Our Shinkansen arrived in Shin-Osaka, the major train station, perfectly on time at 12:05pm. At the gates my friend Chakie was waiting for us and regardless of not having seen each other for eight years she spotted me from afar and threw herself in a warm embrace of Japanese exuberance which is typically reserved to very close friends. Chakie had worked at the Japan Pavilion in EPCOT at Walt Disney World while I worked at the Italy Pavilion, we were friends and neighbors for over a year. She is an excellent cook and often cooked at my place, and she gave me Japanese grammar and culture lessons. Our previous reunion had been in Hawaii, while I lived in Honolulu. It always feels so good to see old friends, and with this kind of life true friendships are not measured on how often you see each other in a week. I often go many years without seeing some of my closest friends, and Chakie is one of them, but when we see each other it feels as if time had stopped and waited for us to get together again. But time doesn’t really stop, does it? One day you’re 25, you blink and 13 years have gone by, and here we are, old friends hugging each other again with a river of memories and emotions that flows between us without the need to say a word. Chakie took 3 days off work in order to show us around, there’s nothing like having a personal local guide.
Osaka is the third largest city in Japan and, like Tokyo, it shows a strong urban development although differences between the two cities are quite obvious. Many people say night life in Osaka has nothing to envy to the one in the capital and it even surpasses it. I like both cities, there’s enough variety, and the city geographical placement makes it a perfect base for day trips. This fact was so striking that we made our mind to spend several nights here, instead of just one as originally planned. As our usual we didn’t have reservations and after running out of ideas from our Lonely Planet guide we stopped at the station’s visitors center and they made several phone calls until we found one with available rooms and affordable for our budget. Neither Lindsey and I care for luxury or amenities when it comes to lodging; our priorities are the location and the chance to meet other travelers, so we keep our budget pretty low (if I have to chose between one week in a nice hotel for $1500 and one week in a hostel for $300 + a $1,700 lens for my camera I’ll always choose the second option).
We walked the short distance to the Shin-Osaka International Youth Hostel and took the elevator to the 10th floor of a modern and aesthetically pleasing hammer-shaped building. The wide reception area combines a library corner and a smaller computer area with free Wi-Fi available; it looked clean, friendly and comfortable. Definitely the nicest looking hostel I had seen to date. The library offers books of narrative, manga and a wide section of travel books and brochures to help plan other destinations and is furnished with tables and chairs as well as couches and a large screen TV. Free coffee and tea service is offered in the evening. Most of the bedrooms (private with tatami and dorm style with western style beds) are located on the ninth floor and the hostel, other than regular showers, also offers two Onsen (common hot bath): one for men and one for women.
We liked this place so much that adding one night at a time we ended up using it for four nights. Finished with the check-in papers and dropped our luggage Chakie took us for a tour of the city. We visited a pretty garden adorned with waterfalls and statues (and Mr. Kawamura’s statue, a personal hero of mine, to Chakie’s amusement) and from there walked to the area known as Shinsekai, located in Naniwa-ku. I usually describe parts of towns as beautiful, clean, noisy, etc. but for Shinsekai all I could think of was “comical.” It’s a district unlike any other I’ve seen, be it for its shops, restaurants and people which have something amusing going for themselves. It’s hard to explain, it has to be seen. Shinsekai is an amusement district dating from prewar days and many compare it to Asakusa in Tokyo. Having stayed in Asakusa I failed to see the similarities. The major attractions here are the Tenoji Zoo and Park, which we briefly visited; a huge hot spring water park called “SPA World” (I promisedmyself on the next visit to Osaka I will spend a day there); the Osaka Municipal Museum of Art, and the Tsutenkaku Tower. This structure was built in 1956 in lieu of the original Tsutenkaku Tower, built in 1912 and dismantled in 1943 to provide iron for the war. The original tower looked part Eiffel Tower, part Arc de Triomphe.
After our visit to Shinsekai Chakie took us to a different part of the city for dinner. The advantage of going out with a local person (particularly in a country with different culture and language) is that one experiences things that normally tourists don’t experience, and so Chakie took us to eat at a Taco Yaki, literally a “octopus bake.” In this type of restaurant every table has four griddles where, once decided what to order, waiters will drop the ingredients (we ordered octopus, shrimps, shallots, cheese, and other things and used all four griddles) mixed in a semi-liquid flour based batter. Once the griddles are hot we scraped the food off and pushed it in the rows of “semi-spheres” and once the food is cooked the half-balls obtained are turned around so that the other side is cooked and the result is a ball of food with octopus or whatever ingredients were used. Taco Yaki was as good as entertaining… and hot. In the photos you can see the preparation as well as Chakie and Lindsey burning their tongues.
The dinner was so good and filling that a digestive walk became necessary and we strolled around the streets of Osaka lit up like Christmas with a million neon lights. Chakie took us on a Ferris Wheel built on top of a building from which we could get a majestic view of the city by night. The view was truly breathless and here I could finally test my new lens, the Canon EF 24-105 L IS. Regardless of not being a bright lens with a continuous f/4 stop, the advanced Image Stabilizer built in this lens allowed me to take some pretty sharp night shots with the EOS 30D in available light only while the Ferris Wheel moved. I am sure of the fact that had not been for this lens I would have lost at least half of the photos taken during this trip. Plus, it’s the perfect companion for the photographer seeking to travel light.
We made plans for the next day: Chakie said she wanted us to see a place called Koya-San, an ancient cemetery. I wasn’t really thinking about visiting a cemetery on this trip, but this is the kind of unplanned things that we like to experience. It’s a bit out of the way, with a train + cable car + bus ride but Chakie is adamant that we must see it. We trust the locals.
Back at the hostel Lindsey went to bed and I was up in the library until around 1am typing on my laptop when, suddenly, I felt a vibration and saw the tower next to ours flexing left and right. I felt three brief earthquake jolts. An old lady, watching TV next to me, seemed alarmed for a second but the feeling was quickly replaced by curiosity as she switched channels to see if there were any reports. The next morning I learned the epicenter was right under Osaka and it measured 1 degree on the Richter scale. Lindsey never noticed. To me, it felt as if Japan was saying welcome.
