Osaka, I'm Spent

Today was… well, a blow off day. I did go to Osaka’s main tower, which was nice since I’d been doing that in all the other cities I’ve been to. I had hoped to go to Himeji, but it’s at least 1500 yen to get there, and the same to get back. That’s what I spent yesterday going to the beach, so I’ll have to hold off this time. Can’t do everything right? Kinda a bummer though since it’s one of, if not the best castle in Japan, both by size and how well preserved. Kyoto’s castle was fairly preserved. Nagoya’s was alright. But Osaka’s was just a reconstruction of the original that had been burned down so many times. It’s just a museum now, kind of similar to Nagoya’s. Still cool though.

But yea, went to Tsutenkaku Tower in Osaka. This tower is a part of the area aptly named, “Shin-Sekai” which means, “New World” Now this was a very good title for the place when they built it in 1912. Then time forgot about it and its not really very… ‘new’ anymore. The tower is actually a reconstruction done in the 60’s I believe. Not too bad of a tower, but the ones in Nagoya and Kyoto were better. Nagoya’s was really really nice actually.

The mistake I made here though kind of killed my day. Unbeknownst to me, a lot of the shops close fairly early in Osaka as well. So not thinking about this, I went straight to the tower since I had nothing else to do, bummed around up there for an hour or so, then came back down to do some shopping. Shopping at stores that were now closed. Gah! Yea, definitely should have done my shopping first, then gone up. I could have even caught the sunset and night scenery again that way. Oh well, a bummer but hey, now I have less souvenirs to bring home.

I walked around the shopping districts for an hour or so, but it was nothing really excited. It would be to a normal foreigner I’m sure, but I’ve seen these types of places everywhere. It was just kind of like, “Oh, ok. So these are Osaka’s…”

Tired and beat from walking, I decided to come back to Shin-Osaka Station early and kill time at a McDonalds until I needed to go catch my bus. So I used my coupons for some cheap fries and a free iced coffee, bought a 100 yen, sat down, and here I am. Waiting in McDonalds. What a great cultural experience I’m having right now. Haha

I just wanna get on that bus and sleep.