Today Sally took us to the fabric market. Actually, it’s pretty late (the dryer worked less well than we’d hoped) and I forgot to upload my pictures. So I’ll have to change the comments later and put up some short ones today. Also, we’re going to Kyoto and the only place my sister could find was a ryokan and I bet I won’t have any connectivity for a few days. Lots of non-problems here.

On the way to the fabric market there were lots of street vendors and we got some goodies on the way. Of course my phone is focused on the back of Lim’s head.

Traffic from the pedestrian overpass. They drive like they do in Boston here.

The huge fabric market. Piles of fabric and people feel claustrophobic in there. I’m used to lots of fabric (my mom and my sister sew and I even moved a fabric store once) so it was kind of comforting to me. Lots of individual stalls being run in this rather large building. I didn’t take any pictures inside.

Lunch at the mall. I can’t believe how good they can make a simple bibimbap when some places make it so poorly.

Across from the Toyoko-Inn Haeundae Beach is this entrance to a club that looks obscene. The hairy bits are fiber optics and they glow at night. That building also has a shooting range and a hot spring. I dunno; I’m not Korean.

Dinner was in the neighborhood and pretty tasty pork cutlets for me. But before that appetizers.

Sally and her younger son had fried rice and beans.

I had the pork cutlet stuffed with sweet potato and cheese.

Stupid phone can’t take pictures at night?

I guess not.

Less smoking here than in Osaka, surprisingly.

More crab pix from the night market.

And, of course, the night ends with dessert.

That’s it for tonight!

First, I have to admit something. I did not vote for Barack Obama. I didn’t vote for the schools. I didn’t vote for the library. I didn’t vote for whatever other liberal cause that would have raised my taxes like I usually do. I DIDN’T VOTE. Months ago I signed up to vote from Japan but I never got the ballot delivered to me. So thank goodness a lot of stuff went the way I wanted it to without my vote.

Today’s update starts with my minimal selection from the Haeundae Toyoko-Inn’s free breakfast. My stomach wasn’t feeling bad, but it wasn’t feeling great either. I’m sure I could get used to eating all the Korean food, but at the moment I’m wolfing down the garlic and kimchee and hoping for the best as this isn’t what my stomach is used to.

So I’m completely turned around here and my sister and Lim took me to Starbucks in the direction I thought was away from the beach but was directly towards Haeundae Beach. A block away from the Toyoko Inn is the most popular beach in Korea according to one of my tourist pamphlets and I can see why. The water and the beach are beautiful. I’m still reeling from the size of the high-rises here.

We sat around in the morning watching three surfers. It was a beautiful morning.

We also watched a fluffy white dog chase the seagulls.

We met Sally and her friend Sayoko for a traditional Korean lunch (of a bunch of courses) at Sayoko’s in-law’s restaurant. Sayoko is from Yokohama and married a Korean guy from Busan. This is the pre-meal starter.

There’s Sally, Lim (looking tiny due to perspective issues) and Sayoko.

When the food started coming out there seemed to be no end to it.

 

Several new dishes were brought out a couple of times. This time it was crab and the pancakes.

There was an interesting meat dish and soup next.

We talked and told weird stories for hours and I hope Sayoko wasn’t scandalized by the weird American tales.

I was stuffed, but my sister and Lim were able to walk to a bakery (I waddled) and we had more to eat. Then they started in on the shopping, but it wasn’t too bad. First was a market with beauty products. I’m looking for lip balm that actually works but they were no help. They were too busy looking for whatever eyeliner or face wash that they needed.

Then it we got in a taxi and it was off to Shinsegae, THE WORLD’S LARGEST DEPARTMENT STORE. Or, in other words, suck it Minnesota.

We wandered around a bit but I think it looked like any other mall in the US (but bigger). It wasn’t like a Japanese mall where everything was just different enough that you really wanted to see what was going on.

We ended up at the food court because I wanted some coffee. We sat next to the ice skating rink and watched the kids skating.

Dinner was blowfish soup with Sally and her kids.

Once again, I was stuffed but everyone else was activating their dessert stomachs. No one could explain (at least not in English) what the drink I got was called, but I think they have it at I Love Crepes on 23rd Avenue as “Job’s Tears”. But oddly enough, I don’t think this was called yulmucha. Maybe it has a different name in Busan.

I wish I had something to scale the honey bread. It was giant. Fortunately, we all shared it (including the two boys who also had ice cream).

After that we took a quick trip to the night market.

Fish to eat!

I think this might be those slimy eels that they used to make eelskin wallets out of.

There’s no end to the fresh fish. OK, there is an end, and it was just past these four sets of tanks.

