Last Full Day in Japan

We spent the day once again walking around a rainy city. We just went back and hit all the places we wanted to revisit and pick up stuff in Nakano and Shibuya.

Two interesting things I actually have pix of... One is the car turner outside of the parking garage. All of the cars are backed out of the garage onto this giant disk that turns the car around so they can pull straight out onto the street. The model of efficiency...



The other interesting item for the day is that, when it rains, all of the shops put out plastic bags to put your umbrella in whil you are in the store. This saves the floor from getting slick and keeps you from getting water all over their merchandise, but I bet it is really just to be nice and polite like everything else here. Some of them even have little contraptions that you just stick the umbrella into and it comes out wrapped...



Well, that's the last blog from the land of the rising sun. See you in the States if our plane doesn't decide to plummet into the coast of Alaska...

Travel Day (yesterday)

We took the Shinkansen from Osaka to Tokyo. I listened to my iPod most of the time, discovering that Laurie Anderson's "O Superman" goes surprisingly well with the rice paddies and electric towers that went whizzing by. I actually got to see Mt. Fuji as we passed it. I don't know how I missed it the first time. It looks like a stereotypical mountain that a 5th grader would paint in a picture. It was symmetrical, capped with snow and surrounded by clouds.

We walked around Shinjuku after checking into the Keio Plaza Hotel. I found some rare Neil Innes CD's at a used record store so it worked out well for me.

This is our last day here and then we pack to head home...

Osaka Last Day

We did the touristy thing and went to Universal Studios Japan. Much of it was basically a carbon copy of the Orlando one. It still took an hour and 45 minutes to get through the line for Spiderman. At this one, you can pay extra to get in the express lanes for the rides instead of the way they've done it in the States where you can grab a ticket early and head back later.

It does have a Snoopy area though. Bagley and I rode the Great Race Roller coaster which you can see as you stand in line underneath it. It was extremely short (we timed it at 35 seconds from start to finish). I thought it was more of a kids coaster ride, but it was all adults in line so we hit it. When we got the first car, Bagley and I being the fat Americans we are, we could barely fit inthe car together. It was really ridiculous and we couldn't stop laughing. It was too late to get out and get a separate car so we rode it stuffed in the tiny seat, laughing hysterically the whole time. I had planned on looking bored or in deep thought when we went by the camera that takes your picture, but I couldn't stop laughing. We knew the whole thing would be over in 35 seconds so it wasn't too dangerous.

We sat in on the Sesame Street 4D theater. I was really tickled that Ernie's Japanese voice has a thick Indian or Pakistani accent. It was one of those theaters that have other effects like bubbles that come down while the characters are underwater, the seats "thump" when Elmo runs into the trashcan, etc. In the middle of the movie, the projector stopped and the lights came on. Evidently, some little girl got her foot caught in the seat. In a matter of minutes, security showed up and then what I assumed were park engineers. They got her out and she seemed OK, but they had everyone leave the theater. The good part was that we got a free express pass for one ride so we hit Jurassic Park. By that time, it was getting cool out and we were both finally feeling the effects from running around in the rain on Friday, sneezing and sore throats for all. So, it was probably the wrong time to get on a ride that ends with a plummeting log floom that soaked us both.

We ate at the Hard Rock and headed back to the hotel to pack. This morning we check out and take the long train ride back to Tokyo.

Osaka Day 5

I hit he Tennoji Zoo today after taking just about every wrong way to get there that I could. I took the shuttle over to Osaka Station and got on the Osaka Loop to head towards Tennoji. Remember... I said "Loop". The entire time, I was seeing stops that I couldn't find on the map they have posted. Eventually, the train just stopped and I realized I was the only one in any car on the whole train. It had reached its end. I somehow found the one train on the "loop" that jumped out of the loop and ended outside of it. Once I got back on the right track (no pun intended) I got off at Tennoji Station and ended up walking around the streets looking for the zoo. None of the maps on the streets had any English or any indication of a park or a zoo. I eventually had to go back to the station and I found a map that had the zoo on it. Once I found the park, I had to walk around looking for the zoo for a while before I stumbled on it.

It was an OK zoo. Some of the habitats tried to appear natural, but some of the areas like the polar bear and sea turtle enclosures were definitely too small. At the same time, they had an enormous aviary for birds like ducks and herons. I got to see the koalas eating lunch. I think people love them so much because they have such human features. It was like watching Larry Fine eat a salad!



The zoo was deceptively large (11 hectares for you metric folks). The way it was layed out, I kept discovering areas I hadn't been to up until the time I left. There were some unusual things. I know that the Japanese have a very sordid history with mistreating the Koreans, but I thought this was just too much over at the primate house:



Also, this was just so many kinds of wrong, I can't add anything to it:



I ended up eating dinner at a little restaurant near the Osaka Station on my way back. I actually found a place that had the Gyoza (Chinese pork dumplings) that I had for lunch on day one at the sumo matches. I ended the evening hanging out at the harbor again as the sun set.

Osaka Day 4

We went to the Osaka Castle in Osakajo Park today. The weather was fantastic. It was in the upper 70's (maybe low 80's) but breezy the whole time so it was OK. The castle itself is a museum that houses a lot of armor, weapons and scrolls from the 1500's and 1600's. The castle is surrounded by two moats and giant stone walls. It was impressive.

The park surrounding the castle was very beautiful, including a plum grove and a baseball field. It has been nice to see the Japanese folks enjoying the public parks on the weekends. There was a stage set up with what sounded like mostly traditional music, but we didn't get to catch any of it up close. On the way out, I was taking pictures of a statue and evidently a wedding party came through. We had also seen at least two weddings going on in the hotel today as well. Must just be the day...



Oh, here's a very bizarre video game I saw yesterday but didn't have the pic ready. It evidently extolls the evil inherent in TYPING... mwah ha ha!

Osaka Day 3

We just wasted this day walking around a very rainy city.

Osaka Day 2

We ate the hotel buffet breakfast this morning (which was good but as I was warned... expensive). Bagley was panicked about getting in line for the last show so he headed out at 10:30AM to get in line. I headed out to the Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan. It was only two quick subway trips away and I had time to kill.

It was actually a very nice aquarium, situated right on the bay, and featured the aquatic life of the Pacific Rim.




It started at the top with the Japan Forest where the Asian Small Clawed Otters unfortunately were all huddled together asleep. The large sea otters from the Aleutian Islands were floating around in plain sight though.






The environments were much nicer than the cheesy ones in Shinagawa. This was a real aquarium. The central tank that represented the Pacific Ocean wasn't quite as big as the one in the Georgia Aquarium, but they did have a whale shark and an enormous manta ray that was almost as big as the whale shark.

After the aquarium, I checked out a few shops and tried to watch a street performer who kept indicating he was going to juggle swords, but ended up taking too long telling jokes and making animal balloons to keep me hanging around long enough to see it. I went over to the Suntory Museum and checked out their design exhibit with furniture from around the world. I ended up breezing through it in about 15 minutes because it wasn't as big as I thought. Unfortunately I had bought an IMAX ticket as well so I had to hang out and wait for almost an hour. I just stood outside on the dock for most of it. The movie was the Deep Sea 3-D film that Danny Elman scored so I was happy. The 3-D was great. The narration was in Japanese (because the English headphones they gave me didn't work... no Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet for me), but the visuals were the important part.