Back in Osaka

The ferry crossing was very smooth and we arrived in Osaka at about 8.30am.

A fellow two-wheeled tourist.  That's a tent on the front!

Our journey back to the scooter rental shop started with a bit of a wrong turn, but with a combination of John’s navigation skills and good memory, we got there without too much difficulty.  We had to refill the scooters with petrol before returning them, but the only petrol station we saw was on the other side of the very busy road.  We solved the problem by becoming pedestrians. After wheeling the scooters across at the pedestrian crossing, fuelling up and then reversing the process, we were soon on our way again.

It was rather strange to part with the scooters.  Despite the bit of concern about John’s less than healthy engine, we had a wonderful time exploring where very few (if any) Aussies have ever been before.  We met some wonderful people and  saw some amazing sights.  We’re glad to have had such a unique experience together.

Weighed down with our backpacks, we attempted to find our hotel.  Because our other accommodation along the way was pre-planned, we had maps and clear directions about how to find the various hotels.  However, this one was a last-minute change of plans due to the change of ferry departure point, so we hadn’t organised ourselves as well as we should have.  We tried to find the hotel on a station map, asked directions from a young lady who pointed us in the general direction, and finally got very good directions from a station attendant.  We were very happy to offload our luggage at the hotel and then go exploring until check-in time.

We were both quite tired after our ride through Osaka and a hot walk to the hotel, so we looked on the map for a likely looking park for a rest in the shade.  The place we found was near to the Umeda Sky Building.  The park had decent benches, shady trees and (bless the Japanese) a vending machine.  John settled down on a park bench for a snooze and I continued reading Mark Twain’s biography on my Kindle.  Just the ‘time-out’ we needed!

This guy needed some time out too.  Very elegant!

Once we felt ready to take on Osaka again, we visited the Umeda Sky Building.  This building consists of two 40-storey towers, connected at the top two floors, with a glass-sided escalator crossing the space in the centre.  I still find it hard to believe that I actually went up there!  The view from the top was absolutely amazing.  Osaka is truly a mega-city with multi-storey buildings sprawled out in every direction as far as the eye can see.  Our 14 storey hotel looked like a little midget amongst the surrounding giants.

Our hotel is marked with the arrow

Did I really go up there?

The glass-sided elevator (previous picture shows this from ground level)

We watched the construction work going on across the road

Does Osaka not have enough multi-storey buildings already??

Painter at the top of the Umeda Sky Building

We made our way back to the hotel and took a break before heading out for dinner.  We found a nice little diner nearby, where we had gyouza and I had corn ramen while John chose a plate of pork and various veggie things with rice.  It was REALLY good!  An interesting addition to the meal was the plate of free boiled eggs which we were invited to eat while we waited for our meal to cook.  [Another Japanese lesson:  when a restaurant or shop includes something for free, they use the word ‘sabisu’ (service) which means it’s a free service that they offer].  Our boiled eggs were ‘sabisu’.

We weren't tempted to eat here!

Finally (of course) we had an ice cream from the Family Mart convenience store.  These convenience stores really are too convenient.

Tomorrow we’re off to Kyoto, so we did a bit of research to see what we can manage in two days.  The upside is that there are two festivals on Saturday.  The downside is that rain is predicted - for Saturday.  A bit tricky for the Fire Festival.  Maybe they'll have to rename it the Fizzle and Steam Festival.