I was going to go take pictures of the pig’s head and barbecued ribs, but we went back by a different route. I can understand why so many Koreans look so much better fed than the Japanese people do.

So this must be how people who don’t speak Japanese feel like when they’re in Japan. I’m currently writing this from the Toyoko Inn in Haeundae-gu, Busan, Korea. I have no idea what people are saying. I have no idea how much this money is worth. I have no idea what areas are safe and what areas aren’t.

Ah well, I was told there’s no manners in Korea (I have noticed there’s no such thing as lines or order and just to get out of the way of the little old ladies at the airport) so I should be OK.

Today was mainly a travel day and my sister’s cost-savings idea took us several hours to get to the airport. Not a big deal, really, since we had nothing better to do and it was POURING RAIN outside. Fortunately I think only a couple of things in my suitcase got wet and I had to throw out a nice paper bag but that’s about the only disaster.  We started out the day at Tully’s coffee with a breakfast set.

Not many pictures from the travels because it was POURING and since there’s all sorts of restrictions about taking pictures at the airports in certain areas. We did make it to Busan and my sister’s cost-savings deal on this end meant we took a two-hour bus ride from the airport to our hotel. We met my sister’s friend Sally for dinner. She’s from the US but her husband is a bigwig in the Busan textile industry now and she lives here.

She took us to a pork barbecue. They put coals in that hole and then pull the vent down fairly close to the grill.

The first course is the soup which comes out still boiling. Everything on the vegetable plate goes onto the grill and there’s unlimited salad.

Here we go with the pork.

They’re big on Japanese beers here, but I decided to try something local. I’d never heard of Cass, so I had it instead of Hite.

Dinner was spectacular.

Afterwards we went back to the hotel and got some ice cream at the Seven-Eleven, a Haagen Dazs Crispy Sandwich green tea. It was tasty.

The Toyoko-Inn here doesn’t have all the amenities of the Japanese Toyoko Inns. No free razor. No ladies set that my sister is used to (some hand and face lotions). But they did give us two little bars of soap. Sally told us that could just be a Korean thing where you get little free trinkets. It’s all part of the adventure of Korea!

Tomorrow I guess I’m going to wait for my sister to finish running and then watch her and her friends shop. At least that’s what I think is happening. I’m just along for the ride.

Today it was mainly a day watching my sister and Lim shop. It was a trip back to Harajuku and Shibuya where we spent the whole day. I didn’t take all that many pictures because, well, I was just watching my sister and Lim shop. In fact, when we went by a shrine my sister just said, “Keep walking.”

This is at the start of the Harajuku street-full-of-stuff-for-young-people-to-buy.

Lim already posted this to her instagram and the only comment she got was, “Is that a real WWDC jacket?”

I think these guys are from Portland.

I thought my sister was going to make us just eat those small bread things for lunch.

But no, we went to the Patagonia surf shop and chatted with a nice Japanese kid who spent ten years in Irvine and he pointed us at The Great Burger.

Bacon cheese for me. It was pretty good. Goddamn iPhone focus is for shit, again. I kept selecting the burger but it does what it wants.

My sister had a barbecue burger.

THey wanted to take goofy pictures, too.

We also went to Bear Pond Espresso which was kind of meh to me.

I finally got some pictures of Hachiko!

Hachiko’s statue is right next to the smoking area. You can see one of the demon smokers with glowing eyes.

We went on a quest for dinner and ended up at a Tokyo Baqet. More unlimited bread! Tomorrow we’re off to Korea where I bet I’ll get to do whatever my sister wants to do. Well, I kind of do that when I’m on vacation with her anyway. Lots of watching her shop. Ah well.

Today was another travel day. I went to Tokyo on the Sh?nan-Shinjuku line and my mom and Mrs. Kobayashi went on to Toyama to visit the Kawasakis.

Before we all left, we went to get ramen near Gunma University.

I got to Shinjuku and I just wasn’t ready to deal with the crowds. I hid in my hotel room and sounds like my sister and Lim were doing the same. I had three days of update to do on my blog, and also updates to software on my computer. The intarweb connection in this hotel seems a bit odd; plenty of bandwidth but trouble with DNS. I’m not sure what’s going on.

We all decided to go get dinner and I suggested going to the Odakyu building. I think all of the ladies from Gunma go to Odakyu and they’d mentioned the restaurants there. It wasn’t as busy as the Takashimaya building which is a good thing.

My sister and I got some sort of soba special. I can’t tell what the hell is in focus in this picture. I think the answer is NOTHING.

Lim got something else.

Everyone was taking pictures of their food.

