I had my longest ever stop-over in Osaka, which is perfect because i can finally take a long rest and recuperate; i figure its time for me to take a break from just cycling through cities and to start sight-seeing like a tourist. And unexpectedly, after squeezing around Osaka on foot and train for 2 days, i had a rekindling of my desire to get back on the saddle and hit the roads.
September 2-4th: Kobe -> Osaka (pics for Sept 2nd, Sept 3rd, Sept 4th)
A somewhat famous place that i did not expect to pass leaving Kobe for Osaka was Koshien, which is 'hallowed' ground for Japanese high school baseball players hoping to make it pro and has been featured prominently in many Japanese baseball movies, dramas, anime, manga etc. I just saw the sign while cycling and took a detour.
Osaka, Osaka..where do i begin? I'm going to try just give an all-in-one picture of my stay there. First thing, the hotel i booked online turned out to be superbly high-end (high end considering what i've stayed in so far perhaps?). All the front-desk staff speak English and there were athletes for the IAAF Osaka 2007 meet staying there as well. Service is top-notch and there's even a hotel shuttle bus every 20minutes to and from Shin-Osaka station.
September 2nd happened to be the last day of the Osaka 2007 (PHOTO) meet so i thought i would head down to Nagai stadium to catch the night's events. Change of plans went i saw the ticket prices: 10,500JPY for the cheapest available seats! That's like $150 SGD to catch a few hours of running! Cheapskates like myself unfortunately, can't get close to the stadium so i just wandered around the fair grounds (PHOTO), had dinner and some Takoyaki (8 octopus balls for 200JPY, that's the most reasonable price for food i've paid in Japan so far!) and went back to the hotel.
I bought a 2-day subway/bus pass for 2700JPY which comes with free tickets to 24 attractions in Osaka. The pass is real good value since the subway costs a mini-fortune to ride on. 3 stops from Shin-Osaka to Umeda costs 210JPY (~3SGD) and the ticket to the stadium the previous day was 310JPY. I had a little merry-go-round in the train lines in the maze that is Umeda station before i finally got orientated with the rail system. First stop:
Shin-Umeda City and its Floating Observatory (normal ticket 700JPY, free with the pass!) 170m up that offers a 360 degree panoramic view of Osaka City (PHOTO). Spectacular! And the building design really looks unique. I met Yannick who's from France (Paris) up on the roof of the Observatory and since both our next stop was Osaka castle we decided to go together.
Osaka castle looks fantastic from the outside but inside (my first visit inside a castle since its free with the pass) is really really disappointing, in the sense that it's been so renovated that i hardly felt any shred of the past remaining. More like going back to the future.
I had dinner with Yannick (PHOTO) and we exchanged e-mails and said goodbye. Next day was a visit to the other places on the pass, including Shintennoji temple (oldest temple in Japan), Tennoji Zoo (been so long since i visited a zoo, never thought i would enjoy myself) and WTC Tower Osaka at night, among others.
Quite frankly, the place i enjoyed the most was Den-den town, Osaka's version of Akihabara. Best find was Metal Gear Solid for the PS1 for 1000JPY. Been looking all over for that to complete my MGS collection. The best place to look were the 2nd hand shops. Wish i had more put aside more for shopping, but i would never be able to carry it on my bicycle anyway.
It's getting late (0014) so i think that's all i can write for tonight. Tomorrow i'm on my way to Nagoya which is around 150km from here. Should be a 2 day ride if my mood doesn't swing. Good night from Kyoto!
5 comments:
did you like squeeze through the subway and trains with your bike in tow or is it happily stored away in the hotel? and it's an unexpectedly high end hotel, so did you spend unexpectedly less on it than you thought you should? well, japan definitely did loads for its tourist friends from all over the world. the all round osaka pass is just amazing.
did you manage to tell frenchman yannick about your travels, not just restricted to osaka (like he is, unfortunately for him)? you must be relying loads on telepathy, or you are secretly learning hand signs when we didn't see.
osaka castle is really huge. yes, you got your point across from that photo with you (very small) in it.
japan manages to make even its zoo look so cute. roundy monkeys on branches welcoming all visitors. that's rad.
and shintennoji temple, purportedly the oldest temple in japan, manages to look futuristic with its outerspace communications antenna perched on top.
in wtc tower osaka, did you manage to take 2 x ufos there, or is it just some lame reflection? and that ferris wheel looks like a spot of fireworks. otherwise the view just looks like boom boom rocket.
Wow! Shin-Umeda City seems to have reeeaally long escalators(unless its a camera trick). Thats so cool! I guess if someone manages to fall and roll down that escalator, he will end up very dead.
bert: hotel was fantastic. and Yannick speaks a sufficient degree of english so it was easy to talk. as for the tower, by the time i got there it was filled with lovey-dovey couples so i didnt want to hang around or disturb them..wanted to visit while it was light but i spent longer in DenDen town than expected..
eewei: first of all..congrats on a normal comment. i knew you could do it! and as for the escalator thingie, i was wondering that myself. would have been interesting to see some mortality stats on the way up
if anyone wants some Japanese B4 size movie pamplets let me know, current (Eng) movies available are fantastic 4, transformers, bourne supremacy, RE3 etc.. i've been going into cinemas just to grab as many different ones as i can
hey gab... u planning to tour e whole of japan ah? lol...
vellos: actually i am touring the whole japan..
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