Osaka

Tuesday I said goodbye to Fukuoka and took the Shinkansen bullet train to Osaka about 660 km away or a 8 to 9 hour car ride. The Shinkansen just flew and we covered the distance in 2.5 hours. Incredible. From previous Shinkansen trips I have learned that I can't read on the train as I just get motion sickness. Instead I listened to a podcast. Just the same, I felt a little discombobulated when I arrived In Osaka.

Monday had been a National holiday in Japan, sport day so all of the museums had been open on Monday but we're closed on Tuesday. I left my luggage in the foyer of the apartment I was staying in and headed out to walk around Tennoji park. I would never leave my luggage in a foyer of an apartment here in Canada but in Japan one can get away with it. The Air BnB also had recommended it so it felt that it would be safe. I had a decaf coffee at Tully's and read my book. Wandering around the park, I realized that there was an art gallery, a Japanese garden, and a zoo. I am starting to get a little art galleries, japanese garden and zooed out but they were all so close to my accommodation I made a mental note of them in case I needed to fill in some time on Wednesday.

Wednesday I had a full day to spend in Osaka. My son Andrew suggested that I check out the Shimano Bicycle Museum in Saiko which was a lovely 30 minute Tram ride from where I was staying. Shimano is a manufacturer of bicycle parts. They had a lovely museum of historic bikes starting with the early push bikes, progressing to a front pedal bike, penny farthing like bikes with large front wheels, bikes with chains from a front pedal to the front wheel to now what we know today as a bike with a chain to the back wheel. They also showed the progression of rear gear shifters from the early lifting mechanism to later push mechanisms. They had all sorts of bikes which had been adopted to special functions such as bicycles to move milk in Holland. It was all a little niche but as a bicycle enthusiast, I really enjoyed it. After the bicycle museum I wandered over to city hall in Saika and went up to their 21 floor observatory deck and checked out the vastness of Osaka. The last thing to check out in Saika was the cutlery museum. Saika has been a manufacturing hub and in addition to making bicycles they are also recognized as an area that produces wonderful Japanese knives. The museum was actually a front for a co-op knife store selling knives from the area. The museum was rather small but had a good video explaining the steps required to make a knife. The knives were beautiful and they had knives for every thinkable situation. Different knives for cutting and filleting different types of fish. Chopping knives.Part of me wanted to buy a knife but we are already over stocked with knives. I had to buy a complete collection of Victorec knives for my cooking school last summer and we already had a collection of various Victorex knives so our knife drawer is overflowing.

It was about noon so I took the trolley car back to my Air BnB for a break. Given my close proximity to Tennoji I wandered over to check out the art gallery and the garden. The art gallery had the most impressive collection of stone Budhist heads from the 4 to 7 centuries. I just kept wondering where all the Buddha bodies were. It was like some weird crime scene. They also had a lot of ornate metal work from the 4 to 7 century. It is a wonder that metal work was so advanced that long ago.
After the art gallery, I wandered through the meticulously maintained and beautiful Japanese garden. I can only imagine what my neglected garden will look like when I get back to Edmonton.

It was only about 3 in the afternoon. I was aware of another Shimano museum in the Shimano office building where one could actually buy merchandise. It turned into a bit of a fool's journey. It was principally a coffee shop decorated with both Shimano bike paraphernalia and interestingly fishing equipment. Shimano makes fishing equipment. There was hardly any merchandise and they wanted an astounding 75 Cdn dollars for a Shimano fishing ball cap. That was even more expensive than the Ferrari hats in Bologna Italy.

The Shimano coffee shop was located next to the Osaka station. It was huge. I had problems finding my subway line back to Tennoji station. So far I have had no problems navigating as the stations are pretty well posted but there was no sign for my subway line. My phone was also running out of battery power which also wasn't good as without a phone one is really sunk. Some young Japanese woman noticed me studying the direction boards and asked me if I needed directions. I showed them my phone map and they told me it was just around the corner no more than 25 metres away. The Japanese people have just been wonderful. I made it back to my accommodation before my phone battery ran out.

Tomorrow I am off to hike the Kii peninsula.Read more