As I was telling my sister, I think I’m just about done and need to go home. In Osaka I couldn’t remember when I was in my hotel room sometimes. Ah well, only two more weeks!

I believe I have a bazillion pictures of one temple today. We went driving around with Dr. and Mrs. Kobayashi. Dr. Kobayashi usually is busy and we don’t see him that often, but he took us to a temple and a museum of Tomohiro Hoshino’s watercolors.

I can’t remember the name of the temple, but it’s in Saitama Prefecture and just received the status of “National Treasure.” They repainted and regilded (I think) the carvings to replicate their original colors and they’re quite spectacular.

But before that, the traditional chrysanthemum displays of the season.

This is a picture of the outer gate. The roof is unique in the Kanto region. I think this is the gate from Yamaguchi Prefecture and there are more examples of the roofline there.

This is actually this inner gate is the first one we went to. This is the only picture I have of Mrs. Kobayashi, my mom, and Dr. Kobayashi.

This is a larger inner gate.

One of the temple guards in the inner gate. This guy was on the right side. The guy on the left side was being restored.

This is the temple itself.

If you pay extra, you can see the back side of the temple and get an explanatory tour.

The back is definitely something to see.

 The panels are all of gods playing.

This is the back.

And the inner side.

In the explanation of the paintings they talked about looking for the original paints for two years.

For lunch we went to a small shop next to the temple that was pretty busy and is probably going to get even busier. They had unagi and 

After that Dr. Kobayashi kept insisting that we go to the Tomihiro Hoshino museum. We followed the route the GPS suggested and I was asleep until we hit a dirt road. It didn’t seem like an actual dirt road, but a road under construction. After that we went down a windy mountain road that was barely wide enough for one car. We met two cars on the way and there were only inches to spare to get by. The road we were on was a prefectural route so now I know that prefectural routes can be goat paths.

Tomihiro Hoshino is a man who became quadriplegic and learned to write and draw using his mouth. He paints watercolors and writes poetry and that’s pretty darn impressive.

We went to a sushi & unagi restaurant in Takasaki for dinner. Usually you don’t see those together, especially not this good.

So that’s Day 45.

As I suspected, there wasn’t any intarwebs at our friends place in Maebashi, so I’m trying to catch up. Day 44 was a travel day. I was going to visit friends in Toyama, but they had several deaths in their family so they were understandably too busy. I ended up going to Maebashi to visit other friends and to meet up with my mom. At first I was just going to hang out in Tokyo, but this was an interesting option as well.

I tried to take some pictures from the Shinkansen but you can imagine that a train going 170mph isn’t going to let you take very good pictures out the window.

Here’s a picture of the tea fields of Shizuoka Prefecture. It’s usually rice paddies out the window but Shizuoka is different.

Here’s a picture of Mount Fuji from Shizuoka.

As we got closer to Mount Fuji, it got cloudier.

Ah well.

So it’s ¥4,900 to take the Shinkansen from Tokyo to Maebashi. It only cost me ¥1,680 on regular trains. The travel time is only about ½ hour more, but there are more connections to the Shinkansen. The further I got from Tokyo, the quicker my iPhone battery died, so I took a screen shot of the directions on Google maps and made it my background wallpaper.

My mom wasn’t scheduled to arrive until 9:20PM, so we had some time to kill. The first place we went was Costco!

There are a few differences. The light bulbs in my local Costco are all fluorescents. Here I only saw LED light bulbs.

They had the same huge meat packs and chickens and even had pre-made paella. The bread here is actually bigger.

I didn’t see the pre-made sushi, but this woman had it in her cart.

For dinner we went to a shabu-shabu restaurant that my sister told me about in the past.

Here’s the appetizers.

A sashimi course.

Some more fish.

The meat is frozen and sliced thin right to order.

After slicing it goes right back into the freezer.

Here’s the shabu-shabu!

I tried some local saké as well.

After the main course, you can get udon or zosui.

I took a picture of the owner in her beautiful kimono. Her husband recently passed away and was a classmate of Mrs. Kobayashi’s so they chatted about classmates and Uniqlo.

My mom arrived at 9:40, 30 minutes later than the schedule we had, but she’s fine. And that’s day 44.

 

 

 

 

 

Today I was just planning on doing laundry. Most places in Japan that would mean I’d be at it at least half of the day but the washing machines at the Nishi-Umeda Hearton Hotel are almost as large as the ones in the US. And the driers are industrial (the same size as a normal US drier). So I was able to finish just as I was finishing breakfast in the hotel restaurant.

