Day Eleven- Osaka

Boyo is such an impressive hunk of man, one strap is not enough to hold him up on public transport. He needs the support of two. Even if it puts other people at a disadvantage, he needs to hold two.

Osaka style Okonomiyaki is really good. Better when a professional puts the mayonnaise on though. I bet you are intrigued to find out the difference between Osaka style and Hiroshima style. Well, wonder no more- in Osaka they mix everything in together whereas in Hiroshima it is cooked in layers.

Getting to the hostel was an absolute disaster. For a start our directions didn't say which station to go to. Once we eventually worked it out (with the help of several members of staff in the tourist information office), these were the directions we had to contend with:
Go under ground and go to exit 12. From Exit 12 walk towards Mizuho Bank and a convenient store called AMPM or Apolo building or Lucius building (Do not turn at the corner of Lucius building). It's a big street that's running east to west and then take the west way. (It's down hill)
Go straight and then you'll pass a big hospital called “Ichi Ritsu Fuzoko Hopital" (A big building with bus stop in front and Karaoke across the street).
Then turn left to the narrow street (down hill) when you see a new apartment on the left (1 street before the traffic light before high way).
Keep walking the street until you see a preschool on the right at the 3rd corner from the big street. (You will see public bath on the right on the way)
Then turn right at the corner of the preschool and make a left at the first very small street (in front of the gate of the preschool).
Then you will see the guest house on the right.
How we actually got there, I will never know. We should have taken that as a sign of how bad the place was going to be. To get to our room, we had to walk through another bedroom. There was no lock on the door. It was literally like someone was letting people stay in their house; a house which is crammed full of junk (think me asking people to pay to stay in my bedroom!) We couldn't check in until the evening which was fair enough, but we had to leave our cases on top of a pile of shoes. The girl who worked there was so rubbish it was hilarious. We asked for a map of Osaka. She said "oh sure... here's one. Sorry, it's in Korean though"!!! We politely declined and set off in search of someone a bit more helpful.
First stop on our whirlwind tour of Osaka was the castle.

It looks really good from the outside and the view from the top is great, but unless you are interested in Really Old Japanes Things, the museum is a bit boring, There are only so many letters signed by some famous Japanese man a girl can feign interest in!

Between the castle and the train station is a big park. I can't remember what it's called but it's basically the Osaka equivalent of Yoyogi Park in Tokyo. Walking through, I felt very old. There was a Battle of the Bands type thing...

...loads of boys with skipping ropes (it was a lot more impressive than it sounds, they were really good!)...

... and millions of posing teenagers...

Of all the cities we visited, I would say that Osaka was the most difficult to navigate. I don't know why it was so difficult but it caused Serious Stress. Eventually we found the Umeda Sky Building. It was worth the search.

The observations deck is on the 73rd floor. It's around the circular hole at the top of the buiding. The two things you can see going across it are escalators. The view was GOOOOOOOD.

Apart from Tokyo, Osaka was one of the most modern and developed cities we went to. While it was nice to see the countryside, I think I preferred the cities.
The Japanese do not show emotion. At all. I think we saw one hug the whole time we were there. So, instead of actually telling people you like them, why not pay A LOT to padlock "your love" to the top of the building?

Of all the things I was expecting to see in Japan, Hundertwasser was not one of them! I can't seem to get away from him!

Some say the Tempozan Ferris Wheel is the largest in the world. Some say it's one of the biggest. All we know is, it's pretty massive.

It was really cool. The views of the lights were ace but sadly there are no pictures because it was very difficult to capture the lights.
It goes without saying, but Japan is a bit weird. They all seem very serious almost all the time, nobody talks on public transport and I would say that they are a very self-conscious nation. Which is why their obsession with cute things doesn't seem to make much sense! Every poster has some kind of cartoon drawing, more often than not featuring an animal, no matter what it is telling you. This one is to say that pregnant women or mothers have the priority (I think)

And these monkeys were about general behaviour on the trains. I think the moral of this one is "Don't be a Spiv"

And this one... errrrrr... be careful where you throw your banana skins?