Around Osaka!

 

There was this taco yaki stand near my hotel, so I ended up going there a couple times.  Also, it was like, half the price of the other booths in more popular places!  And they were great! 

There was often a short line of Japanese people also waiting for some tacoyaki

One specialty of Osaka is also Kushikatsu, or fried breaded skewers of stuff!  So I also ate some of that one night.  Maybe a little greasy, but definitely tasty.  I had, from bottom to top, potato, mushroom, beef, horumon (I believe homumon=intestine, but it was just kind of chewy and meaty, like a smooth muscle or something, and not bad!), then on the left, a chicken meatball, and a slice of kabochya pumpkin, and then a chicken wing.  The wing was actually really good.  It was breaded and fried like everything else, but also the wing tip was left on but the bones were removed, so it was just this really tasty, crunchy, juicy couple bites.  You also get a bunch of big cabbage leaves (at the top) and can dip everything in a soy type sauce.  Also, they had several types of beer.  With friends this could definitely be fun. 

In the convenience store, I noticed that there were premade, crustless, shelf-stable egg salad sandwiches.  Also shelf-stable minced katsu sandwiches and Hamburgers.  So again, thats also pretty awesome/ horrifying.   

Ha, then along with titles like Toy Story 3 and X-Men: Wolverine, at the convenience store you can also get quality titles like Down Periscope with Kelsy Grammer, Harley Davidson and the Marlbro Man, and the X-Files movie.

The picturesque walls and outer moat around Osaka-Jo

Osaka-Jo and a very nice flower display. 

There as actually a time capsule thing there too, with actually 2 separate capsules.  It was first made during an international expo or something in 1970.  So there was one capsule to be opened every century (so in 2000, then 2100, etc.), and then the second capsule isn't to be opened for 5,000 years!  So in the year 6970!  It would be amazing for that to work, and/but like, I can't even imagine what will happen between now and in 5,000 years, and what things will be like.  I hope everything will be fine and like, they'll remember it's even there. 

View from the Osaka Museum of the Osaka-Jo site.

Night view from the Floating Garden Terrace atop the Umeda Sky Building

Same place in a different direction.  It was like this all the way around.

Also, there were black lights and glow in the dark flecks in the walkway which was pretty, and the whole place had a romantic theme.  Even with a place where you can buy a lock, have it engraved with your names, and put it on a like "lovers fence".  There were a ton of couples there too.

I also went to some museums, but either no pictures allowed, it wasn't very photogenic, or there wasn't much of anything interesting to photograph, so no pictures!

Osaka Aquarium and Dotombori!

The Osaka Kaiyukan (Aquarium!)  Also, it was very bright outside

Some Ginormous fish.  Even with some distortion from the window, that fish is bigger than that old lady.  It was more impressive in person too.

They have 2 whale sharks!

And you know, since its already Christmas season even a week ago, the person who fed the fish was dressed up like Santa!

Hand feeding the Sunfish.  (I guess thats how they feed at least some of them in the big tank)

Sunfish posing for a snapshot (or maybe is just curious/ thinks it might get fed)

I guess the manta ray likes swimming in the bubbles of person feeding the rays and non-predatory sharks at the bottom

I thought it was an interesting image, the manta ray swooping over and over.  Couldn't quite capture it though

Me and one of the whale sharks!

There was a guy with a fish plush toy, and the seal was fascinated with it.  The seal followed him/it around for a couple minutes at least.

The whale sharks were So Big!  it was hard to get a good picture.

Also some Japanese Giant Spider Crabs

And a shark/ray touching/petting pool!

Me and Glico Man on Dotombori

Dotombori street in Osaka

Me and Osaka Okonomiyaki

Me and the kinda creepy/neat drumming guy (I don't actually know what he/it is called, but its an iconic landmark of Osaka, especially for Japanese people)

More catchups!

Hey!  so my pictures and updates have gotten out of sync, but whatever, I'm just gonna keep going.  Just saying that I know, and don't be alarmed if things are somewhat out of order.  For reference, from Nagoya I went to Osaka and wandered around there for a couple days, with a day trip to Koyasan (its a mountain and a town), then came to here to Takamatsu, on Shikoku island!  Today I went to Naoshima, a famous art-island in the Seto Inland Sea.  I'll post some pics soon, but for now, older ones!  So stay tuned!

Nagoya pics!

Me and Nagoya-Jo

Inside, I'm sitting on a shachi-hoko like the two at the top of the castle 

Oasis 21, actually a shopping and bus center, is really neat

You can go up on top of the platform, and the whole middle is clear glass with water

Inside the Automotive Pavilion of the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry & Technology.  I forgot to get a good picture of the weaving half of the museum.

Some replicas of engines.  Some of which have cut-away views with working parts, and also run and rotate, when you push a button 

A working frame-spot-weld-together thing.  The frame starts all separated, then you push the green button to get everything powered up and running, then two big black buttons simultaneously to activate it.

A final assembly machine.  At the end, all those parts are lifted/ dropped together to make the car (minus the insides and wheels and stuff).  The machine also fully runs at the push of a button

In my (actually second place, the first only had space for one night) place in Nagoya.  I guess it was an Okinawa-style backpacker hostel.  Had some character and such, which was good.

It was a bit dirty though.  Shoes off only in the bunk rooms and around the common low table in a big alcove on the 1st floor.  I am 100% serious when I say I think this kitchen floor use to be white, maaybe grey.  And only squatty potties.  And you're only supposed to drink water from the downstairs tap.  But it actually wasn't bad.  They did have wifi too. 

Kanazawa Pics!

Guest house Pongyi, which is Burmese for Monk.  Because, the owner (named Masaki-san) is an amazingly good guy, who use to be a financial banker and was unhappy, then had his own multi-media company for a while and was still unhappy, and then did two 3 month Buddhist monk experiences in Burma helping children.  With the shaving his head and wearing a robe and donating all his money and everything.  After that he decided to open his own guest house (from starting with 30 dollars!) and is now very happy and is practically a local hero.  Next, he wants to start a orphanage/ halfway house for kids and teens in Burma.  Ha, also he would also say things like "I have a very big car! it has seats for 4 people!" and when asked about the weather tomorrow, he looked it up and with a smile said "Oh, congratulations!  There is only an 80 percent chance of rain!" 

My amazing bowl of ramen recommended by Masaki-san.  He also recommended I get the bowl with extra meat!  It's heaped with sprouts, and yes those white chunks I believe are delicious pieces of pork fat. (there are big slices of roasted pork on the other side)  It was definitely only a sometimes-food.

Masaki-san also insists that every guest that stays at pongyi folds at least one origami crane, with a peace message inside, then once a year he takes them to a nearby temple, or if he has time, to the memorial in Hiroshima. 

I guess that for some reason 98 percent of all the gold leaf in Japan comes from solely from Kanazawa.  Here, you can see light through it!

A display showing the process of making gold leaf. 

The incredible rain I walked back to Pongyi through.  Apparently in Kanazawa, the saying goes "Even if you forget your lunch, don't forget your umbrella!"  Which held true.

Me at Kenroku-en and the often depicted stone lantern.  (its raining again, but it cleared up later)

Everywhere in the garden was very picturesque.

  I can never tell if even like, the shape of the raw stepping stones and trees are selected and form organically and beautifully by directed chance, or if the whole thing, down to the direction of the grain in the rocks is carefully selected and engineered.  I didn't get any very good pictures of examples, but like how the rocks are around the waterfall.  Did they just put rocks together, or is every single one, its size and shape and orientation and location and make up, carefully selected and placed, with also respect to the whole, to make an small, amazingly picturesque, waterfall.  And is this true for the whole place?  

And Hot Pot-Nabemono! This one had a ton of people though.  Also, Masaki san kinda pre-cooked it in the kitchen before bringing it out.  Ha, also, whenever there is nabe mono, he insists that everyone involved go together to the grocery store if they can, everyone splits the bill, and everyone helps clean up. 

Everybody for Nabenono!  It was a lot of fun. Also, guess who was from New Zealand (the two blonds on the left), who was French (the dark haired western girls, on the left back and in the center), who was from Finland (the white girl in the right center), and who was from the Netherlands (the white guy in the left center) and who is Japanese (the other folks)!  Then theres me! (who is a little red)

Departing from Pongyi.  It was fun there.  I also went to a local onsen resort hotel with Masaki san, where he started working again after being a monk, and 2 japanese people, who want to start their own backpaker place in Takayama.  It had like, 2 restaurants and a cafe, a spa, a uni-asian-ish massage center, an ice cream bar, group and meeting facilities, a game/arcade corner, a huge room filled with rows of plush reclining chairs with built in speakers and a tv infront of it, a whole bunch of hotel rooms, aaannnddd the multiple indoor outdoor pools ranging from cold to 105 to naturally mineral rich to herb bath and with a sauna.  Ha, and a lot of naked Japanese men.  And you take your shoes off in the lobby, so you walk around everywhere barefoot or in socks.