Across Russia to Japan and Malaysia - Part 10/12 (Osaka, Japan)

After checking-in at the hotel, we only had time for a quick shower before having to head out again. We had arrived on the second day of the Osaka Tenjin Matsuri festival, one of Japan's largest festivals. Our friend Yuko had given us some tips where to go so we made our way down to the river to watch the boat procession and fireworks. We didn't really understand what was going on, and there were thousands and thousands of people. But never mind, everyone was having a good time, with lots of eating, which it seems is a local pastime in Osaka, and the firework display was spectacular.

 Japanese women buying snacks.

Some people were dressed in traditional costume but the majority were in western dress.

 One of the many many stands selling snacks.

 Something happening involving a fish.

Representative firework.

The firework display went on for a long time. There would be a five-minute burst followed by a pause and the next burst of firework.

In Osaka we did many of the typical tourist things. We went to the Umeda Sky Building, spent hours in a gigantic electronics store while Henry examined the gadgets, visited Osaka Castle, went to the Osaka Science Museum, had a short cruise on the river, and more. It was action all the way.

Downtown Osaka is a city of skyscrapers.

 

 The top of the Umeda Sky Building.

 The mirror effect of the glass. (Can you spot us in the other photo?)

 The ferris wheel on top of the HEP Five shopping centre.

 On the way to Osaka Castle.

 Osaka Castle.

 Henry with a group of teenagers and their teacher, who interviewed us as part of their English lessons.

 Navigation is often a problem in Japanese cities as, unsurprisingly, everything is in Japanese, and the tourist maps are rather vague. We spent quite a lot of time feeling lost but generally got there in the end. One exception was when we went to the suburb of Ikeda, where we wanted to visit the Daihatsu car museum, Humobility World. After about an hour of wandering around in the searing heat, we gave up, even though we could see a huge Daihatsu sign in the distance and the wall of what we presumed was part of the factory. Luckily, Ikeda has another attraction, the Instant Ramen Museum, which was fun to visit and cheered us up, especially Henry.

Momofuku Ando, the inventor of instant noodles and a hero to most students, and one of his fans.

Japanese need their noodles even in space and Space Ramen were developed for zero-gravity conditions. Guests to the museum could develop their own flavour instant noodle - all part of the fun.

Space Ramen noodles.

 

 Part of the production line for guests' own inventions.

Henry looking forward to a cup of the original flavour Cup Noodle, bought as it should be in Japan from a vending machine.

During our action-packed few days in Osaka we even managed to squeeze in some evening entertainment, a soccer game, Cereza Osaka versus Sagan Tosu, and an absolute highlight, a trip to the Koshien Stadium to see a Hanshin Tigers baseball game. Many thanks to Yuko, who arranged the tickets, we had a great time, even though we know very little about baseball, although Henry did once play Finnish baseball. Anyone in Osaka at the right time should certainly make an effort to see the Hanshin Tigers.

 Henry in his Hanshin Tigers gear.

 Strike!

 The crowd getting ready for the traditional release of ballons at the end of the seventh innings.

You can even get beer delivered to your seat - most civilised!

This was our second visit to Japan and I have to say we are Japan fans. We like the high-tech, the sense of adventure (i.e. being totally confused much of the time) without there being real danger, the cleanliness and efficiency, the quirkiness, and the way Japanese do things their way. If you have the chance you should really go there and see the country for yourself, with an open mind and a smile you'll have a fascinating time.

En route to Malaysia.

Across Russia to Japan and Malaysia - Part 9/12 (Sakaiminato, Japan)

Japan is supremely well organised so when we got off the ferry there was a shuttle bus waiting to take passengers into town and everything went swimmingly. Even more surprising was that the man on duty in the ticket office of the railway station spoke excellent English, which made getting our tickets to Osaka very easy.

Sakaiminato is a small, sleepy little place famous for GeGeGe no Kitaro characters. There are statues of monsters (Yokai) all along the main street.

One little monster.

And some more monsters outside the railway station.

 

 Monsters on the train.

We were heading to Osaka, so we had to change in Yonago and Okayama.

Japanese train tickets.

Japan is a great place for train travel. The trains are punctual, clean, and the Shinkansen really fast. Of course, quality needs to be paid for, so long-distance train travel is not exactly cheap. People resident outside Japan can buy a Japan Rail Pass and within the metropolitan areas of the major cities there are often various day passes and railcards.

The local train from Sakaiminato to Yonaga.

The train from Yonaga to Okayama.

The Shinkansen bullet train from Okayama to Osaka.

Shinkansen travel quite fast as can be seen from Henry's phone. We did break the 300 km/h barrier but have no photo. The other thing about Shinkansen is that they are very comfortable, there is none of the shake, rattle and roll of high-speed trains in Europe.

 GPS map from our Shinkansen ride. The position of the train is the blue arrowhead and the speed is given in the top-right.

From Shin-Osaka station we made our way by metro to our hotel, Hotel Claiton. Why this particular hotel? As mentioned above, Japan is not a cheap country, although by no means as expensive as one might imagine, providing one takes care. The hotel was reasonably-priced and in an excellent location, very close to a metro station. Of course, you get what you pay for, and the room was rather small, but this was no problem for us because we were only there to sleep, and as with all Japanese hotels, it is important to ask for a non-smoking room. 

To keep costs down, we didn't bother with the hotel breakfast. We had a rhythm where we drank some juice in the hotel room in the morning (to get going), set off on the day's activities, had a morning coffee and sandwhich somewhere, ate a late lunch in a restaurant but taking care to get the lunchtime offers, which are very reasonable, and then picked up some evening snacks from a local convenience store, for example, Lawson's.

One of the differences between this trip and my travels as a student was that while we were by no means 'splashing the cash' we didn't have to turn over every penny before spending it. This greatly reduces stress levels, and meant we had some room for impulse purchases, like two Japanese peaches we bought from the high-class Daimaru store. They looked like the peaches from Roald Dahl's book, 'James and the Giant Peach'.

 Our trip as a whole was not as expensive as one might imagine, although it is not something that I could afford to do every year. The costs were kept down by the fact that we spent so many days on the train across Russia, meaning that there was no need for hotels and limited opportunities for spending money. Costs in Russia are reasonable, at least on a western salary, and we tried to behave sensibly. The reason for the roundabout route back from Japan, we didn't take a direct Finnair flight home, was also to save money. The cost of one-way airline tickets is often prohibitive, generally more than an economy return. However, the low-cost airline Air Asia has a flight from Osaka to Malaysia, and Malaysia Airline's policy on one-way tickets is not as ludicrous as that of many other airlines. Of course, this suited us perfectly since we have relatives in Malaysia and could thus kill two birds with one stone.