Category: Japan

Expo Park?

SDSpivey
Tower of the Sun

This morning I went to Expo Park, no, not that one again. This was Expo ’70.

The park is now just the remnants of the expo, the buildings have long been removed, just engraved stones tell what pavilion used to be there, for such a short time.

Now, there are large open expanses where kids can run and play. There are some more recent additions, such as “the Beast”, a rope suspension obstacle course. Unfortunately, it was closed when I was there, but there was an outing of young kids, running and screaming and just having fun. They look cute wearing their matching colored caps. White caps were at the field next to the Beast. I also saw red, lavender, and green in other areas. I don’t know if this was a special day or just a semi-regular occurrence.

As I walked around the park, I saw many trees and plants that we also have in Florida, azaleas are rampant here. I suspect that many of the ornamental plants we have originally came from Japan and east Asia. There was a hill that was sectioned off, which I presume is allotted to different individuals to plant whatever flowers they wanted. Perhaps it was some sort of flower gardening club.

Next to the path, I spotted a snake, just sunning itself. I had to do a search and yes, Japan has poisonous snakes. Luckily, this didn’t look like one, but I kept my distance anyway.

I saw a strange mesa with a circle of rocks, the only thing I found to explain it was a small engraved stone that said “Hawaii”. This still makes no sense, as Hawaii is not circular, nor was it a country in 1970. It wasn’t even near the USA pavilion site.

I found a monument showing where the East Germany pavilion was located. Strange to find something for a country that doesn’t exist anymore. There are many stone plaques on the ground showing where each county’s pavilion was, but who cares? They are gone now.

A group of school kids heading out to the park

I found an observation tower, so I decided to go up, just to see the area a bit better. At the top, I couldn’t really see much, as the trees have had 5 decades of growth. There was a walkway extending off into the trees, so I followed it. It lead to other towers and more walkways, until a much taller tower at the end.

Apparently, this was a one-way trek and I happened to pick the correct place to start. Had I started at the other end, a “do not enter” sign would have stopped me and I would have presumed it was unsafe to proceed. It was indeed looking a bit rundown, having only the bare maintenance in its long life. In the middle, I had to cross a very wobbly rope suspension that was definitely past its prime. It had several signs from COVID times, so regular maintenance probably is not high priority.

One of the other few items that still remain is the “Tower of the Sun”, a tall statue of the Expo’s mascot. I really do not understand why this is something they wanted to keep, much less build in the first part, it is rather ugly, in my opinion.

To get to the park, I got onto the brown Sakaisuji line, indicated by “K”. WTF does that stand for?

My first train, I realize is going to the wrong branch of the line, there are 4 terminal stations. So I get off and wait for the right one. I was to exit at Yamada station, which is one of the few places I could read and understand the meaning of. Yamada (山田) comes from “yama” meaning mountain (which you’ll hear sometimes when referring to Mount Fuji, as Fuji-yama.) and “da” meaning field. So Yamada means “mountain field”, also a very common family name. “Mr. Ninja Warrior” is named Yamada.

I made the choice to get the metro day pass, so I could get on and off wherever all on one ticket. But on exiting, I got an error and the arms closed in front of me. An attendant directed me to the “fare adjustment” machine, where I had to pay an extra 240 yen.

The stations north of one of a river are marked as HK for Hanku line, so maybe that is where the K came from. I guess Hankyu line is not part of Osaka Metro, even though it is the same train cars.

I exited through a different gate than where I entered the park, this one leading to the Osaka monorail. I quickly held up my metro card and asked about monorail access. Nope, can’t use it. So I walked back to Yamada station. A long walk, as I was nearly on the other side of the park.

After spending a day at the Expo 2025 and another at Osaka castle, I seem to have gotten a sunburn on my head. I guess cutting all my hair off wasn’t the best idea. As I exited Yamada station, there was a shopping center attached. I found a clothes shop and found a cheap hat. It wouldn’t help the burn I have, but will stop additional damage.

After finding the station, I headed back to the room. All this walking is really causing a lot of pain in my shoulder, for some reason.

