focalintent (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
focalintent) wrote2009-04-12 04:18 pm
focalintent) wrote2009-04-12 04:18 pm
Japan part the First - arrival and Osaka
The first in an N-part series of posts about japan, accompanied with photos. No promises on the on the frequency of these coming out, or the density or quality of text involved. It all depends on my mood at any given moment.
Our flight to Japan was mostly uneventful.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
elvendoll slept for most of it, I slept for some of it. We arrive at Osaka after our 12ish hour flight, get our luggage, go through customs, and make our way to the Japan Rail station to get our passes. I will say in advance that having a JR passing for running around Japan was great. I loved the trains there - made getting around so much easier!
We took a short train ride from the airport into Osaka, and changed trains to get a subway that would take us closer to our first hotel. We checked into a little room with two twin beds and a mini kitchen, then set out into the night to find our first meal in Japan. We wandered a bit, ending up in a small restaurant. Somehow we managed to order food as there was no english to be found in the restaurant. The food was good, the first of many sushi meals we'd have in Japan.
The next day we got up, and wandered down to Osaka Castle. The grounds around the castle were gorgeous, the walls had some insane stones in them. The castle itself was a reconstruction of an earlier, long since burned down castle and was a museum giving the history of the Osaka Castle. The exhibits were a mixture of your traditional museum "stuff and descriptions", quasi-3d projections (video projected into models to make things look more 'real'), models, and such. The grounds were full of ravens flying around and above us, letting everyone know they were there.
We got lunch on the grounds of the Castle, discovering the joy of the cabinets of plastic food and pointing at the ones that looked most interesting. After lunch, we went across the street to the Osaka Museum of History. This gave more of a general history of the city of Osaka itself - again with many models.
After lunch we hopped onto a train and headed down towards the aquarium, our last intended destination for the day. We took a small detour, climbing into one of the largest ferris wheels i've ever been on, the Tempozan Harbor Village Ferris wheel.. It took nearly 20 minutes to make a single rotation, giving us a gorgeous view of the city surrounding the aquarium.
The aquarium itself was fun. I only put up a small handful of the photos from there in the set on flickr for Osaka, I may need to go back through them again to pull out some more images. We saw some incredible sea creatures in there, though, as well as some not sea creatures :)
After we got out of the aquarium, we made our way back downtown. We had sushi for dinner again, this time at a random shop in a giant underground mall. Once again, was really good food (and in a mall, no less!). After dinner, we walked around the mall a bit more, then headed back to the hotel, as we had a bit of train riding to do the following day as we were heading off to Omi-hachiman.
Next up - our heros witness battle floats doing mighty battle, and one will get their drink on with the old men of the town!
flick set for Osaka.
Our flight to Japan was mostly uneventful.
elvendoll slept for most of it, I slept for some of it. We arrive at Osaka after our 12ish hour flight, get our luggage, go through customs, and make our way to the Japan Rail station to get our passes. I will say in advance that having a JR passing for running around Japan was great. I loved the trains there - made getting around so much easier!We took a short train ride from the airport into Osaka, and changed trains to get a subway that would take us closer to our first hotel. We checked into a little room with two twin beds and a mini kitchen, then set out into the night to find our first meal in Japan. We wandered a bit, ending up in a small restaurant. Somehow we managed to order food as there was no english to be found in the restaurant. The food was good, the first of many sushi meals we'd have in Japan.
The next day we got up, and wandered down to Osaka Castle. The grounds around the castle were gorgeous, the walls had some insane stones in them. The castle itself was a reconstruction of an earlier, long since burned down castle and was a museum giving the history of the Osaka Castle. The exhibits were a mixture of your traditional museum "stuff and descriptions", quasi-3d projections (video projected into models to make things look more 'real'), models, and such. The grounds were full of ravens flying around and above us, letting everyone know they were there.
We got lunch on the grounds of the Castle, discovering the joy of the cabinets of plastic food and pointing at the ones that looked most interesting. After lunch, we went across the street to the Osaka Museum of History. This gave more of a general history of the city of Osaka itself - again with many models.
After lunch we hopped onto a train and headed down towards the aquarium, our last intended destination for the day. We took a small detour, climbing into one of the largest ferris wheels i've ever been on, the Tempozan Harbor Village Ferris wheel.. It took nearly 20 minutes to make a single rotation, giving us a gorgeous view of the city surrounding the aquarium.
The aquarium itself was fun. I only put up a small handful of the photos from there in the set on flickr for Osaka, I may need to go back through them again to pull out some more images. We saw some incredible sea creatures in there, though, as well as some not sea creatures :)
After we got out of the aquarium, we made our way back downtown. We had sushi for dinner again, this time at a random shop in a giant underground mall. Once again, was really good food (and in a mall, no less!). After dinner, we walked around the mall a bit more, then headed back to the hotel, as we had a bit of train riding to do the following day as we were heading off to Omi-hachiman.
Next up - our heros witness battle floats doing mighty battle, and one will get their drink on with the old men of the town!
flick set for Osaka.