I thought I’d go see the area around the Osaka Sky Garden because last night I saw four tourists from Texas who were looking for it. I took them to the Tourist Information Center because it was on the way to where I thought the closer route would be. Turns out the suggested route from the hotel is to just keep walking and then turn north through a semi-industrial area. When I got there the building didn’t look like anything exciting, so I didn’t go up and just headed back towards the station through the underground route. There’s a big freight yard you have to get past to get to the Osaka Sky Garden. I think it’s closer to go underground.

I was pretty tired, so I decided to get a coffee at the Starbucks by the hotel. They already had the Xmas decorations up and had their praline latte. I also spent a lot of time unsuccessfully trying to register for the free wifi. After that I went back to the hotel and took a nap.

I knew I had to do a couple more things today. One was to pack up to leave. Another was to do my sister’s bidding and make sure they had down vests at Uniqlo. First, though, I thought I’d get ANOTHER coffee and a doughnut at Mr. Donut. I’m addicted to the things. There’s one in Umeda, but there’s also one at the next railway station. It’s not very far, though I had to go back through the industrial area again. Turns out there’s an easier route and it really isn’t that far.

Somehow I was drawn in by Mickey D’s. I wanted a normal hamburger but it wasn’t on their menu on the wall behind the registers. In fact, I couldn’t find it on the printed menu they had at by the register. I didn’t find it until after I ordered a Big Mac and saw a big sign on the side wall away from the registers that had their complete menu.

This is also sort of an experiment because I like Big Macs but they make my stomach hurt. I wanted to see if the Japanese Big Macs would treat me differently. It even tasted a little different as they grilled the patty longer and salted it more.

Of course I really set out for a doughnut so you know where I went next. Check out the evil-looking doughnut they gave me. They were brewing a fresh pot of not-very-good coffee. I even got a free refill.

I checked for down vests (they’re all over Uniqlo but not on the web page, I guess), got a haircut, and then went back to the hotel and puttered around not packing until I finally got around to packing. I have a ¥990 gym bag I bought at Ameyoko to hold the stuff I’m leaving here at this hotel (I’ll be back in 9 days from today) and so my suitcase feels a lot lighter.

I had that ¥500 ticket from last night so I went back to the Daimaru to spend it on dinner. I thought I’d go to the KYK tonkatsu shop since it’s a chain and it was good when I went before. I ordered the “healthy fall” dish and forgot to take a picture of the first few things they brought out. But here’s all the drinks you get with the meal. I think the tomato juice was just a sample, but it’s cold tea and umeshu (plum liquor).

It took a while and I was going to say it wasn’t the best (the tonkatsu was almost soggy) but it tasted great. I guess the herbed cutlet (there’s green around the pork inside of the breading) is juicier than a regular pork cutlet. They also gave me kurigohan, too! I went back for another drawing and didn’t win anything this time. That’s actually lucky because now I don’t feel obligated to come back to use any coupons.

So that’s it for my last day (for now) in Osaka. Tomorrow I meet my mom in Maebashi after four hours on the train. I’m hoping I can get a seat for the last two hours. Here’s a picture of my haircut. Looking at myself in the mirror, I still look pudgy but I think I must be losing weight walking every day and not eating much lunch. I better wear the pants I just bought because once I get back I won’t fit in them for very long.

I’m not sure if I’ll have access to the intarwebs for a couple of days so things may be a little quiet. If so, see you in a couple of days.

I slept in a bit but I felt pretty good this morning so I decided I would go ahead and go to Myokensan and Myokensan Temple in Kawanishi, where I used to live. That’s kind of misleading, because Kawanishi is huge and Myokensan (the mountain) is way up in the hills. In fact, you have to take the Nose Railway which looks like the Hankyu railway but is a subsidiary and requires you to find the right button on the ticket machine (all in Japanese) to buy a ¥580 ticket from Umeda. I even read that Noseden was intially created to make the trip to the Myokensan Temple easier.

In fact, we went by the golf practice area my not-really-my-uncle took me. So that means right behind that apartment on the right is where his prize-winning garden used to be.

A lot of it is a single track through the mountains, but it’s the area I used to ride my racing bicycle 20+ years ago.

Te end of the line is Myokenguchi where you get off and start walking for the cable car.

There’s a short path through the “town” where there’s one restaurant but not much else.

There was a small shrine and, of course, I took a picture.

On the map there was a shrine on the way, and there’s even a stone marker at the side of the road.

But seriously, it’s in the middle of nowhere.

And just past this farmhouse.

I’m not sure about Yoshikawa Yahata Jinja, but it was closed up.

You could see inside, and there was an old shrine inside.

Continuing on, I saw a coin rice milling machine. I still haven’t seen any magazine vending machines, though.

