A Day in Osaka

Tuesday, May 5, 2008--Osaka

My sinuses continue to bother me. I am convinced that it is sinus trouble because of the itchy eyes and the pressure across my brow. All I can do is hope that things will get better, I guess. Wish I had my Claritin with me!

Originally, I had planned to spend a couple of days here in Nara, then go up to Takayama, a castle town in the mountains where Nurse Grethe visited last year. But as I read my guidebooks before leaving, I realized I needed an extra day for that. One of the problems of having to plan the itinerary in advance is that it involves lots of guessing of how many days will be appropriate. Sometimes I plan too many days for a place. At other times, I plan too few. Therefore, instead of taking the trip to Takayama, I bought a regional pass for the railroad here around Nara and am staying here for 4 nights.

Today, I went into Osaka for the day. I had passed through there on my way to Kyoto on my previous visit to Japan. But I had not stopped there. I took the train into town in the morning and spent the day exploring it.

First, I went to Osaka Castle--the most visited tourist site in all of Japan. It is really a big park in the center of town that used to be a fortress. One large tower is still there, but it is rebuilt in the design it has always been and is now a museum. I has wonderful views of the city, though.

My main goal for the day was to go to the aquarium--the best in Japan. It was fantastic. It is 7 stories tall and one enters at the top and works his way down through it. The tanks are tall. At the top, one sees what lives in the water at the surface and on the nearby surfaces outside the water. As one walks down the slanted walkway, one goes deeper and deeper and sees what lives at each area. There are several tanks representing places such as the Pacific, Panama Straigts, Great Barrier Reef, Monterry coast, etc. The design is unique in that a person can go into offside areas and sit beyond the movement of people to watch into the tanks. It was a nice, but expensive, visit ($20 U.S).

Before leaving town, I explored two areas--Umeda with the tall skyscrapers and Tennoji, an old quarter. When I got back to Nara, I had been gone for 8 hours and was tired.