Kind of as a substitute to Pat and I going back to Oz for a visit (for me I normally go at least once a year) someone came up with the brilliant idea that we could have a family reunion at a mid-way point instead. The fact that we had frequent flyer points to give to my parents to use was a bonus and so we set Japan up for the reunion. A pretty cool plan, though with our indirect flight to Japan I almost feel like we’d practically flown to Oz anyway! Ha ha.

The plan was for us to all meet in Osaka, where we spent most of our trip before moving on to Kyoto where we would part ways with Pat and I flying back to London and Dad, Mum and Stephen traveling to Tokyo (to spend a few days including meeting up with an aunt on my Mum’s side before flying back to Oz.) It all actually really worked out well and I have to give Stephen a lot of credit for sorting out our accommodation for us. It was a bit complicated with lots of checking in and out but in the end I think saved us a bundle on what would otherwise be very expensive accommodation (especially in light of recent weaknesses in the pound and aussie dollar against the yen!)

Most of my travel in recent times has been to mostly Western type countries (that is, European or American) and therefore I’d forgotten what it was like to arrive in a country which was truly culturally different from my usual experiences. That’s not to say that the cultures of Spain, Greece, Germany and England, for example, are exactly the same, but Japan is just something else. I can’t really pin-point what it is but it just feels that extra bit more exotic I guess? One of the most striking differences to me was the relative indifference that the Japanese have to those around them (not in a bad way.) For the most part people kept to themselves and didn’t express the intense curiosity in other people that I seem to feel everywhere else. I guess to some extent we fit in a bit with our Asian looks but even so I’m fairly sure our bearing gave away the fact we were tourists (in particular when we whipped out our cameras or attempted to talk very broken Japanese with what must sound like a god awful accent!)

Photos, Photos, Photos.

When?	Early March 2009
Why Go?	As the international gateway to Japan you should come to Osaka for its food (its known as the gourmet capital of Japan), castles and underground shopping arcades and just shopping centres in general. Great also as a base for day trips to places such as Nara, Kyoto, Himeji, and Kobe.
Weather	The last chills of winter easing into the tendrils of spring we had glorious sunny days and grim rainy days. Temps ranged from 5-15 during the day to 0-5 at night.
Hint	– English is not widely spoken though most people have basic knowledge. Therefore, if you have the chance, learn a few basic phrases (or bring a phrasebook.) Also handy is having key phrases or the name of your destination/food/thing you want written down in Japanese or even English is sometimes helpful.
	– To find something/some place. Rather than relying on street names and streets actually being marked (we didn’t see too many streets with names!) make sure to take note of key landmarks in the vicinity of your destination to help find whatever you’re looking for. If near any sort of station (subway or train) when in doubt you can always head underground and use the underground maps and numerous exits to at least get you in the general direction. Also as Japanese people are quite helpful, even if they can’t speak English, don’t be afraid to ask for help, especially from younger adult females who are more likely to speak English.
	– If you ever need somewhere to have a meal and cannot think of where to go always try the food and restaurant floors of departments stores or the underground areas around train and subway stations. You’ll be surprised at the wide variety of reasonably priced venues you’ll find.
	– Osaka Unlimited Pass. Good for one day (Y2,000) or two (Y2,700) the pass not only allows you unlimited use of the subway, trams and buses for the period of validity (the one day pass also gives you use train lines) but gives you free entry into 27 attractions! Granted you won’t be able to hit all the attractions during the one or two days but you can more than get value out of the pass if used and planned wisely. For example, if entry prices from the guide are to be believed, if you plan to visit the Floating Garden Observatory (Y700), Osaka Castle Museum (Y600), Osaka Science Museum (Y400) plus subway rides (which are an average of Y200-Y230) you’re covered.
	– Closing times. If an attraction is due to be closed at certain time bear in mind that last entry is normally at least 30 minutes before closing. We found that out the hard way!

The Flight Over

I had no real complaints about my Finnair flight except that they didn’t have individual video screens on the plane for our long leg between Helsinki and Osaka. I know we are now spoiled with these things but when you can’t sleep (which I couldn’t) having the screens and video on demand really helps pass the time. They had one big screen which, at least, we were only one row away from but nothing beats having your own. Otherwise the plane trips between London and Helsinki and then Helsinki went quite smoothly. What I do like is that the monitors broadcast the “pilot’s” view out the front of the air plane as we taxied off and then the view from the bottom of the plane below us as we got into the air and when we landed. Food was quite good though interestingly the airline only offers one option which presumes that those with special dietary requirements had to order them pre-boarding or miss out. At least this made service pretty quick.

Hilariously both legs of our flight we had little kids around us. Not sure if the kids were restless or not but kids on the two separate flights couldn’t help but play with us through the gaps in the seat (they especially seemed to like my coat!) and one little girl got especially excited and often popped her head over the seat and at one stage actually came around to stand near us!

Both Pat and I were a bit buggered by the lack of sleep once we got to Osaka as by the time we arrived in the morning in Osaka we’d basically been awake for nearly 24 hours. I must admit we needed a bit of a kip at about 4pm on our first day just to get through the rest of the night. Walking around on we were nearly ready to pass out!

The Experience

Pat and I had a few days to ourselves in Osaka before Dad, Mum and Stephen arrived. It was good to have this time to orient ourselves and get to know Osaka a bit though it did make it difficult in the sense that we didn’t really want to be repeating experiences too much so we had to try and work out what we could do that maybe Dad, Mum and Stephen weren’t necessarily in. I’m glad we had the time though because what is normally missing in my holidays is the time spent sitting back and absorbing the culture. Normally I’m in a mad rush to get around and see the “sights” when some of the most valuable experiences could be had just being. Okay – sorry about that – I’m clearly feeling a bit philosophical at the moment!

For the first couple of days Pat and I pretty much ate, walked and explored, ate more, played in the gaming parlours, walked and explored more, ate some more, slept, walked and explored again and played some more games! This kind of took us between the South (Minami as represented by Namba and Shinsaibashi) and the North districts (Kita as represented mainly by Umeda.) I wish I’d taken my pedometer on this trip as we did a LOT of walking. It’s a visually arresting place so there’s lots to see and observe.

It was quite interesting to just observe the people of Osaka – the Japanese are truly quirky sometimes! The thing that surprised me (though I guess it shouldn’t) was that for the most part people seemed to really dress to impress. I didn’t see one person who dressed sloppily – not one. And the hair! Lots of time spent with a hairdryer and hair gel – and that’s just the guys.

Highlights

Its impossible to describe everything we experienced, though from the length of this post you’ll probably think I have!, so some of the highlights were;

Food.

This has to come at the top of the list because it felt like we were constantly eating. We had loads of sushi, katsu, curry, omuraisu (omelette rice), ramen, soba, okonomiyaki (Japanese pancake – a particular speciality of Osaka), takoyaki (octopus dumplings – also a particular specialty of Osaka), don (on top of rice), and of course bakery stuff. I love the fact that in Japan they have these wonderful bakeries that produce the softest breads filled or topped with the most delicious fillings/toppings. Great as a snack or for a light breakfast I swear we went into every bakery we saw (even if we didn’t always buy anything it was always fun too look!) The only non-Japanese meal in Osaka was the burger I had at this Hawaiian place – I couldn’t resist because of its name: Kua A’ina. It was like I was eating at my family restaurant. Heh heh.

Not speaking or reading Japanese is not that much of a problem with food because for the most part there will be the well-known plastic food displays outside the restaurant. Really great also if you just don’t know what you feel like eating! The food quality in Osaka never let us down. No matter where we went the quality was perfect.

My mouth is watering just thinking of all the things we had! Yum! However, I’m glad Pat and I brought our chopsticks too – I like think we saved a tree or two from not using the disposable chopsticks. 🙂

Gaming Parlours.

You couldn’t walk ten steps without running into one of these things. Whether its pachinko slots, or “casinos, or floors of grabby-machines, or floors of electronic games you will find it within 20 metres of wherever you’re standing. We probably went into most of the ones we saw as we always found them to be inordinately entertaining (if slightly money-sucking – ha ha). The Japanese clearly also agree because the parlours, no matter the time of day or night, were always quite busy. Mainly with young Japanese men but some things (like the grabby-machines) or the Japanese (and more sophisticated version of the 2p machine) attracted couples. Kind of like a way to pass the time. One of the parlours even had a fake sky reminiscent of Las Vegas casinos to encourage people to lose track of time in there!