Very close to the ropeway I saw another gate. I think it might be abandoned.

Of course, it’s 10/31, so I had to investigate a bit.

Rather than return to the main road, I followed the road behind the shrine. I ended up ABOVE the cable car.

There was a helpful woman at the cable car who gave me a map of the paths up the mountain. I remembered I’d taken them both in the past. Turns out she’s the the cable car driver.

I decided to walk up which was supposed to take an hour, and did. I’m not sure how the older ladies (they had at least 10 years on me) made it faster than I did. It was a nasty walk, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

So here’s my lunch, a can of coffee.

And off I go up the road.

The road gets narrower and there’s a gate.

There’s lots of shrines by the side of the road. This must have been the main way up in the past.

There are old, possibly abandoned houses on the road.

The first big shrine was downhill from the road.

To the left of the stairs is an area where people sit underneath the “waterfall” and pray.

Somehow I’m missing a picture of the main shrine, but I have a fuzzy picture of the alcove.

Back up to the road and there’s more shrines.

The higher up the hill, the more abandoned the shrines looked.

On the landing.

A small shrine to the left.

Another shrine to the right, and if you can squeeze through the main gate.

And here’s what appears to be the main shrine.

This is also up those steps.

If you see a rickety looking makeshift bridge and a tiny shrine across a rocky creek, do you go across?

When I say rickety, I mean makeshift and rickety.

I went.

Continuing on, I think this is the last temple.

I was wondering about all the white plastic in the creek and it turns out it’s the bags of rocks used to hold up the hillside decomposing.

There’s more of the waterfalls to pray under.

Water from the creek is redirected to make “waterfalls”.

After this the road gets rocky.

And instead of bags of rocks there were cages of rocks.

But there’s still shrines and I wonder if they’re graves.

It gets rocker and steep as heck.

I think this is where I texted my sister and told her I was freezing and still sweating through my shirt and pants. 

So close to the top!

It’s steep enough that the house has a tramway to get things down the hill.

At the end of the trail there’s a sign I don’t believe. 1.8km? That’s only 1mi and 626ft. But it was 410m of rise, or 1,345ft up.

Finally, at the top, where there’s a bus stop and a parking lot. This is the path towards Myokensan Temple. Still up.

There’s a little shop right at the bottom of the path up.

Like I said, up.

After this guy, I decided to quit taking pictures of old famous guys I didn’t recognize.

And horses. There were four for some reason.

At this high point is this glass structure. I’m sure there’s some meaning to it.

There’s a clear view of Osaka from the top, even though it was a bit hazy.

I could hear chanting from the temple. Nichiren seems quite popular.

Down past the bell.

There’s a row of temples and rest houses.

This is the temple where they were chanting.

So, after getting a little lost, I thought it was time to find my way to the chairlift and then the ropeway back down. But when I got to the chairlift a guy told me it wasn’t that steep and it was pretty slow. I remember taking it with my ex-fiancée on a date where it started raining. That was a long time ago. Now, I decided just to walk my sad ass down the road by myself.

The road lead to cemeteries and a temple next to them.

And then more cemeteries.

You can see the chair lift and how it doesn’t really go up very fast.

The last bit to the cable car was pretty steep.

If you remember the picture of the cable car, you can see it doesn’t go very far. So I decided I could just walk down. After walking up the hill from the cable car to the chair lift, I decided I couldn’t walk uphill much further and ended up taking the chairlift. It did bring back memories. Like the memory that it was nice being with Yūko, but the chairlift was otherwise pretty boring.

You’ll notice I ended up back at the parking lot. I decided I needed to add to my lunch and had a Coke before I walked down.

I realized that the trip down was steep as hell and I should have just taken the damn cable car.

See this nice paved slope? That doesn’t last for very long.

Another thing I noticed is that the creek bed looks like it would have water the whole way down, but at the top it’s dry. Then there’s a spring. Then it’s dry again. Then there’s a spring. Then you can hear the gentle sound of water trickling down the slope which, if I’ve had a big bottle of Coke, can make me need to use the bathroom.

On the way down I saw a shrine next to a hole in the mountain. I also saw several giant Asian wasps so I didn’t poke my head in the hole.

And I made it down to the bottom of the cable car, and the public toilet. Thank the gods. 61 minutes up and 34 minutes down.

Down the hill and thank goodness I saw a postman and asked him directions. I was about to turn the wrong way down the road.

I wonder if they’re growing a second crop.

And I thought these bloomed in the middle of the summer. They do in the US.

And it’s persimmon season.