I saw signs at the park about Expo ’70, but I started to wonder, was this a generic expo, or was it a World’s Fair expo? Wikipedia to the rescue!

Yes, it was the location of the 1970 World’s Fair, but wasn’t the only other in Osaka. There was another in 1990, only this was a “horticultural” expo, one of the in-betweener fairs. This location was nearby my room, maybe 3/4 mile away, but I’m tired and sore, so I took the metro. After all, I do have a day pass, so I might as well use it.

As I understand it, and I’m no expert here, the horticultural expos have fewer pavilions and more gardens. In a sort of “who can have the best looking yard in the neighborhood” competition.

Many of the garden spaces remain, but very likely not the same plants as 35 years ago.

This park is very popular with dog walkers. I even found a small hill where a bunch of tiny dogs were running around loose, play fighting. A small black dog started walking towards me, so I knelt down and it then ran to me for a bit of petting. This instigated a chain reaction, causing more to come over.

All the dogs here had on “outfits” which I wonder if this is a cultural thing or just a way to easily spot your dog vs other similar ones.

There were all sorts of dogs being walked through the many pathways. I saw many “shiba inu”, being one of the few native dogs to Japan.

Osaka Castle

SDSpivey

Today I went to Osaka Castle, a medieval fortress built pre-1600 and served as a base for the Shogun.

The castle sits on top of 20m or about 60 feet of compacted soil, raising the grounds to be higher than the surrounding area, for better defense. The fact they did this over 400 years ago, manually, is very impressive.

The area is surrounded by a wide moat and high stone walls. Although this seems to me not very difficult to climb, as there are large gaps between the stones that you could place a hand or foot. This is likely not how it was originally, being more tight fit, but I have no way of knowing.

The interior of the castle has undergone much change, turning it into a museum. There are 2 central stairways, one up, one down, leading to each of the eight (yes, eight) floors to reach the top balcony area. The balcony would have been a safe place to be in an attack, you could easily stand there firing your arrows at the enemy on the other side of the moat, while being out of reach of theirs.

It was much smaller than expected. The balcony area was only 20-25 feet square, most being interior space. One could feel claustrophobic even standing outside.

For some reason, they don’t allow photos on certain floors. Perhaps the documents can be damaged by flashes, but then why not allow for passive cameras. It was not difficult to wait for the guy to come around and tut-tut at someone taking pictures, then wait for him to pass by and get a photo anyway.

The grounds have lost their smaller buildings, now just a courtyard for tourists, but have many trees for much needed shade. They are quite picturesque, and I enjoyed sitting and just looking at the scenery. (Of course, this could be that I am too tired to do anything but sit.)

There is also another museum on the grounds, being for miniatures. Items range from small cars and trains to cartoon and anime characters. I could not find out if these were actually used in any TV or movies.

A token was include with entry to use on one of their many toy dispensers (which are ubiquitous across Japan). They dispense a ball about 4 inches across, with some trinket inside, but you don’t even get to keep the ball, there is a basket to “recycle” them. I saw nothing I was interested in more than keeping the coin, so I did.

Food and parks

SDSpivey

After re-awakening, I took a shower/bath.

There is a faucet that fills the tub and a shower head, but it is handheld. It has a wall mount, but it wouldn’t be pointing in the right direction. So I sat in the tub and lathered up. There is shampoo, conditioner, and liquid soap here, so I didn’t have to buy any.

After a few minutes, I decided to put in the drain plug. The tub filled quite fast, although the tub was small, it was tall, so I was able to submerge.

The water was nearly perfect in temperature, from faucet and shower head, which is a hard thing to accomplish.

I had sent a message to the host asking about the WiFi. Apparently there was supposed to be directions on a paper on the kitchen table, but there wasn’t

I did a quick search for restaurants, but decided just to walk around until I found one. I went into a small restaurant and closed my eyes and pointed to the menu. If you don’t know what to order, then random is just as good and any.

I got a bowl of rice topped with cabbage and a very thin cut of meat (bacon???) and a side of miso soup and some sort of greens.

