The bus ride to Osaka was supposed to take 3.5 hours. We left at mid-day on Friday and figured that this would be well in time to arrive before dark in Osaka. Due to a huge traffic jam, we ended up in the bus 2.5 hours longer than expected and ended up walking to the hostel through a dark, empty sports park around 9 p.m.
We had no idea what to expect of the hostel nor the city. This would change soon:
The super friendly hostel staff helped us to set up our 5 days stay in Osaka.
They gave us a room for the 3 of us, instead of having to split up in dorm rooms. Some staff spoke English very well and gave us very competent advice on where to go, how to get there and they made reservations for us, as we still don’t speak Japanese...
Sunday we went to Osaka castle, it was not our first choice, but the castle we planned to visit was closed for renovation. Robin found the place a waste of time and money.
The castle was re-built and looks way too modern, it has a museum inside with mainly Japanese explanations. Don’t go, there are way better place to visit in Osaka.
On our way out, a Bulgarian lady ran up to us, desperately asking for our help... we were very surprised at first, but then she told us in tears that her tour group had left her behind and she had to go back Kyoto on her own.
She had no idea how to get there.
We dropped our plans and came to the rescue.
After crossing the city by metro, and dropping the nice lady off at the train station, we checked out the huge underground station’s shopping area before returning to the hostel.
Monday we traveled on the metro to the Tezuka Osamu manga museum. It was impressive to see how much influence this man had on the animation industry in Japan. All in all, an excellent place to get to know the history and philosophy of this highly creative man, and to see his work.
Right after that, we jumped on the metro again, to our next stop, the Osaka human rights museum. This was a truly great place – it talks mainly about minority groups and their rights – homeless, disabled, HIV/Aids, and the Minamata decease, which could well break out in Taiji again...
Even that the text on the walls was in Japanese, we got an audio guide in English. An elderly volunteer stayed close to us during our whole visited, which took almost 2 hours and kept giving us additional information.
We watched some documentaries and experienced this trip as very interesting!
Tuesday we took the metro to the city of Kobe, around 30 minutes away from Osaka main train/metro station. We visited the harbour, checked out a Japanese garden, met some nice people there, who were right away.
Wednesday we went to the Nissin ‘Cup Noodle’ museum and participated in the hands on noodle making workshop. It was a whole lot of fun.
That evening Matthew and Robin joined the local Karate training. The locals were really interested in them and lots of pictures were taken after the training – the language barrier was not a big deal.
Thursday we went to the garbage burning facility. Chika, a girl working in the hostel was so kind to come with us. The staff at the facility did not want us to take the tour as they don’t speak English. Thanks so much Chika, it was a great experience! Without you we would not have been able to go!
The building was designed by the Austrian architect Hundertwasser. What a cool designer!! Too bad for the Osaka taxpayers that it ate up quite some of their tax money!
With that we came to the end of our stay in Osaka. It was great to be in this city!!
We had no idea what to expect of the hostel nor the city. This would change soon:
The super friendly hostel staff helped us to set up our 5 days stay in Osaka.
They gave us a room for the 3 of us, instead of having to split up in dorm rooms. Some staff spoke English very well and gave us very competent advice on where to go, how to get there and they made reservations for us, as we still don’t speak Japanese...
Sunday we went to Osaka castle, it was not our first choice, but the castle we planned to visit was closed for renovation. Robin found the place a waste of time and money.
The castle was re-built and looks way too modern, it has a museum inside with mainly Japanese explanations. Don’t go, there are way better place to visit in Osaka.
Too bad... but maybe it was meant to be...
On our way out, a Bulgarian lady ran up to us, desperately asking for our help... we were very surprised at first, but then she told us in tears that her tour group had left her behind and she had to go back Kyoto on her own.
She had no idea how to get there.
We dropped our plans and came to the rescue.
After crossing the city by metro, and dropping the nice lady off at the train station, we checked out the huge underground station’s shopping area before returning to the hostel.
Monday we traveled on the metro to the Tezuka Osamu manga museum. It was impressive to see how much influence this man had on the animation industry in Japan. All in all, an excellent place to get to know the history and philosophy of this highly creative man, and to see his work.
Right after that, we jumped on the metro again, to our next stop, the Osaka human rights museum. This was a truly great place – it talks mainly about minority groups and their rights – homeless, disabled, HIV/Aids, and the Minamata decease, which could well break out in Taiji again...
Even that the text on the walls was in Japanese, we got an audio guide in English. An elderly volunteer stayed close to us during our whole visited, which took almost 2 hours and kept giving us additional information.
We watched some documentaries and experienced this trip as very interesting!
Tuesday we took the metro to the city of Kobe, around 30 minutes away from Osaka main train/metro station. We visited the harbour, checked out a Japanese garden, met some nice people there, who were right away.
Wednesday we went to the Nissin ‘Cup Noodle’ museum and participated in the hands on noodle making workshop. It was a whole lot of fun.
That evening Matthew and Robin joined the local Karate training. The locals were really interested in them and lots of pictures were taken after the training – the language barrier was not a big deal.
Thursday we went to the garbage burning facility. Chika, a girl working in the hostel was so kind to come with us. The staff at the facility did not want us to take the tour as they don’t speak English. Thanks so much Chika, it was a great experience! Without you we would not have been able to go!
The building was designed by the Austrian architect Hundertwasser. What a cool designer!! Too bad for the Osaka taxpayers that it ate up quite some of their tax money!
With that we came to the end of our stay in Osaka. It was great to be in this city!!
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen