Osaka, oh my!

This weekend, I took an extra day off and, with my friend C, ventured into Osaka prefecture for the first time. We took the bullet train to Osaka city, which was amazing, because it hardly felt like the trip took any time at all, though it took an hour to get there. The scenery just raced by as C and I chatted, and I was just about to turn over and take a nap when we pulled into the Shin-Osaka station!




From there, we took the subway to the Kaiyukan Aquarium at Osaka port. It was a beautiful day, and the breeze coming off of the water was amazing, especially since we had to line up for a good half-hour outside the aquarium to actually get in. The place was packed! We should have expected it, since it was the Sunday before a national holiday*, but the visit to the aquarium turned out to be more stressful than anything else because of the sheer amount of people crowding into the small, dark hallways and pressing up against the glass. Once we got nearer the end, the crowd thinned out considerably, and it was relaxing to wander the corridors around the giant tank wherein the whale sharks and manta rays swam about, but it was a bit of a gauntlet to get there.

After that, we took the train out towards Nara, to meet up with my second cousin, Chris. It was lovely to see him, his wife, and his son: we had a barbeque at their house and stayed up chatting until late. We slept over in their house - which Chris built himself, and is thus quite incredible - and after breakfast, Chris took us out to Nara, with his son along for the ride. They dropped us off in Nara and, after a harrowing journey to find a place to stash our bags, Caitlin and I said our goodbyes and then proceeded to feed deer and see temples.

We spent a good five hours in Nara, and we still weren't able to see everything, though we covered the larger attractions. Todai-ji temple is the largest wooden structure on earth, and it houses the Vairocana Buddha, the largest bronze statue in the world. It's very hard to translate the sheer massiveness of that place: C and I took pictures, but the scale is something that doesn't do well in photos: one really has to go there and walk through the doors to feel just how vast the place is. We also wended our way through the woods to find various Shinto shrines, with the paths hemmed in by giant cedars** and stone lanterns with mossy green hats. It was lovely and poetic, and the trees provided some nice shade, although the weather in Nara was quite a bit cooler than in Osaka.

We got back to Osaka around seven, and checked in to the hostel***. After a nap, we struck out for Dotonbori, the garish shopping district, and it was super-fun to check out at night. You can tell that part of the aesthetic inspiration for Blade Runner must have come from this part of the city: neon lights blazing from countless different places, little side-streets full of restaurants, and weird and wonderful things everywhere. We weren't able to do the entire street that night, so we went back to the hostel and Caitlin chilled in our room, chatting to her boyfriend, and I went upstairs to the lobby to watch the Fellowship of the Ring with a bunch of other people who were staying in the hostel. It was nice.

Yesterday, after checking out of the hostel, we went to the Umeda Sky Building, which was fantastic. We went up to the 34th floor and checked out the "floating garden", went to the roof and saw the view of Osaka (unfortunately it was muggy that day and so the view wasn't quite so clear as it could have been, but it was still impressive), and considered checking out the Michael Jackson display on the 5th floor, but ultimately decided against paying 2000 yen for the experience. In the bottom of the Umeda Sky Building, there's a Showa-era street full of restaurants that I had heard about for quite a while, so we went to see that and were severely underwhelmed. So we hiked back to the train station and caught a subway to America Village, which was also pretty boring, since if I wanted to see American consumerism at work, I would just hop the border and go to a mall back home. We had dinner, and then decided to get home. We took the slower train, for the novelty: the novelty of almost three mind-numbing hours on trains that rattled and numbed my butt when I tried to doze off, so yes - the bullet train is worth the extra 2500 yen. I know that now!


*Respect for the Aged day, I think
**Relatively giant, for Japan. The trees have been under protection from logging for the past 1000 years
***Bonsai Guest House, which I recommend to anyone who is going to Osaka. Clean, adorable, cheap, and super-conveniently located.