The greens didn’t taste good, but the rest did, and I got full before finishing.

I wandered a bit, aimlessly, until I found a small park. I sat in the shade and watched the kids play.

There were the usual items; swings, slide, monkey bars, etc.. But they also had a sort of moon-shaped hill, that had wall-climbing handholds and the inside part was a large slide.

There are a lot of parks around and I just roam from one to another. In one, I sat under an arboretum and watched the huge bumble bees flit around the flowers.

Before heading back, I remembered to find a shop to get a fanny pack. As I walked, I found a Makita store.

It smelled of machine oil, it was wonderful. But I did manage to not buy anything. How would I get it home anyway?

After a few more misses, I got the idea to search for a purse store. Luckily one was nearby.

It was a general purpose clothing store, but did have a large assortment of purses, and I found a fanny pack that was simple and cheap enough. More important, I could put my iPad in there and stop carrying it.

I also realized something, while I can count out the change I need, it can be a pain if I don’t know if I have enough to start with. The smallest bill is ¥1000, so it is easy to end up with a lot of change. I realized that since most stores have a machine for you to pay with coin, cash, or credit card, you don’t hand the money to the clerk, I can just insert the change I have, then insert cash, and the register will just spit out the minimum change.

Cheating, yes, but I don’t care.

The problem being, the metro machines don’t accept ¥1 and ¥5 coins, so I have to try to rid myself of them at regular stores.

More foolishness

SDSpivey

I woke up around 3am. I browsed around the room a bit, took my first dump since Georgia. The toilet has a heated seat, and fortunately, there was toilet paper.

I understand the need in many places to use bidets as the plumbing is not good enough to move paper through, but I don’t want to have to sit there while air is blown on my backside to dry.

Morning view of Osaka and Yodo River

I don’t think I will use it, but I did bring my Amazon Fire, so I could watch some TV or movies if I wanted, but there is no TV. I thought there was supposed to be, so I will check the listing.

There is nothing anywhere I can see that says what the WiFi is, and there are a dozen signals I am detecting, so I have to use my precious mobile data.

The listing doesn’t say there is a TV, so I must have imagined it.

I also notice, that I had searched for places with 2 beds and 2 bedrooms, but I only have 1 bed. Apparently, since I am only paying for one person, I shouldn’t need the other bed, so that room is locked off.

Even if I didn’t need the bed, I still would want it so I can lay out my suitcase, instead of having it on the floor.

Being bored and hungry, I start looking for an all night market. The closest I can find is an hour’s walk away. Oh, what the hell, I got nothing else to do.

It is cool inside the room so I put on my jacket, but it doesn’t take me very long to remove it. Great, now I have to carry it as well as my iPad. I suddenly realized as I was pulling into Atlanta airport, that I hadn’t brought my fanny pack.

Fanny packs are ridiculous looking, but they are super convenient.

I had to cross over the Yodo river, the bridge being really high above the water. They must have ships coming through. Maybe though, it is just because the river banks are so far apart.

As expected, very few people were out at that time of night. Other than a road crew repainting one of the roads near my room, I might not have seen anyone for 40 minutes.

Following the directions, I made it to the store, and it was open. I would have been really angry otherwise.

It wasn’t very large, barely larger than many convenience stores back home.

I ended up selecting a bunch (4) of bananas, a box of grapes, and some sort of apple drink. I can’t read it, but the label has too many ingredients to just be juice.

One thing I had forgotten, Japanese stores don’t give out bags, normally. So I used my jacket to wrap up my purchases, tying the arms together.

I made another mistake, I had opened the apple drink and drank some, so as I walk, it splashes back and forth. Although I would have been more upset had I waited until getting back and then finding out I had carried it all that way for something that tasted bad.

The Japanese brag about how much they recycle, but they also waste a lot. The bananas were wrapped in a cellophane bag, despite not needing one.

The grapes also were wrapped, but that makes more sense, as grapes don’t have an outer coating that we remove before eating. You wouldn’t want random people touching your grapes before you eat them.

