Osaka On Our Own

     We originally had a tour booked for Osaka. But we cancelled it so that we could venture out on our own . We were docked right in the city about 2 blocks from a subway station and used it to visit the city. In all it is a wonderful city that is extremely easy to navigate. The people are very helpful and in one case a businessman on a bike stopped and walked us to where we could see what we wanted. A young woman gave her seat to Judy on one of the subway lines!

 

View From The Top

 
 Once you understand how the ticket machines works it was a piece of cake. They have English menus and there is a person at each machine to walk you through buying the right ticket. It really was an easy way to see many things without having to get on a tour bus. As someone said this has become a cruise of temples! It seems that every tour since we have been aboard has gone to a temple of some type. Our first destination was the Umeda building. It is a twin tower building about 40 stories high with an observation deck on top. The interesting thing is that the last 4 get to the last few stories and the observation deck, you must take an

Esculator

escalator that crosses to the other tower. The deck is above both buildings offering wonderful views of the city. To get down you take the escalator for one side to another before descending in the glass outside elevator. A very nice building. Best thing is that offered a 'senior' discount!

We then took the train to a downtown upscale shopping district called Shinsaibashi. This was not Viet Nam or Korea. We did not see more than a few vendors that had good out on the street. We eventually came to the octopus balls district. These are a piece of octopus in a ball or dough and who knows what else covered with a shredded vegetable and smothered in some type of sauce. We ordered one to try and ended up with an order of 8! We were getting hungry by then so no worries. Only problem was that it is an 'acquired

Octupus Balls

taste' which neither of us had. I finished them but that is enough of what the locals “octopus balls'! After that we headed to our next stop on the tour.

     The ship was docked next to a world class aquarium. It was on our list! They did offer a 'senior discount'! What a great country. It was well presented. The theme was the Pacific Ring of Fire and all the exhibits came from around the Pacific Ocean. They had displays from North and South America, Antarctica, New Zealand, Japan, etc. You start at the top floor and wander down the ramps. The centre section is a massive tank filled with all types of fish! It was probably over a kilometre in length by the time we got to the bottom. The

Jellyfish

distance is marked on the floor.

Our last stop was the massive ferris wheel next to the ship. We have been to the Eye in London but this looked taller although the pods were smaller. It also afforded very nice views of the city. As we made our way around it stopped, started, stopped again, etc. Now I am not the best in a high free swinging basket but this thing is suppose to be continually moving. Turns out as we came to the bottom, we noticed a may working on the main drive area. Just what I needed. At night the wheel is lit up for a very nice photo opportunity. Since we did not leave until nearly 8 pm, we had some very nice views of it from our balcony.

      We were back on the ship for the official welcoming ceremony. After the speeches they had a man and a woman playing what looked like a Japanese banjo. We needed to understand the culture a little better because all the music sounded the same and went of forever and ever. Before dinner they had a line dance favourites hour where they played ship line dances. However, brought my thumb drive with songs on it so we were able to do some other dances. There were only a few people there and other people knew some different dances so it was at least an attempt to keep up our skills. I know we are getting rusty. Because of the radio communication blackout we were only able to connect today.