As it turned out, I wasn't quite done with the Shinto Shrines and Buddhist Temples yet. This was mainly for the historical significance of these buildings, rather than their grandeur.
The Shitenno-ji is the oldest Buddhist Temple in Japan, and was built in 593 AD. I was excited that it possessed a pagoda you can actually go inside. When you enter, you find two spiral staircases (one for up, one for down) which stop at each floor. Small Buddhas and other statues are on each floor and a glass encased gold object is on the top floor. The also had a main hall with several statues.
The other place I went was the Sumiyoshi Taishi, one of the earliest shrines in Japan, founded in 211 AD. I got a kick out of crossing the bridge.After that, I was ready to check out what I was really interested in. Osaka is the third largest city in Japan (The number two, Yokohama is just south of Tokyo and is practically a continuation of it). There were a few important neighborhoods I wanted to check out, and I was lucky to discover that they were all adjacent to each other in the center of the city. The first of these was Dotonbori, the food district of Osaka.
Osaka boasts itself as Japan's Kitchen. There are several regional dishes and specialties, but over all, everything tastes better in Osaka. Unfortunately, I am not much of a fish person, so I probably missed out on a lot. I did, however, get to experience the true standard of Osaka: Okonomiyaki. Okonomiyaki is this amazing pancake with all sorts of vegetables and meat mixed in. I also had some curry udon (as in combine two dishes I love into one). I don't know if anything will ever live up to Osaka food.
Next was Namba, the shopping district. It was just massive. All I could do was walk from one end to the other and take everything in. I explored some department stores, and saw the largest Don Quijote I have seen in Japan (It had a Ferris wheel).
The name of the next place made me skeptical. It was called Amerika-mura, which basically means American Town. I had read that this area was the center of youth culture in Osaka, much like Shibuya in Tokyo. I was much more than pleasantly surprised. The atmosphere was incredible. Every shop was small, hip and culturally rooted. There was such a variety of fashion that I ended up finding a T-shirt that suited me and bought it. I walked into one record store and there was a DJ scratching behind the counter beat juggling. I went into a larger fashion store, and found that they had Dinosaur Jr. and Bad Brains shirts. I wandered that entire neighborhood, until everything shut down. Then I called it a night and got ready for the next day.The game plan for day two in Osaka was museums and the like. I began with the Freedom Osaka human rights museum. It was a very interesting experience. I was given some English audio for my tour and an employee followed me around. Unfortunately, the audio was sparse and the employee had set lines prepared, but couldn't really answer my questions (I kind of liked being in a situation where someone understood your language as much as you did theirs, and how you had to try to reach a meaning somewhere in the middle). I thought it was great how the museum put so much of the history of discrimination in Japan up for the public to see, but sometimes it felt a little insincere (a lot of the events were very recent if not ongoing but they were referred to as if long forgotten. Also, there was no mention of discrimination towards Chinese immigrants). I am probably being too critical.
Next was one of my highlights of my trip. I went to the Osaka Aquarium, the second largest aquarium in the world (I guess I need to check out Atlanta now). They had two whale sharks and a manta ray. There were children everywhere, and they were pretty loud. I had to out run them a couple of times for some peace and quiet.
From there, I took a subway to the other side of the city to see the biggest landmark in Osaka, the Osaka Castle.
The walls were massive. There was a fireman training (initiation?) on a high rope across the walls. Children waved as they passed on a train shaped tram car (I thought it was weird that they all chanted "bye-bye" because if I was that age on a train I would be saying "hi" or rather "konichiwa"). The castle was pretty fantastic. The interior had been remodeled into a museum that told the story of the builder of the castle and its history over the years. I especially enjoyed the view from the top.With the day almost done, I took the last bullet train for Tokyo and spent the night at my apartment. I would be getting up bright and early for Sapporo the next day.
I am fairly indifferent when if comes to travel. I am not bothered by it, nor do I get excited about it. However, it took 11 hours to get to Sapporo by train and that is the same time it took for me to fly to Japan. Apparently, the bullet train that will go all the way to Sapporo won't be completed until 2020.
Sapporo was a very nice city. Everything was walkable, and centralized like Osaka. It was a calmer version of the cities I had already gotten used to.
For Jamar on the other hand, who had been in the very small Hakodate for the last month, it was a much more exciting experience. I was more or less there to hang out with him and anyone else I knew who was doing Light Fellowship in Hakodate. I met his friends in the program who were from all over the place (Grad students, Canadian University students). We also met this guy.
We did a lot of souvenir shopping for our friends back at school, and caught up in general. We also did some intense arcade visits. Jamar always warned me about the Japanese School-girlshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1fgpCRecUM
Also, this made my day:
That is a Bruce Lee themed Pachinko machine. I think Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the boss (of the Pachinko machine?).
It was all over too soon, but I loved every second of my trip. More and more I started thinking in terms of "when is the next time I will get to come here?"
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