slowly, and took some breaks. It was so delicious, I was determined to finish my first proper meal in Japan.

As I was eating the head man came back. We chatted a little bit, he didn’t speak much English. He gave me this cool paper and wrote Forrest Gump on it. I’m not exactly sure why, but I have seen in some dramas that there was something in Japan with that character. Then he ended up also giving me a little Doraemon figurine. He said they normally give them to kids, but he felt like he needed to give one to me as well. I love cute things, so he was spot on! It’s right next to me as I write this. 

While I was finishing the last of it, I heard some English behind me, and some other foreigners have arrived to the start of the waiting line. They were talking about what flavours to get, so I just tossed in that the bacon one was delicious. I finally managed to finish it. I was very full, and I got up to pay. Cash only, of course. I gave them one of my social media name cards. I had them made so that when I travel, if people ask me about where they can see my travel stuff, I can just give it to them. Very convenient, and I found a great site online that makes them pretty cheap.

I said my goodbyes, and got turned around a bit on the way out. I wanted to go to Dotonbori from there, and then back to the apartment. I was ready to turn in as the next day I was planning on an early start to Kyoto. As I passed the train station, next to it was a Hawaiian festival. I just got the tail end of the last performers, and managed to get them on video.

As I was heading towards the station, I noticed a sign for a department store that had tax free shopping for foreigners. It was the Yodobashi Camera Multimedia Umeda. They had a list of the products available at the store by the door, and I decided to have a look. There were several things I wanted to buy. Most importantly, a new power bank. My old one didn’t really charge my phone. It managed to power it for a while, but as I noticed the day before, the charge never went up. With all the use I was putting my equipment through, both my phone and my camera were very low on power. I knew that in Japan I needed a good, strong power bank to keep up with the long days I was doing. Especially as I used my phone to find my way around. It didn’t always work, but was better than nothing.

As the department store had an extensive electronics department, I decided to check them out. I went inside, and it was massive. I started to look for power banks, but it looked like I could be there forever! So I started to ask the shopkeepers. Most people just looked at me funny, and couldn’t understand what I was looking for. I understood their confusion when I talked to the third person. As Japanese doesn’t have a clear “r” sound, and has problems with to many consonants next to each other, their pronunciation of the words is very different. As I was saying it the correct way, which apparently they’ve never heard, they had no idea what I was on about. The third person used his phone, and when he saw it written down, he realised what I was looking for. That was harder than I’d thought. He managed to direct me to the correct shelf.

There some power banks were on the shelf, others had cards. I assumed they were in some storage. After looking through my options, I selected one that I liked the look of. It had enough power for my devices and the right cables. So I took a card and went to the cashier with it. The first one available just stared at me, and didn’t speak English. She went off to find someone who did. He was from another department, but I finally had someone I could talk to. He got me the power bank, we made sure the cables were correct, it worked with my phone and my camera, and he confirmed that I wanted the red colour. I like having non-black devices as my bags usually have black bottoms. He even gave me a discount for paying with a card! I was very happy with it and sure that my new little friend would keep me powered up. Oh, he even let me know where the CD department was.


I wanted to go to the CDs, as one of my favourite Japanese groups, Perfume, just had a new album out. What better souvenir than an actual Japanese CD! The CD department was on the same floor as the toys, so of course I had to look at the toys too. They had so many Gundam! That was so cool. I found the CDs, and started to look through. I couldn’t find it anywhere in the JPOP section! Then I started to think that maybe they kept the new releases in a different section. So I looked around, and that’s when I spotted it! It was quite a big display, I felt silly for missing it. The CD even have a DVD with it. There was also a Blu-Ray edition. I picked the CD up and went to the cashier. He looked at me and pointed out that it was the DVD version, and I told him that’s what I wanted. Maybe it was weird for him that I don’t have a Blu-Ray player.

