Osaka

March 20 - Travel to Osaka

Imabari Castle

After our eventful bike ride and attempts at drying out our clothes, this morning we had a short time to explore Imabari.  Since it wasn't raining we took the short walk from our hotel was Imabari Castle.  This was quite impressive 5 story castle, very typical of a shogun's palace that is seen in many of the smaller towns in Japan.  It was also a museum with many old shogun army outfits but unfortunately without any English explanations.  The gardens and temples were quite lovely.  The walk allowed us to stretch out our legs before the long day of train rides traveling from Imabari to Osaka.  It was raining again by the time we arrived in Osaka (the weather has turned against us) so after checking in at our hotel, we found a small curry place for dinner and called it a day.

March 21 - Remaining in Osaka allowed us to get a later start to our day.  We traveled by subway to two different shopping centers (covered street malls).  The first was quite typical of what we have seen in other cities and areas of Japan but we did find the 100 yen ($1) store and had fun wandering around looking at the items.  In particular we have noted the laundry hanging from the apartment building balconies as we pass by on the train. 

The "100 Yen" store

We have seen all sizes and shapes of laundry clamps from the typical close pins to some that are a foot long to clamp bed comforters to the balcony.  We wondered where you buy them and now we know... the 100 yen store had a full selection.

The second shopping street was devoted primarily to kitchen and restaurant ware.  Every small dish, plate, bowl, etc. that we have seen throughout our meal journeys was available for purchase along with the charcoal grills, bamboo steamers, knives, octopus ball grills, restaurant signs, lights and anything else one might need to set up a restaurant.  It was a truly amazing collection of restaurant equipment and supplies.

"Clothes pins" of all sizes

We had planned to make a trip to Kobe from Osaka (about 40 minutes by train) as Ted has some good memories of his time there but we are both getting tired of the crowds in the train and subway stations.  It's hard to imagine millions of people using public transportation on a daily basis.  The images of packed subway cars and pushers to get as many people on as possible are all true.  It is pretty much a game of frogger just navigating the crowded subway and train terminals as 6 tunnels merge into one large intersection and people hurry on their way to their next train.

Tomorrow we return to Tokyo and will depart early on the following day to return to Albuquerque.  This has been quite the trip and a fascinating vacation.

A sampling of knives available at one of the kitchen supply stores