Along the way, my wrist was beginning to hurt from the awkward carrying of the stuff. I had the idea to call an Uber, but after waiting for 15 minutes, I still had not been connected with one, so I canceled and kept on walking.

In China, there are lots of Lawson stores, which are branded just like 7-11 stores are. In Osaka, I see Lawson’s, but they are more blue and greenish-blue logos. There are also 7-11 stores here too, maybe that’s why there is a difference.

The also have some restaurant chain called MacuDonarudo’s. It looks familiar, but can’t place why.

As I was arriving, dawn was breaking, so a good time to go back to bed. 🙂

Misfortunes going to Osaka

SDSpivey

After landing at Dulles, I rushed off to the next gate. Once there, I had to get into my baggage to get out my charger. As I do, I hear the call for my boarding group. I grabbed my cable and AC adapter, then got on board.

Which didn’t matter, because this flight didn’t have any outlets.

I had a solid gold seat, well, my seat number was 24K. In the middle of the plane, but no one right behind me, as the toilet was there. It was a window seat, which I don’t like. I prefer the aisle seat, as once the seat-belt light goes off, I can stand up immediately and grab my bag out of the overhead.

The food wasn’t bad, but they had the same hard bun and frozen butter, which cannot be spread. They gave us actual metal utensils, but I chose to use the chopsticks, just for fun.

Someone kept dropping things, or at least I heard a loud thump every now and then. I will choose to believe it wasn’t the plane falling apart.

Once in Tokyo, I head downstairs to the train. There was a ticket counter, with a man that spoke good enough English, that was able to sell me the ¥330 ticket. No problem there, except they didn’t accept cash, so I had to use my credit card for $2.33, ridiculous.

My map showed only 2 stops to Shinagawa station, but there were many more. Haneda airport is stop KK-15, and Shinagawa is KK-01, so 13 unnecessary stops. There seems to be an express, but I wasn’t on that one.

We get to KK-11, and then the train starts moving backwards. WTF?

Only we are not going back towards the airport, we are now going up in station numbers KK-20, KK-21… That is not the way I need to go, so at one stop, I get off and circle around to the platform going the other way. There is a sign showing direction to Shinagawa, so I get on that one. Again, not the express, only now I have even more stops to wait through, including a few that were a couple of minutes long.

At Shinagawa, I find the ticket counter for the Shinkansen, the bullet train. After waiting at least 20 minutes, a young lady comes to me and offers to show me how to use the ticket machines. Easy, peasey, no hassle at all, it even took cash.

Unfortunately, all that was left were middle seats, I ended up at 1B, so I got to stare at the wall for a few hours.

I really wanted a separate seat, as by now I wasn’t as daisy fresh as I had been. Running to terminals will do that.

The bullet trains are a bit disappointing, even though we’re going really fast, it is too smooth. It doesn’t feel like we’re going fast.

My iPad has a program that acts as a speedometer, but only in km/h and only goes up to 240 km/h, about 150 mph. We pegged it to the max. I have read that they get up to 200 mph, but can’t confirm that mine did.

Once in Osaka, I had to transfer over to the metro. I went ahead and was able to use the machine to get a ticket all the way to my destination.

There were 2 transfers I had to do, both down very long corridors. At one, I was mistaken about where I was, and got off 1 stop too soon. No big deal, just wait for the next one. But while waiting the train going the other way stops and I hear the message that that train is not accepting any passengers, it is going out of service. It was just before 9pm, and I didn’t know when the metro stopped. Oh crap, I might not get there on time. Fortunately, I was able to get to the correct station.

The host was going to be waiting at the room at 9pm, I was supposed to be there about then, but due to my stupidity, I didn’t arrive until 9:30. I was late.

She was standing at the main door, and I was able to remember the name. She didn’t know English apparently.

She lead me up to the 4th floor and proceeded to show me the unlock code, 6 digits, which I quickly lost track. Luckily, she also included that in a message on AirBnB. The door doesn’t lock itself, so I am just leaving it unlocked.

I took a quick look around and then went to bed.

I had wanted to walk around and find some food, but I didn’t think much would be open that late, plus I was worn out.