Osaka. An interesting day. We headed out at 9 but Brenda forgot her JR pass so had to run back. We didn’t end up catching a train until 9:30. When we got to Osaka our first stop was to be Osaka castle. As soon as we got off the train we were kind of lost, it was a weird train station and once we got outside the area was strangely organized and didn’t make much sense….this would be a recurring theme throughout the day.
We made it to the castle and it was really big and ornate from the outside. There were enormous stone walls and a moat in around it… then we found out it wasn’t a real castle, it was a reconstruction of one from 1931. Haha, this is also a recurring theme in japan because they build everything out of wood then for some reason really enjoy burning things down and rebuilding them…
It cost $6 to get into the castle. We were all super tired today for some reason and it was overcast which didn’t add to the problem. We got into the castle and it was a really nice modern wood floor with a gift shop and TV’s and glass display cases everywhere…it looked in no way ancient or legitimate. The way to tour the castle is walking through each floor starting with the top, so we went up to the top floor…via elevator. Each floor was more disappointing and me gave up halfway through and called it quits. Even Dr. Velikova and Bisson were real disappointed.
Me, Annalise, Aaron, Brenda, JT and Dr. V decided to head to the Panasonic showroom. It was a few train stops away and it showcased unreleased products from Panasonic. Before we went to the showroom we got a lunch at a restaurant in the same building. Lunch was a disaster. I ordered the cheapest thing off the menu so I was safe. But Dr. V and JT both ordered shark fin soup and Annalise got egg and vegetable soup. They brought 3 different soups to our table at different times… no one knew whose was what and it was frustrating. The food was sub-par and overpriced. Then we got up to pay and of course they didn’t split the bill and the concept of separate checks was a foreign concept to them. So it took about 20 minutes to pay.
After that we were so tired. Our plan was to go to the Ferris Wheel and then head back home. We got lost about 5 times on the way to the Ferris Wheel and the people we asked for directions were not too helpful. Everyone else felt the same and thought it was very difficult to communicate with people. We got to the Ferris Wheel and apparently it is the largest one on the world. It overlooks the riverfront and port. I saw a this big bridge that looked really familiar. I told Annalise and Dr. V that I think that it is the largest suspension bridge in the world and I saw it on Modern Marvels.
We paid $7 to ride the Ferris wheel and the view was really good. There was a speaker on our car and it told us about the different buildings we could see and it said that the suspension bridge was the largest in the world so I was right!
After the Ferris wheel Annalise and I came back to Otsu. I took a nap for about 3 hours. Then did my cultural presentation. Afterwards we went to Kyoto and got some dinner at Nakau, a 24-hour Japanese fast food place.
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