Osaka

On Sunday 3/1 we started our trip to Osaka. It started at 3:30am for me. I let the gang sleep in a little longer. We had the difficult task of getting 3 men and 2 women looking their best and ready for 2 busy days with only 1 bathroom, 1 bedroom, and a living room to get ready in. We left the apartment around 5am and took the subway to Tokyo station. We arrived with around 10 minutes to spare before our Shinkansen (bullet train) left for Kyoto at 6am. We rode on the nozomi (limited stop) Tōkaidō Shinkansen which has a top speed of 186 miles per hour. This train is the busiest train in the world averaging 350,000 people every day. Fortunately for us it was somewhat empty this early allowing some of us to lay down. It reminded me a lot of a plane, but it was much more spacious. We arrived in Kyoto around 8:15am and headed to the New Miyako Hotel to begin our tour of Osaka at 8:45am.

Our tour began with a train ride to Osaka. It is about 40 minutes by train from Kyoto. After we arrived in Osaka we discovered that our tour guide was going to be a fast walking machine. Her first words to Shanna were “we are going to take 10,000 steps today!” I can only assume that she thought this would excite us. Here are some of her more memorable behaviors. Running everywhere only to wait (10+ minutes) until things opened, spending 10 minutes looking at a garden to see what cabbage looks like, taking us to a doll shop, after we all said we had no interest in seeing it, and the worst offense (insert condemning music here)… not giving Shanna the opportunity to shop at a Prada store we past.

Our first stop on the tour was to the Aerial Garden Observatory on the Umeda Sky building. My favorite part was watching the women go up a 3 story glass escalator (39 stories above the ground – with nothing below them). On the top (and open) floor/roof we were afforded a stunning view of the city. Our next stop was lunch at the Hotel Granvia Osaka. It was very different from the previous tour’s meal. The meal was very nice, to the point that we were the only people there not in business suits. The next stop was to the Osaka Castle. It was very beautiful, large, and historic. Originally built in 1583, the current building was rebuilt twice do to destruction by lightning, civil war, and World War II. We then walked down to a large group of plum blossom trees near the castle. These trees were very picturesque and crowded with people. After a lot of pictures we enjoyed a sightseeing water bus (boat) that took us on so many circles we had no idea where we went. During the circling we learned how to make origami cranes. After leaving the boat we walked through a Japanese fair. Court & Mike were blessed by a dragon, giving them good health and longevity. The rest of us passed as the blessing consisted on having your head bitten by the dragon. We then went back to the Hotel, checked in, got something to eat, and went to sleep.