I got back on the train and went back to the hotel. I guess I had a Snicker’s bar as a snack. For dinner I decided to go back to the Darimaru building (the South Station Building now) since I won a ¥300 coupon the other night. I’d been thinking of tempura, so I found a ¥2,100 tempura shop.

They bring things out as they’re ready and that’s not a good thing for a guy who went up and down a mountain had such an odd lunch.

Just some sushi.

Then just some shrimp.

Then some fish with miso soup and just a little rice.

Mushrooms and sweet potato.

Chawanmushi (I already ate the shellfish out of it).

Finally, something I can’t remember the name of that wasn’t very good. In fact, the whole experience was so-so. The best part is that I got to try for another prize and this time I got a ¥500 coupon.

Speaking of disappointments, today was the opening of Eki Marché in the JR station closest to the hotel. I stood in line for 20 minutes to get a doughnut. As you can imagine, it would take a lot for a doughnut to be worth a 20 minute wait, and I think I’d rather have had one from Mr. Donut. By the end I thought it was OK, but still, not real sure if I’d wait that long for a matcha doughnut from Chichūjo Doughnuts.

Tomorrow is my last full day in Osaka before I leave for Maebashi. My plans are to do laundry and pack my crap up. It probably won’t take all day but I’m generally boring and I’m not planning on doing much more. Maybe I’ll see some things around the station, but that’s about it.

This morning started slowly. I got up and read my email (of course) and found out how to sign up for next year’s health insurance. It’s something we do at work this time every year, and every year I’m usually in Japan until the last day or so. This time I’m out the whole time, so I had to get a co-worker to figure out how I can select things remotely.

Then it was off to the train station to change my tickets. Like I said yesterday, my plans have changed and so I had to get my complicated train ticket and exchange it for a ticket just to Tokyo. I was trying to decide whether to meet my sister in Tokyo or my mom in Maebashi. Maebashi seemed a lot more expensive on the train so I decided to go straight to Tokyo but then I found out that there are no hotel rooms open this weekend. So, after several calls home, I decided to go to Maebashi after all. Besides, instead of taking the Shinkansen (1:41 and ¥4,800), I can take the regular train (2:25 and ¥1,890).

So after all that, I had to decide what to do today. I was thinking of going to Myokensan up in the mountains, or Sumiyoshi-taisha Shrine to the south. It was a cloudy morning, so I headed south. I got a map at the Tourist Information bureau and the only one they had left was in English. After taking an odd train to Tennoji, it was onto the Hankai Tramway (a streetcar, really).

My first stop was Bandaiike Park which turned out to have very little historic value but was interesting for other reasons. First, the houses nearby were HUGE. This first one has a FULL SIZE garage attached, unlike most places in Japan.

I don’t know if these pictures fully express the size or the unusual construction of this house.

The neighborhood was full of things that looked a little more ostentatious than I’ve seen. Plus it’s in a flat area, not too far from the poorest area I’ve seen in Japan.

The lake was pretty and lots of people were exercising nearby. They’re probably the idle rich.

You know me, a sucker for shrines. This is just something that was on the walkway in the middle of the lake.

And the other interesting thing was my lunch. I saw a place that was pretty crowded with a Mercedes-Benz idling in front. I walked by an came back a half-hour later after finding nothing else interesting food-wise. This was ¥600!

Another ¥100 and I got coffee!

I had stomach problems later in the afternoon, but I can’t really blame lunch. It seemed too quick for that.

The 30-minutes I mentioned was spent going to Tezukayama Tumulus, a tomb from the early fifth century!

Then it was off to Sumiyoshi-taisha, which i think is the oldest shrine in Japan. That, of course, means lots of temples and shrines. Like Tofukuji Temple

Or Housen-ji Temple with thirteen stone images of the Buddha which is rare in Japan according to the map. The temple itself didn’t appear to be open, but a behind some dirty glass on the left (the short roof) were the Buddhas.

I took this picture through a cracked pane.

Then it was off to find the grounds of Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine. By this time my stomach had started gurgling and I was trying my best to ignore it. You know, the kind of gurgling that says, “I’m glad I’m going to a tourist spot that must have public restrooms!”

And, of course, I’m going in through the back door again.

Right by the back door is the Nankun Shrine which is supposed to be lucky for business. They sell maneki neko here. There’s all sorts of superstitions about coming here every month for four years and buying the small maneki neko and then trading the small ones for a large one for greater luck in business.

This is the main shrine (the First Hongu). At this point I’m heading towards the main entrance.

Inside the main entrance is the taikobashi curved bridge. It’s pretty darn steep.

And there are lots of lanterns outside.

Here’s the main entrance.

Which leads to the bridge.

