Osaka Area
After leaving Tomo No Ura, which was the only place we visited that day and so an easy, relaxed day, we collected our suitcases from lockers at Fukuyama bullet train station and took the bullet train to Shin-Osaka. From there, we took the subway to Osaka station and made our way to the Granvia Hotel. While I think it's possible to also take a JR train from Shin-Osaka to Osaka, and thus use the rail pass, the subway seemed easier at the time for the small additional cost. Osaka station is a pretty big station, and parts of it were under construction, so it took a while and quite a bit of walking to find firstly an information office and finally the hotel.
That evening we went for a look at the Dotomburi area in Minami-ku (the southern entertainment part of the city) and the next day made a day trip to Nara. The photos from that first evening have been included after the Nara photos though, to keep all the Osaka ones together.
Nara
The day trip to Nara didn't start out as well as it could have. The Hyperdia train timetable printout I had listed between 56 minutes and about 1 hour 15 minutes for the trip, with all options having the majority of the route on the Yamatoji line used by express trains. However, we decided to go a bit later than what I had in the printout, and I didn't have a timetable for the whole day, so we just turned up at the barrier and looked to see when the next train was. Unfortunately, the next train on the Yamatoji line seemed to be an hour away, so we asked the barrier attendant as best we could the best way to get there, and she indicated taking the circle line to Shin-Imamiya and then an express train to Nara, which is sort-of what we did. Except that we went to Tennoji instead and took an express train on the JR Hanwa line (as Shin-Imamiya seemed to require switching to a non-JR train). Unfortunately, the "express" train we got wasn't quite as express as I'd hoped, and didn't follow the Yamatoji line but rather a local line that went through many more stations. Not only that, but a few stations onto that local line it terminated, and we had to switch to an actual local train for the last dozen or so stations to Nara. We finally arrived at Nara some two and a half hours after leaving Osaka, whereas waiting an hour for that next Yamatoji line train would have got us there in less than two hours! Anyway, we still got there with enough time to see what we wanted to see, so it was just an annoyance more than a real problem.
The five storey pagoda at the Kofukuji temple:
And the three storey pagoda at the same temple:
The Kofukuji temple itself:
The ubiquitous deer that wander around all parts of the temple district. I believe they are considered an official attraction of Nara now.
At the Kofukuji temple:
On the path to the Todaiji temple:
And in a park near the temples:
Nara's main attraction, the Todaiji temple.
A gate on the approach path:
The main gate to the temple itself, although tourists enter via a different gate off to the left:
The main Daibutsu-den Hall and temple courtyard. This is supposedly the largest wooden structure in the world, and according to the Lonely Planet guide, is not as big now as it originally was:
The large Buddha statue inside the Daibutsu-den Hall:
Other statues in the same hall:
A gong:
Outside the main courtyard, heading up to the Nigatsu and Sangatsu halls:
The Nigatsu Hall (the Sangatsu Hall was a bit too ordinary to bother photographing):
Eating okonomiyaki for dinner at a Nara restaurant. Okonomiyaki is a kind of omelette eaten from a hotplate at your table. It can be cooked at your table, but in this case it was cooked at the counter and just kept warm on the table hotplate. The white fluffy stuff on top is bonito shavings, bonito being a type of fish that is dried and then shaved. It is often used in soup stocks and sprinkled on top of noodles and other dishes. In this case, the heat from the omelettes made the shavings waver back and forward, making them look eerily alive:
Osaka
As mentioned above, some of these photos of Osaka were taken on the first night, and the others (mostly the day time ones) on the last couple of days spent entirely in Osaka.
The Dotombori area in Minami-ku around Namba:
Part of the view from our hotel window:
The Dotombori (or Dotonbori) area in Minami-ku, not far from Namba subway station, on the first night:
At the bridge where the Ebisubashi-suji shopping arcade crosses Dotombori (the bridge crosses the canal), which is probably the heart of the Minami-ku area. The arcade is the tunnel-like building at the rear, and it continues back behind the camera:
Along Dotombori:
There are two or three of these along Dotombori between Namba and Nippombashi, and yes, the legs move towards and away from the wall.
Heading towards the Nippombashi end:
Don't ask me who this guy is supposed to be, perhaps some local shop's version of Ronald McDonald:
Along the canal (or river I think it's actually called):
The rest are daytime photos taken during the last two days.
A poster at a theatre advertising a play to do with The Tale Of Genji by Murasaki Shikibu. This story, which I've read, is considered Japan's finest ancient literary classic, having been written in the 12th century:
Osaka's answer to Mt Rushmore perhaps?
A love hotel:
And another along the canal (or river):
Inside the Shinsaibashi-suji shopping arcade, which is what the Ebisubashi-suji one becomes as it heads further north (ie. it's effectively the same arcade):
The Ryugu-tei sushi restaurant, where we ate brunch. It was a popular place:
Because of the all-you-can-eat fixed price buffet:
It wasn't the most expensive sushi of course, but for the price it was hard to beat:
Kate's and my combined effort. The smaller clear dishes contained fruits and desserts. Note the mirror on the column though, so the few plates showing right up the back are just a reflection of the two main stacks. We thought we were doing pretty well with this amount, 30 plates including the desserts (from what I can count in the photo), but two Japanese girls beside us were getting close to that number each!
Japan has its share of those with nowhere to go:
Dotombori by day:
For the last few hours before we had to head to the airport, we went to the Hankyu HEP5 building a short walk from Osaka station to take a look at the ferris wheel on the roof. When we got there at around 3pm it wasn't operating, and we were told it started at 4pm, so I decided to wait so we could take a ride. The ferris wheel is accessed from the 7th floor, so it's not a particularly high building. The information states the ferris wheel reaches 106 metres:
The ride consists of one loop that takes about 15 minutes. It costs ¥500, but they take a photo of you as you get on and it costs another ¥1000 if you want a copy.
Riding the ferris wheel:
And the view on the way round:
The car immediately in front of us near the top of the circle:
And down we go...
Approaching the bottom:
Time to get out:
And that's all folks. After that it was back to the hotel, collect the baggage, and onto the train to Kansai Airport, for which we could still use the rail pass.
Return to Japan 2008 - Part 1