Most of the time the parlours had deep loud pounding music which I think we got accustomed to over time. My only regret was not playing pachinko which really is a very strange game indeed. Technically speaking I don’t think its legal to gamble in Japan but through pachinko and “casinos” (where you basically swap balls/tokens for “gifts” which you exchange at another venue for money) it happens. Because of the language barrier we didn’t really spend too much time trying to make wealth though I did blow Y10,000 yen in about 5 minutes one of the 2p machines. Its easy to do – trust me!

6.30pm in Umeda.

There is a particular street in Umeda (can’t quite remember what it was called but we somehow stumbled upon it) where if you hit it at the right time (sort of 5.30-7pm) you can see all the Geisha heading swiftly up and down the street to wherever they needed to be. They were really beautiful though I was amazed they could move so quickly in their tightly wrapped kimonos and socked feet in slippers! I did try and take a couple of photos but they didn’t really turn out and I didn’t want to really make the geisha feel like an animal in a zoo or that I was papping them!

Shopping.

If you love shopping then Osaka is the place for you. I couldn’t even begin to name how many shopping arcades there are in Osaka but there are plenty including three department stores, Hep Five (complete with its own Ferris wheel and the infamous Sega Joypolis taking up the top two floors), Namba Parks, Umeda Shopping Arcade, and the Shinsaibashi-suji (a covered shopping street that stretches for miles) just to name a few. There are also the miles of spacious underground malls and if you follow one passageway you never know here you’ll end up. As I was walking around In wondered how the current economic climate could sustain such a life!

Minami district.

This area is kind of like the Times Square of Osaka with lots of brightly lit panels on walls etc. and a very lively atmosphere. Dontonbori is the street to be in at night. Its lined with heaps of restaurant and features the famous giant mechanical crab. Sadly the clown-restaurant which I’d been looking forward to Cui-Daore had shut the apparently about eight months ago so we didn’t get to experience it. Basically it was eight floors of Osakan cuisine! Still, the area made for a great people-watching vantage point and we picked up a few snacks from the vendors lining the street (mainly serving takoyaki!)

100 Yen stores.

Okay as much as I rib my Dad for loving the 100-yen stores you could easily spend a half a day in these places (especially the ones that stretch over a few floors.) For the equivalent of a measly 70p you can get all sorts of goodies in the stores from food, to hair accessories, to make-up, stationery, kitchen appliances and storage, bathroom goods, and clothing just to name a few items. The quality of the items is also surprisingly decent. If you weren’t paying attention you could easily walk out of the stores with bags and bags of stuff before realising there is no way any of is going to fit into your luggage!

Observatories.

The Floating Garden Observatory in Umeda (173m) and the WTC Cosmo Tower Observation Deck in the Bay Area (256m) are both wonderful observatories and give stunning views. When we went to both towers we were lucky that it wasn’t overly crowded so we could afford to enjoy the vantage points in a relaxed manner. Both have seating areas where you can spend a few hours if you want to admiring the sights.

The Floating Garden Observatory is especially targeted for romantic interludes with a few special features such as the Lumi Deck on the rooftop (where couples can sit down and holding hands whilst touching the domes adjacent will project the state of their hearts on the square tiles surrounding them), love benches (similar concept where the pressure on the seat changes the light around you) and “cabins” suitable for couples to cuddle up and watch the city lights. The Umeda Sky Building (where the Observatory) itself is an attractive building in its own manner.

Some other attractions

Worth mentioning are
– Osaka Castle Museum (a lovely castle though nothing compared to Himeji castle, it is one of the most famous in Japan. It has an 8th floor observation platform but for the most part the building is a museum, interestingly using uses videos and holograms as well, to describe the life and times of Toyotomi Hideyoshi and the history of the castle. Unfortunately most of it is in Japanese so you won’t too much time here. Good for a laugh is the chance to try on some samurai helmets/outfits and kimonos for a small fee. Fun to watch Dad and Mum have a go at it!)

– Osaka MariTime Museum (good for about 45 minutes – fun just to walk “under water” to get to the main exhibition space in a glass dome which seems to sit in the middle of the water with no obvious way of getting there),

– Osaka Science Museum (who doesn’t love a museum you can actually interact with – this museum has heaps of hand-on stuff to play around with), and the

– Osaka Bay Cruise “Santa Maria” (lasting 50 minutes, is a nice way to take in the Osaka Bay area on a lovely day, though at Y1,600 may be a little pricey is a steal when coupled with the Osaka Pass.)