And the main entrance to the grounds, and this guy on the left who wouldn’t get out of the picture. He just kept standing around.

The Third Hongu.

The Fourth Hongu.

The Second Hongu.

And, of course this is the season for chrysanthemums!

The First Hongu is the main shrine from earlier and I believe this is when I thanked the gods that Japan has public restrooms. I should have thanked them for having CLEAN public restrooms.

On the way back I saw several wedding parties taking pictures.

There are lots of shrines on the grounds.

I’m not sure what this is.

I’m not sure what all they even are enshrining.

These appear to be “mere storehouses”.

I think this is a place to worship this side of this big tree.

I wonder if this is the famous giant cinnamon tree. The map is not very clear.

Another tree to worship?

And I feel like I’m just cataloging shrines at this point.

This definitely is a storehouse, but the sign is in complicated Japanese. One of these days I should try studying historical Japanese.

Looking at the map, I think this is Tanekashi Shrine where you’re supposed to go first. There were seats inside and it looked quite new and different than most other shrines I’ve seen.

This is Ohwatatsumi (Daikai) Shrine. I’ve seen mention that this is even older than the Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine. It has lots of stories tied to the sea.

It also has an interesting gate inside the shrine and a door to who knows what treasures?

The entrance to Ohwatatsumi Shrine is what I expect a grand old shrine entrance to look like.

This is the northwest-ish corner of Sumiyoshi Taisha Shrine

There are other shrines and temples in the area, but I figured I better not push my luck and headed back to the hotel. I’m feeling better but I did take a nap. Instead of heading out to dinner, I went out to the fancy bakery below the Ritz-Carlton and had a salmon sandwich and some savory pastries.

And there it is. If I’m feeling better tomorrow, it’s up to Myokensan!

Today I took a trip to Yamazaki Station in Kyoto Prefecture to visit the Suntory Yamazaki Distillery. Yamazaki Station is barely in Kyoto Prefecture and everything I saw today was in Osaka Prefecture. Yamazaki itself is in Osaka Prefecture.

But seriously, there’s NOTHING near Yamazaki Station.

Very close by is this shrine. I can’t read the name of it and it’s probably the Rikyu Hachiman-gū Shrine.

As is the case lately, I came in through the side gate.

Yesterday it was a mystery cow; today it’s a horse.

I kept going down the street and found Seki Daimyojin Shrine that had all sorts of signs. In fact, one of the signs seemed to indicate a historic path between Osaka and Kyoto.

But really, it was just sent me down a neighborhood street.

Here’s the signs I kept seeing, and of course it led me straight to…

A factory?

Soon enough I found my way back into a neighborhood. I also saw a speed trap but I figured taking pictures of cops was pushing my luck.

I checked Google maps to make sure I was headed the right direction and I saw a temple sign on the map. It was on the way to Minase Jing? Shrine, but the temple was closed.

 Minase Jing? Shrine was fairly impressive, and it’s an Imperial Shrine.

As I was about to leave I noticed more and more people lining up to get water out of a boring looking tap.

It turns out that the spring that feeds the Suntory Distillery is also feeds the spring that comes out of the water tap. I also read that famous tea ceremony schools hold tea ceremonies here.

I headed back towards my real destination of the day, the Suntory Yamazaki Distillery. I used to think Japanese whisky was awful but Suntory makes some tasty single-malt whiskies.

I got there fairly early and they let me go on the 1PM tour rather than the 2PM tour I signed up for. There are old stills outside of the factory.

Here’s two important guys I wasn’t paying enough attention to.

There’s a small museum downstairs that you can get into almost any time, but the real fun comes when you sign up for the hour-long tour. You have to make reservations and I had to make reservations a week in advance.

Inside there’s all the cooking vats. I don’t know much about how to make distilled spirits so I won’t pretend.

And various stills of different styles to produce different distillate. You can just see the bulby one on the very left. I took a whole year of Physical Chemistry, one of the hardest classes I’ve taken, and most of it was about distilleries.

Non-temperature controlled casks.

Cask Number 1! (I think it’s just for show).

I’m not sure what the black barrels are.

Here’s some of the special Yamazaki spring water in their garden behind the plant.

Some snacks to eat with the whisky.

The first sample was their new young single-malt they sell for “high-balls”. They had it with seltzer and ice with a side of their spring water. After that they had Yamazaki 12 and Hakushu 12 for tasting with water and ice. I asked for it straight to taste it. Hakushu has more of a sweet flavor, but Ithink I prefer the Yamazaki.

Behind the factory is a shrine. You have to go through the main gate, but I was told you can just tell them you’re going to the shrine and they’ll let you through the factory.