On the list of departments, I also noticed that the top two floors has shops. I wanted to check out a Daisho for souvenirs, so I went there to see what I could get. I got some chopsticks, and even a few things for my hair. After that I went up more to the Uniqlo. I saw a video on their great bras and cooling tops. I have been to one in Malaysia, but I had the feeling that I could get things cheaper in Japan as they were a Japanese brand. I didn’t have much space in my suitcase, as I was travelling with a rather small one. Still, I looked around and picked up a few bras, they were on sale, a top with a built-in bra, and two skirts. I found a great skirt that was longer for business. I had to try them on, of course, as I knew sizing in Japan would be very different. I’m so glad I did! Now in Europe, most fitting rooms are filthy. Sometimes there’s so much hair and lint on the floor, I get very grossed out. In this shop I was lead to a room by an attendant. When he opened the door, I saw that it was carpeted! I looked at him and asked “shoes off?” He nodded, and I took my sandals off. It felt so great after all the walking I’ve been doing! At first I couldn’t stop giggling at the clean fitting room, and then I tried everything on, got my sizes (XL for bras and tops, L for skirts). I was still browsing, when I was advised that they were closing, as it was 10pm! They lead me to the tax free counter. The amount needed to be over 5000 yen, and I hit that. I told them that in the past few hours I’ve spent quite the amount, and we laughed a bit at my shopping so much on my first day in Japan.

I quickly tried to leave the department store. On my way down on the escalators, I noticed a girl wearing a really cool outfit. She was in all black. A simple top, but what I really found interesting was that she wore black leggings, and a tulle skirt on top of it. On other people it probably wouldn’t have looked so good, but she pulled it off perfectly. I was thinking about asking her for a picture, but I chickened out.

Leaving wasn’t as easy as one would think. It took me and a few other people a while to find the exit in the huge store. Once outside, I quite easily found the metro and rode to Namba station. My camera and my phone were both nearing the end of their batteries, so I hoped that I could still squeeze out enough for Dotonbori, which is quite the spectacle at night. On my way to Dotonbori I passed a street performer, and did a video of the area of Namba station at night. On the way I tried to find a famous cheesecake place, and I did, but of course it was closed.



Dotonbori is famous for all the lights. It gets its name from the canal that passes through it, as “bori” means canal. A favourite story of mine from Japanese history is actually connected to Dotonbori. The canal you can see there used to be a tiny river, and an entrepreneur, Yasui Dōton started to expand it at the start of the 17th century, so that they can better use it for transport. Sadly, he died in the Siege of Osaka, but his cousin finished it. The new lord of the castle could name it anything. You see, Dōton was on the other side during the war, the losing side. However, the lord still decided to name it after him, and thus it became Dotonbori. The man still honoured someone who had been his enemy by naming the creation of his idea after him. I think that was such a magnanimous thing to do, and kind of very Japanese.

However, why the lights? Well, this part of the town in the 17th century was the designated entertainment area. Theaters were established, which of course brought restaurants, then tourists, shops. The restaurants had to stand out somehow, and the displays grew, then you got electricity, and I think lights to the Japanese are like catnip to cats; they can never get enough of them. 


I walked to Ebisu bridge, which is a historic bridge and a favourite meeting place. There was a display there, as Osaka is doing a very strong campaign to host the World Expo in 2025. The view of the Tombori River Walk is very cool from the bridge. The Gilco Running Man sign has been there since the 30s, and now it seems to have been updated to the guy actually running through Japan. Very cool.

I managed some selfies with the sign, and my phone died. My camera still had some juice, so I asked a Spanish couple to take a few more pictures of me. I would have asked them in Spanish, but as my head was filled with English and Japanese, I couldn’t manage a word. They spoke English well though. I did hear a lot of Spanish all day though.

Afterwards I walked through the main Dotonbori street, and took pictures of the genius signs on the street. Upon reaching the end of it, I realised I wasn’t completely sure how to get back to the apartment. My back started to hurt pretty bad, so I sat down on a bench I found, and unpacked the power bank. I hoped that it had some charge in it, as these things sometimes do. I plugged it in, and it was at 40%! I was so relieved! I could turn on my phone, and use the Osaka free wifi to find where I was and how to get back. I actually was correct in my assumption of how to do it, but it was much better to know for sure, as I exhausted myself by then.

On my way back, I dropped into the 7-11 for some breakfast for morning and a bottle of small water for the next day, a bigger bottle for use at home. I definitely didn’t need to be lulled to sleep.


No comments:

Post a Comment