We didn’t get around to some of the more typical attractions such as Universal Studios (done it in the US and though it may have been amusing to hear it in Japanese probably not a good use of our yen!) and the Aquarium (again – I’ve done aquariums aplenty in many countries and we couldn’t justify the Y2,000 price tag on entry in the limited time we had.)

Next to exploring Osaka we also took a few half-day and full-day trips out to nearby areas.

Instant Ramen Museum

The Instant Ramen Museum is a Y260 yen and 40 minute train ride out to Ikeda from Umeda. We ended up in a 7-11 having to ask for directions to get to the museum after we left the train station though I’m pretty sure it is fairly well-signed so we must have just got distracted by something else (like another bakery!) In August 1958 Momofuku Ando invented the first instant noodle product – “Chicken Ramen” and it turned out to be one of the most important revolutionary products in food as we know it as I’m sure everyone has had some sort of instant noodle in their lifetime. The museum takes you through the history of the product including a funny presentation in the Cup Noodle Drama Theater. I think it was mostly in Japanese so won’t take too long to get through the museum but the fun bit is the “My Cup Noodle Factory” where you get to design your own cup (you draw on it with felt-tip pens), choose your soup flavour (original, curry or seafood), choose your ingredients and, after having the cup shrink-wrapped, then you get to put the noodle into an “air package” which you pump up yourself. Great fun for Y300 and so funny to watch these middle-age men in their business suits really getting into it. If you plan far enough in advance you can participate in the “Handmade Chicken Ramen Hands-On Workshop” where you can make the noodles from scratch (that is from flour!) For Y500 this sounded like (and looked like) a fun thing to do though instructions are in Japanese and it is likely to be booked out in advance by various school groups.

Suntory Yamazaki Distillery.

The whisky distillery is located in Yamazaki, which is a Y450 yen and about 45 minute train ride from Umeda in the direction of Kyoto, and if you’re into your whisky worth a visit in the way that the Guiness Factory in Dublin is worth a visit. The distillery is a bit of a walk from the station though the path is clearly signed and you can’t really miss the big distillery once it does come into your view. The location of the distillery is due to the River Yodo (formed actually where three rivers.) The water in this area is famous for its good rating and the quality it lends to the distilling process. Tours are given (for free) on the hour so best to time your visit accordingly. Unfortunately the tour is given in Japanese however headsets are provided in English at least which give you information at key points of the tour. At the end you’re given a free tasting of one each of the single malt whiskies – that is, The Yamazaki Single Malt and the Hakushu Single Malt.

Nara

Nara is apparently Japan’s first real capital and is a perfect way to spend a day. Its about 35-50 minutes from Namba costing about Y450-540. The city apparently has eight Unesco World Heritage sites! so its very rich in cultural heritage. Its only a small place but the most rewarding spot, when on limited time, is Nara-kōen or Nara Park. The first thing you’ll notice about the park is the over 1,200 wild sika deer roaming about and normally hanging around the tourists who are feeding them with the deer biscuits that you can buy for Y150. There are signs all over the place, admittedly in Japanese, which I think warn tourists off from feeding deer with anything other than the deer biscuits but, even more funny, are the signs which warn tourists off from eating the deer biscuits! The deer were extremely charming and surprisingly smart. They seemed to know when you had food, headbutting you to get your attention (thank goodness their horns had been shaved down) but giving up as soon as you threw your hands up in the air. This was something I experienced first hand. Deer seemed to be accepted everywhere even being allowed into stores!

There are heaps of attractions in the park next to the deer but the two highlights for me were the Tōdai-ji and the Kasuga-Yama Hill Primeval Forest. The Tōdai-ji is a Bhuddist temple complex. Its large Daibutsu-den Hall, the largest wooden building in the world, and the enormous bronze Buddha image, the largest of the Buddha Vairocana in the world, are the main highlights within the complex. Its is definitely worth a visit and whilst you’ve paid your Y500 entry you can see if the Yakushi Nyorai Buddha by the right of the entrance to the Hall can heal you (touch it then touch the relevant body part) or you can try for enlightenment by trying to squeeze through a small hole located in a wooden column just near by souvenir area.

Walking through the Primeval Forest is both peaceful and refreshing.

Himeji.

