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Published: November 6th 2007
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Day 6: Konnichiwa japan
I was quite sorry to be leaving Beijing, it was much better than I thought it would be. I could have quite happily stayed for another few days or explored more of China. In the end, I had the dormitory to myself for the last 2 nights. Although it was nice to have the space, it didn't really help my sleeping (still not right) and it was bloody freezing at night!
The flight to Japan was thankfully fairly uneventful. The plane was only about a third full and the veggie food was great (i.e. contained vegetables)! Having found an ATM at the airport, I was a bit disappointed to find that Lonely Planet was right, and that ownership of a Natwest Switch card doesn't automatically mean that you can withdraw money any time, any place! I was rather glad that I had bought some last minute travellers cheques when in England.
Getting to the hostel proved a bit of a challenge. Although extensive and highly efficient, the Japanese rail network is complicated, especially when you're already a bit tired and have just got off a plane! Essentially, there's a national network divided into regions,
a bullet train service, a subway system in most major cities (which occasionally seems to merge into a tram system, still operating on the same lines), and multiple private companies besides. Depending on your chosen form of transport, you then have to work out which machine or counter to get a ticket from, and then where to get your train from. This would be difficult enough (for me at least) if instructions were in English, however it's even more challenging when machines all operate in Japanese, and not all maps have English translations! I eventually got to the right station, but not without asking anyone and everyone who looked like they'd be able to help (unfortunately, English isn't that widely spoken, and my Japanese is non-existent, so although I'm sure people were being helpful, I didn't understand a word they were saying).
The hostel is on the 10th floor of a tower block in Osaka. Although not that easy to find since many streets here don't appear to have names (or if they do, they're well hidden on both maps and roadsigns), it was worth it. The overall first impression of the hostel is a kind of MFI meets
Startrek. The rooms and communal areas all look extremely clean, modern and new. Doors are sliding rather than push/pull and bunks in the rooms are completely enclosed by curtains. Separate slippers for wearing in the hostel are provided (and then you change into separate slippers again when going to the toilet). The rules are a bit militant though: the shower room can only be used between 6 and 8am, and you have to be out between 10am and 4pm, with a curfew at 11pm. I'm sharing with an older Australian lady in her 50's, and a couple of Japanese girls. There are quite a lot of Japanese people here, I think they're part of a weekend tour group. Backpackers my age seem to be quite sparse in these parts; I'm guessing the cost might play a role in this (everything is about 5 time the price of China - I don't think I could afford to stay in Japan long without working)!
Day 7: Farmhouses and fish.
Having been woken up at 8am and kicked out at 10am, I thought I'd make the most of it and fit in a full day of sightseeing. In the morning,
I headed up to a park a few stops north of the city called Ryokuchi-koen. Although the city was quite cold in the morning, it wasn't long before it warmed up and the park was soon full of families having barbecues, runners, and children playing all kinds of sports. It's quite impressive how active the children are here, and probably explains why, despite a multitude of fastfood outlets, obesity doesn't seem to be such a problem.
At the northern end of the park was the "Open Air Museum of Old Japanese Farmhouses", a collection of old wooden houses of different shapes and sizes from all around Japan, that had been taken apart and rebuilt in a little village. Most were open for exploration and contained examples of tools used, as well as open fires in the kitchen areas. It was quite interesting, though since all explanations were in Japanese, I didn't spend too long looking round the houses. Outside one of the buildings, there was an activity table for children to make decorative ornaments using branched twigs attached to a base, and acorns which were painted and then attached to the twig to resemble owls in a tree. Once
again, my inner child surfaced and was compelled to join in producing a very impressive "mini-tree" (sadly, I have since had to part with said mini-tree, owing to limited space in my backpack, but I'm sure all will be delighted to hear that photos will follow at a later date)!
I had lunch in the park and then caught the subway to downtown Osaka in search of an ATM that would take my switch card (mission accomplished courtesy of citibank). I went for a stroll around Osaka's main streets feeling slightly out of place amidst America-style shopping malls and shops that would probably be found in Knightsbridge in England. Without exception, all the local trendy Japanese women had made a real effort for their shopping trip (looks like city-shorts are still in fashion - the shorter the better. No, I won't be buying a pair!). I didn't spend too long in down-town Osaka, but headed to the bay area to visit a few of Japan's record breakers (including the world's largest aquarium tank and world's largest ferris wheel).
The aquarium was big and split into geographical zones. There was a wide range of fish, jellyfish, crabs and reptiles,
as well as a few mammals (seals, sealions, sea otters, and my personal favourite, the sloth)! In the (record-breaking) largest tank, the star exhibit was a whale shark, which shared its water with a wide range of other oversized fishy friends. It was then a short walk to the giant ferris wheel which I arrived at in time to watch the sun set over Osaka (which was lovely, and I'm sure would have been very romantic had I not been in a car on my own! It was a bit embarrassing - with the exception of one or two large families, everyone else there was in a couple!). I left soon after the ride, picking up some sushi, salad and fruit en route home (hurrah - good veggie food!)
Day 8: Park Pleasantries
After a surprisingly good night's sleep, I caught the subway down to another park and some gardens, this time in Tenno-ji-koen to the south of Osaka. Although there was little grass to lie on, so limiting potential for falling asleep in the sun, the gardens were very attractive and pleasant to walk round. The highlight was probably a circular garden, "Keitaken-en",
of perfectly pruned
Japanese trees and other foliage around a lake. There was also a greenhouse, with all kinds of brightly coloured tropical flowers, and a large lake with plenty of carp, terrapins and herons around it, which proved to be a lovely spot to have lunch.
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