There’s also a “tasting room” where you can taste various single-malt Scotch whiskies and also all the Suntory products. I was looking at the Yamazaki 25 for a while since it’s 10x the price of the Yamazaki 12 and I figured this would be my only chance to try it. I paid ¥2,300 (almost $30) for 15ml. In comparison, a normal “shot” or “jigger” is 1½ oz or about 45ml. It was sweet and complex and had more flavor than the Yamazaki 12. I’m not sure I can describe it properly but I really enjoyed it.

 On the way back I got a picture of the Meiji factory that has a giant fake chocolate bar on the side of it. It’s somewhere not very close to Takatsuki station.

So, in reality, I drank my lunch today. And it was an expensive lunch as well. But I also found a Starbucks close to the hotel that wasn’t on Google maps and had a muffin as well. I spent a bunch of time trying to get the free wifi to work but I never was successful.

For dinner I decided to get okonomiyaki. The hotel suggested a place in the basement of Harbis Plaza, very close by, and under the Ritz-Carlton. There were a lot of restaurants down there.

I got the autumn special.

I also got some teppan gyoza. It’s flat grilled gyoza and quite tasty. Certainly worth the ¥2,570.

I also found out that our friends in Toyama have to go to a funeral and I have to redo a bunch of my travel plans at for the end of this week. I found out in the middle of the day when I was away from my computer and any information. I’ll have to figure out what to do tomorrow morning. More excitement!

It’s another rainy day and my photographs are sort of blurry. Ah well. I figured I’d take it easy today and I was looking for a nice, covered place to go. I knew I should get out of Umeda because it was going to get crowded. So I went to Tenjinbashisuji shopping street. I decided to start at the south end which was near Minamimorimachi. You have to walk a bit south to get to the end of the shopping street.

There’s a little more to the south, but it didn’t look like all that much more.

Back to the shopping street.

Of course, as soon as I got into the shopping street I saw people lining up somewhere to the east. I think it’s a rakugo theatre.

And just to the south of that is one of the entrances to Osaka Temmangū Shrine.

If you go all the way through the shrine, you can get to the main gate. Instead of warriors at the gate, there’s guys who look like tow of the seven lucky gods. I couldn’t get a picture because of the glare.

This is the main shrine.

And several to the side. The grounds are pretty large and there’s a parking lot on the grounds.

Here’s a blurry picture of a cow. I’m not sure what that’s about.

Lots of offerings of saké, though.

One of the first shops I saw on the way back in was a fabric store. This (fuzzy) picture is for my sister.

There were different colored gates down the shopping street.

And I swear there were a half-dozen massage places.

The lady bug mud signify the end of the gates.

There was a big intersection and the railway crossed through the shopping street. A young guy was walking his grandmother down the street. The sushi place had live fish in the tank.

Closer  to the north end of the shopping street things got narrower.

This was a side street I should have taken later in the day.

Compare the side entrance to the picture of the main entrance. I took a few days ago.

The shopping street does cross a few major streets. On each side there’s something over the entrance.

I thought I was going to have to look for the Osaka Museum of Housing and Living, but it was right at the northern end of the shopping street. You go in the building and go up to the eighth floor. You can see the shopping street out the window. (The weather got nice after I left the museum.)

It wasn’t raining inside, but the pictures are still fuzzy. There’s a rebuilt version of an Osaka neighborhood.

You can rent kimonos to walk around the “town” (just the two streets).

There’s a viewing area and then it’s down into the model. There’s an audio guide you can get of the town and the shops have things inside to look at.

This is a model of the old building methods.

The next area had dioramas of Osaka through the ages.

There’s a spoken word show if you wait long enough. An elderly woman talks about growing up before and after WWII.

 The dioramas drop down and a scene of the living space is shown. I didn’t take pictures of all of the dioramas, but it’s pretty interesting.

I decided to walk to Mos Burger, which is on the edge of Umeda. Turns out that taking the subway would’t have gained me all that much anyway, and the rain had stopped. I found this guy on the way back, next to the huge Korean Cultural building.

Lunch at Mos Burger.

I went back to the hotel and took a nap. I’m not sure I’ve recovered from it. I also decided to do something silly: eat at the old Mexican restaurant we used to go to. This cost me ¥1,880. The taco filling was entirely guacamole!

They were having some sort of contest that they like to do in Japan. You spin the thing and a marble comes out. I didn’t win anything there. But there’s a second-chance on the left side where you enter in a number into an iPad and I got a discount coupon for ¥300!

And that was my day. Tomorrow I tour the Suntory Yamazaki distillery.