04.03.05
Osaka: Hit and Run tourism
My visit to Osaka was much too short. A lot of time was eaten by travel and mundane details, like eating and sleeping. I postponed my quest for Japanese elongated coins with a visit to Osaka Castle, which was beautiful and impressive.
Sadly, this delayed me, and I arrived at the Sanrio store after it had closed. I couldn’t find an okonomiyaki shop in the neighborhood, so I ended up in a bar, where I ate tasty but tiny skewers of roasted chicken, and chatted with two locals in English. They were probably the highlight of the trip.
In the morning, I postponed my departure to visit the Sanrio store again, but the staff told me there wasn’t a machine there anymore. Either it had been moved to their Universal Studios shop, or there were some at Universal Studios. The manager spoke pretty fast and with big words in Japanese, so I didn’t entirely understand him. Oh well, next time. Because I definitely want to come back.
On the way out from Hiroshima, I saw the most beautiful manju (Japanese confectionary) I had ever seen. I bought several, and took pictures. Unlike the manju that I know, the exterior was not made of rice flour dough, but I think from beans. The interiors were traditional sweetened bean jam.
These photos are especially for Katherine and George.
I bought an unreserved seat on the Shinkansen because I thought, like Southwest Airlines, they wouldn’t oversell. I was dead wrong. The train was very full, and I ended up standing the whole hour and a half to Osaka. Ugh. No more unreserved seats for me.
I was exhausted by the time I got to the Green Hill Hotel on the other side of town from the station, but I made an effort to get out, because the afternoon was all I had for sightseeing. I was famished, and had a mixed sandwich set at the hotel. Mixed sandwiches apparently means one egg omelet sandwich, and one other sandwich, sometimes ham, but in this case cucumber and tomato. I enjoy the omelet sandwiches, although they’re a new experience. And for all you picky sandwich eaters, the both times I’ve ordered sandwich sets, they’ve been on white bread with the crusts cut off.
After a couple quick phone calls, I headed out. Osaka has a Japan Rail loop line, like Tokyo, and Green Hill Hotel was convenient to one of the stops. So is Osaka Castle Park. The park is quite large, encompassing most of the grounds of the castle. They have incorporated modern elements, such as an auditorium, tennis courts, gift shops, cafe, and parking for tour busses. The castle has two moats, an outer rampart, and an inner rampart. It’s built on a fortified hill. There a lot of steps to get to the top. It’s ironic that I scoffed at steps to the pagoda yesterday because I found myself climbing them all for the castle.
It was near closing time when I got to the castle, so my tour was pretty quick, but I got a few pictures from the top, and a saw a few displays. Of course everything is in Kanji, which I can’t read yet. The displays were interesting because they were essentially dioramas with video projected actors for each scene. It looked more realistic than it does in the photos. I was able to buy a few souvenirs in the gift shop inside and outside the castle, but I felt it was time to head to Sanrio. Plus I was very hungry. To make life interesting, it started to sprinkle.
I was very tired by this time, and had to take several rests on the way outside the park. I found my way to a direct subway line from the park area to the Sanrio area. The instructions to go to the store said to walk 1 minute towards Namba from the Shinsaibashi station. Well, that’s easier read than understood. I wandered around for a while and asked a few people before I found it. Unfortunately it had closed 20 minutes prior. I hunted around for an okonomiyaki shop, but Shinsaibashi is a fairly hip place, so there were a lot of foreign (to Japan) restaurants with somewhat hefty prices, and little boutiques, but no okonomiyaki.
Tired and hungry, I stumbled upon a bar that sold substantial snacks, called an izakaya. Essentially izakayas sell Japanese pub food with your drinks. This one specialized in roasted chicken like yakitori. One of the bar men spoke passable English, so I ordered two skewers of chicken, one of breast, and one of hearts (yes, hearts. My family knows I like chicken giblets). He offered to sell me a wing, but I wanted something bigger. I should have listened. The skewers were tiny, with only three tiny bites each. Later, I saw a woman with a chicken wing, and it was HUGE! It looked like it came from a turkey, it was so big.
It was a very small izakaya, with only a bar, and a walkway to the bar. I sat next to two men, who seemed to want to try speaking English, but not in a pushy way, so I struck up a conversation. They were very nice. The very drunk (but friendly) one was Hajime, and the man I spoke the most to was Takaki, who was also tipsy, but not really drunk.
We had lively conversation about a number of things, including birth order. I guessed correctly that Hajime is first born in his family since hajimeru means “to begin.” Also it’s spelled “δΈ€“, which is the Japanese Kanji for one. Takaki was the baby, and his name’s Kanji was very difficult. I don’t recall what Takaki does, but Hajime is a sushi chef at his family’s restaurant. We discussed sushi, and he was shocked by the New York roll in America. They both were. Both men felt that rice and cream cheese don’t go together. All together it was a very pleasant conversation, and the highlight of the day for me. I had sufficient food and rest for the subway ride to the hotel, which Takaki very nicely walked me part way towards. I stopped outside the station to take a picture of Tsutenkaku Tower, and he had to go catch the last train to his house at the next station. Tsutenkaku Tower is a slightly smaller replica of the Eiffel Tower in Paris. It’s also lit up with neon, and advertising. The pictures I have aren’t very good because I was tired and the light was bad. Takaki warned me not to go there at night because there were a lot of homeless people in the park, so it was a bit dangerous.
The next day I went back to the Sanrio store on my way to the Shinkansen station. The JR loop line went around the city, but there was also a subway line that ran right from Tennoji station near my hotel through Shinsaibashi to the Shin-Osaka Shinkansen station. Unfortunately, I arrived too early, but I waited around until it opened. Initially the staff didn’t know about the elongated coins, but they fetched the manager, who called around. He spoke fairly fast, but seemed to indicate that the Sanrio shop at the Universal Studios City Walk had them. I didn’t have time for that, or the inclination to go to Universal Studios, so I’ll have to try to visit Osaka again sometime. Maybe during Golden Week.
Bonus photo for my Mom. It’s a manhole cover. Pretty, eh?