Peter's Japan blog

Had to get a bit early out of bed to catch the Shinkansen before 10 o'clock, and was even able to catch an earlier one at 9h06. So I arrived well on schedule in Shin-Osaka. Took train to Osaka, and then the Osaka loop line to Shin-Imamiya. After about 10 minutes I found my hotel, which afterwards is quite easy to find if you know where to look (isn't it always like that...). I was able to check-in at 12h30 so I could get rid of my luggage. Let me tell you, I like walking through big crowds of people in Japan, but NOT with my luggage behind me ;p. But I think that's a pain in the ass for everybody. Got to my room on the 5th floor (the 4th for people in Europe) and it was a small but clean Japanese-style tatami room.
So after this, I went for some little sight seeing in Osaka. Osaka Castle was first. While it looks like a Japanese castle on the outside, it is actually a concrete reconstruction made in the 1930s (resembling the original that burnt down some 300 years ago), and now houses a museum. For those who watched "Shogun", this is not the Osaka castle that they use in the series, in "Shogun" they use Himeji castle because it's more beautiful I guess. (which it is, and still the original).
Apparently Osaka-Jo Hall was right next to Osaka castle (well, that's not very surprising as Jo means castle). So I got another concert hall on my list that I saw :) (Yoyogi National Gymnasium, Tokyo Dome, Zepp Tokyo, Yokohama Arena, Saitama Super Arena & Osaka-Jo Hall; although I've only been inside Yokohama Arena & Zepp Tokyo).
After the castle went to Nanba district which had a very comprehensive shopping streets. Well, I must say that is even an understatement, there are streets and streets and streets full of shop, so many you can get lost in them. Any shop you can think of: cd/dvd, toys, restaurants, household utensils, cupboard, and many many pachinko/slot parlours. These pachinko parlours are usually huge, and also extremely noisy. But not even here, they are everywhere in Japan. And they are all huge. It's like at least every japanese has been in a pachinko parlour.
After buying my own Toyota Corolla '86 (AE86) (a scale model of course, duh ;p), I went back to my hotel and get early to bed, need to get out quite early tomorrow.

More curious things in Japan:
- In Tokyo it is custom to stand on the left on an escalator. While this is not that curious because they do that in other countries too. But in Osaka (and probably the rest of the southern Japan as well), they stand on the right... Need to get used to that.

Osaka Castle: