Bye-Bye Brandon!

Tomorrow we've gotta take Brandon to the airport. He's been here for two weeks, and we have tons of stories to tell yet (in time, all in time, people).

Fly safe, Buddy.

大阪料理 - Osaka Cuisine

After enjoying the view from the Floating Garden Observatory, Shige led us to a swanky okonomiyaki restaurant somewhere on the 17th floor of one of the many buildings in Umeda.



That's what it looked like before it was cooked. We didn't waste much time taking pictures after it was done cooking.

After the excellent repast, our man Shige took us to one of his favorite haunts, Org. He said he likes it for the ambience and because it's food is so "...organic" It was here that Shige and Laurie both agreed that, despite being full, one always has a second-stomach for dessert. I’ve since learned that there is a Japanese term for such a thing. It's called 別腹, (betsu-bara, literally "separate-stomach"). And good thing we all have them, too! Because the dessert was excellent!



Many thanks for showing us around, Shige!

Fushimi-Inari Shrine

Before heading south to Osaka, we stopped for a visit to the famous Inari Shrine in Fushimi ward. Best known for a walking path made of thousands of torii gates, it's also worth visiting if you want to ensure yourself a good harvest, as Inari is the Shinto god in charge of such things.







Inari is often depicted as a white fox (above), and Inari shrines are to be found throughout Japan. You'll know you're at one when you see statues like this one. Another indication of an Inari shrine, I am told, is that typically the torii gates at Inari shrines are painted vermillion.





You can see on the map that the torii gates cover quite a distance. (They are the orange scribbles following several sloping hills towards the mountains in the background.) There are literally thousands of gates there, each one donated by some individual, family, or company. While unfortunately we didn't have time to trek the entire path, we did get to see the first few hundred meters or so, and it impressed us enough that we're eager to return (someday...).

Umeda Sky Building

We met Shige at the Umeda Sky Building sometime after sunset. This worked out nicely, though because the view from the "floating garden observatory" is equally as incredible at night as it is during the day. I can say that because now I've been there at both times (coincidentally, the last time was with Shige, too).

The Umeda Sky Building is really two buildings, capped off at the top with the aforementioned "floating garden observatory". The observatory is round-shaped, and on certain days I've heard tell that they have some type of fogger device that makes it look like you are viewing Osaka from on a cloud once you are on the outside deck. It is well worth visiting if you ever find yourself on the North side of Osaka with seven hundred yen in your pocket. For that price, you can go up to the top and see for yourself what I'm talking about. If you happen to have more than that in your pocket, then check out the basement. Down there they've reconstructed an Edo-era street and filled it out with Japanese style restaurants. We didn't go, but I saw some photos and ads for it while we were on our way through.

On clear days you can see quite a few local landmarks, and on clear nights you'll see quite a bit too. We counted five or six ferris wheels, among other things. Osaka Castle seemed like a tiny plastic model of itself among the modern buildings. Here is what it looks like from between the towers, looking up from ground-level through the ring of the observatory.



Unfortunately, only one picture of the view turned out, but here it is:

Pigeons

While in Kyoto, I happened to get a really nice close-up of a pigeon. I don’t particularly like pigeons.

Kiyomizudera

Chip liked the view at Kiyomizudera too.

In Kamakura

Me and Brandon took a quick two-day jaunt to Kamakura, thanks to the advantagest of the "Kamakura Free Kippu", a ticket that goes round trip from Chiba City to Kamakura and back, allowing unlimited travel on trains within Kamakura for the two days.

One of our stops was Hasedera, a temple in the Hase district of town known for it's really old Kannon statue that purportedly washed up from the ocean some eight hundred years ago. It's a beautifully laid-out temple and enjoys perhaps the best view of the ocean of all the places I know of in Kamakura, owing to the fact that it snakes along the side of a steep hill overlooking the shoreline.

Anyway, at the temple, if you go in, you might get the opportunity to gain mucho-karma. By spining one of these babies around (it works much like an old fashioned, by-hand grain mill), you gain the same amount of karma as you would if you'd read every one of the sutras (=scriptures) inside.

Brandon's Here!!!

NW19 arrived at 5:26 p.m. safe and sound! Then we met up with Laurie in Chiba city forty minutes later and hit the nearest kaiten-zushi for a late supper. Currently, Laurie's demonstrating one of our favorite PS2 games here: The Taiko Drum Game (I don't know the real title, but that's close enough for now).

Details to follow. Pictures too.