Kyoo no gogo koen ni burabura shimashita
I'm staying at the Senri Hankyu hotel this weekend, and it's quite nice. It's right near a monorail station, two stops from Osaka U. It's also very close to a mall with a nice outdoor plaza and typical mall shops. There's a Starbucks (naturally) and McD's (Makadonorudo), where I ate lunch today, just on a whim. Food tastes the same, but the service is ruthlessly efficient.
There's also a huge supermarket called Daiei, which also seems to be a department store. There was a lot of yelling on the part of the market staff, especially in the fish section. Perhaps they were announcing the specials, perhaps they were humbly requesting we purchase a particular thing, I'm not really sure. It was entertaining, though. They have a lot of pre-made food, so I got some sashimi (which wasn't bad) and rice for dinner. And beer, of course. The checkout was once again ruthlessly efficient (but in a pleasant way).
Between lunch and dinner I took the monorail two more stops to the Banpaku Kinen Koen, or World Fair Memorial Park. It was the site of the 1970 World Exposition in Osaka, which is quite possibly the reason for the monorail (a la Seattle), but that's just conjecture. If you like, you can look at some photos.
The park had a number of nice gardens and ponds, as well as some sort of concert going on. I arrived along with hordes of other people on the monorail, but managed to escape before the concert ended. There weren't many people strolling around the gardens, either, so that was nice. There is apparently a Japanese garden there as well, but it seemed like it was closed. Perhaps I'll go back for fall foliage season in November and December, and see if I can figure out how to get in.
Tomorrow I might go to the teeming center of Osaka known as Umeda, or I might try to find the Meiji no Mori Minoh Quasi National Park. I'm not sure why it's only a quasi-national park, but apparently it has a beautiful waterfall, excellent fall foliage (in November and December), and a number of unruly monkeys.
Rob wanted to know about toilet technology advances in Japan, so in that vein I present this picture. As you can see, this is the Shower Toilet, complete with heated seat, built-in exhaust fan, and various, um, shower settings. The knob on the arm sets the spray velocity. Hey, Rob asked.
There's also a huge supermarket called Daiei, which also seems to be a department store. There was a lot of yelling on the part of the market staff, especially in the fish section. Perhaps they were announcing the specials, perhaps they were humbly requesting we purchase a particular thing, I'm not really sure. It was entertaining, though. They have a lot of pre-made food, so I got some sashimi (which wasn't bad) and rice for dinner. And beer, of course. The checkout was once again ruthlessly efficient (but in a pleasant way).
Between lunch and dinner I took the monorail two more stops to the Banpaku Kinen Koen, or World Fair Memorial Park. It was the site of the 1970 World Exposition in Osaka, which is quite possibly the reason for the monorail (a la Seattle), but that's just conjecture. If you like, you can look at some photos.
The park had a number of nice gardens and ponds, as well as some sort of concert going on. I arrived along with hordes of other people on the monorail, but managed to escape before the concert ended. There weren't many people strolling around the gardens, either, so that was nice. There is apparently a Japanese garden there as well, but it seemed like it was closed. Perhaps I'll go back for fall foliage season in November and December, and see if I can figure out how to get in.
Tomorrow I might go to the teeming center of Osaka known as Umeda, or I might try to find the Meiji no Mori Minoh Quasi National Park. I'm not sure why it's only a quasi-national park, but apparently it has a beautiful waterfall, excellent fall foliage (in November and December), and a number of unruly monkeys.
Rob wanted to know about toilet technology advances in Japan, so in that vein I present this picture. As you can see, this is the Shower Toilet, complete with heated seat, built-in exhaust fan, and various, um, shower settings. The knob on the arm sets the spray velocity. Hey, Rob asked.
posted by Eric M. at 8:30 PM
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