Himeji, which can be reached in less than one hour from Osaka, is most famous for the beautiful and postcard perfect Himeji Castle which is probably Japan’s most beautiful surviving feudal castle. The castle is, as you can imagine, designated both a national treasure and a UNESCO world heritage site. My tip for visiting Himeji is that for those who don’t have a JR railpass and are planning on getting one is to consider getting the JR West Rail Pass (Kansai Area Pass.) This pass costs Y2,000 and you can only get it once on your entire trip in Japan (they stamp your passport to demonstrate you’ve bought one) but is better than paying a return fare of Y2,900.

It will take probably a couple of hours to explore the castle but best to do it on a tour if you can get on to one. The tours are free and given by volunteers and I think generally given only once a day. Ours started at 11am and its definitely worth making the effort to get on one as it will give your visit to the castle much more meaning. When you’re moving about the castle also watch out for ninjas. Once again these are volunteers (normally actors) and make a great photo opportunity should you not feel too embarrassed to pose with them! We had this Californian girl on our tour who was more than prepared to get into character to pose with them. It’s a truly beautiful castle and as our tour guide was explaining all the defensive measures of the castle it struck me as funny that it has never actually been used? It would have been interesting to see whether any of the defensive measures, which included hidden rooms, confusing entrances and exits, several gun holes, and stone throwing holes, would have worked. You’ll get other tidbits too like how one of the tatami rooms was initially made of 42 tatamis but as the Japanese pronunciation of 42 (shi-ni) means death in Japanese one of the tatamis was cut in half to make it 41.5 tatamis instead and like how many of the stones used in the walls were effectively re-cycled from such things as coffins!

Kobe.

After spending the day in Himeji we stopped into Kobe on the way back to Osaka to see what the city had to over. I was surprised at how very cosmopolitan it felt with some very interesting and attractive buildings. Of course Kobe is probably most well remember for the great earthquake almost 15 years ago which leveled many areas and killed over 6,000 people. Seeing the city today you’d hardly realise that such a tragedy had occurred in its past. I think the city is the kind of place to spend an evening out with lots of attractive restaurants and bars. We spent a lot time near the harbour which was very attractive – the Harborland is a shopping and entertainment district along the waterfront (complete, of course, with a ferris wheel!)

Just when you thought it was over

Just when you thought the post was practically over I just wanted to make some funny observations about Osaka, which I guess is probably applicable across the whole of Japan,

– Although practically everyone had their mobile phones out and visible I never heard one go off in public and I hardly ever heard anyone speaking on their phone. Amazing!
-In contrast, things I expected not to speak actually did, and that was the toilets, escalators and trucks!
-The Japanese are highly efficient in many things they do to lining up for the subway or train, to efficient police services (I lost my wallet early on during the trip and I was pleased to find that the visit the police station to report it lost/stolen went off without a hitch, even if no-one spoke English), to delivery of services (all Japanese seem to move in a very quick manner – its enthralling to see their energy.)
-Many restaurant buildings are seemingly multi-functional so what you seen on the ground floor is not usually representative of what is going on above. Normally there are several floors of restaurants, entertainment, or whatever so when in Osaka you should always look up and see what’s going on above you.
-Impressively there is none, or very limited, rubbish on the ground or anywhere. I say it is impressive because I was hard pressed to find a bin most of the time! They must be disciplined enough to take the rubbish with them. In addition I didn’t see one cigarette butt on the ground. This disgusting habit of throwing the butt on the ground is obviously not acceptable in Japan (or they have some very quick street cleaners out there!) I didn’t see many places to dispose of the butts so I imagine the smokers, and quite a few Japanese smoke, must carry around portable ash trays (they do exist!)
-Many people ride bikes or walk in Osaka to get from place to place but despite the crowds and despite the fact the bike riders ride very quickly there was hardly ever a crash. Somehow people just don’t seem to run into each other so when it did happen it was more the exception than the rule. I also noted that no one really gets angry either if you do happen to get in their way people will just wait patiently for you to get out of it!

-Toilets. Oh my goodness the toilets are amazing. From ones that automatically start up with mood music (to cover toilet sounds), to warmed seats, to bidets and “showers”- I liked them so much I started taking photos of them. Most were pretty good quality as well no matter how public though be prepared to encounter toilet paper that isn’t particularly soft and also the occasional squatting toilet.

I have had a great time in Osaka. It’s a beautiful city and I cannot say enough about the Japanese people I’ve talked to and encountered on my trip. Always ready with a polite smile and kind words I can’t remember the last time I’ve had such an agreeable visit! I’d definitely put Osaka, or any place in Japan really, on anyone’s travel itinerary.