Up in the Floating Garden Observatory and down in Temma town

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It's been a relatively quiet day again today. Neither of us slept well last night as it is so warm and stuffy at night. We had intended on visiting the Ninja Museum today which sounds really cool but lack of sleep made us slow on our feet and we didn't make it out of the hotel until 10.30am. Instead we wandered over to the Floating Garden Observatory in Umeda, about a 20 minute walk from where we are staying. To say the building is huge would be like calling cheesecake mildly tasty - a massive understatement!

The building was right in the heart of a less pretty, industrial part of town and looked like a mirage with so much shiny mirrored glass. The Floating garden Observatory was located on the 40th floor and the glass lift took us as far as floor 35. The lift was so fast, it beats some of the rides I've been on at theme parks. Then we had to get on an escalator that crossed through the centre of the building - with nothing underneath! You'll understand what I mean when I upload the photos but looking down at a drop of about 130m made my legs buckle and my heart pound like a drum. I was terrified! You will know from previous blogs that I'm not good with heights at the best of times but it seems Japan wants me to face my phobia - and I'm doing it!

The view from the top beats anything I've seen in a city so far. There were 2 levels for viewing the cityscape: one inside which had seats and BIG windows; the other was the top deck open air viewing ring - the so-called Floating Garden. Now do not be fooled by the name - there was not so much as a twig, leaf or petal anywhere to be seen. Hardly surprising either as it was mega windy up there but oh my god, what a stunning 360 view of Osaka. As with all Japanese cities, the hazy sky means you can't see so far more often than not and today we got a decent but restricted view of our surroundings.

After making our way down again, we meandered over to Temma, a different district of Osaka, to have a picnic (courtesy of the 100 Yen shop again!) in the park. The sun was intense and we wilted whilst enjoying Blueberry cakes, purple potato biscuits and a pear-flavoured fizzy drink called Bubble Man (I couldn't resist!). Next to the park was the very intersting looking Osaka Children's Plaza building. It's basically a museum for kids so we didn't pay to go in but we sneaked into the lobby for an impressive view of the architecture from the inside; definitely worth a look if you ever come here.

On our way back to Umeda we strolled through yet another lengthy covered shopping street where we spent hours browsing in the shops without seeing one other westerner's face. It was a fabulously cheap place to buy stuff though there was nothing we really needed. I seem to be going through a Hello Kitty phase though and insist on dragging Glynn over to look at all the stuff you can get - Hello Kitty umbrellas, alarm clocks, doormats, sweets, fans, cushions etc. I believe you could actually kit out a complete house with this stuff alone if you really wanted to....alas I don't think Glynn would be too keen on that idea!!

That's it for now folks. Going for a well-earned cold beer or two now and turn in for an early night so we make it to the Ninja Museum tomorrow - fingers crossed!

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