I was still tired this morning. I think it’s probably because of the onsen yesterday, but I told my sister it feels like I’ve been walking all day, every day, for a month-and-a-half. She said, “Because you have, Forrest.” I even forgot to call home before I left the hotel. Fortunately, there are apps that let you use Google Voice using only data on your iPhone (Talkatone).

I decided to go to the Open-Air Museum of Old Japanese Farm Houses in Hattori Ryokuchi Park in Toyonaka City. I’ve been putting it off, thinking, “Hey, my grandma had an old Japanese Farm House and I’ve even stayed there in the past.” But then I realized that my cousin had torn both houses down.

All my pictures today are from my iPhone. For some reason I felt too lazy to take my other camera out of my bag.

On the way to the subway, I saw a looong line at one of the department store basement food stores. This one, I think, is Daimaru. I wonder what they were getting. I was tempted to line up just to be more Japanese.

I got a subway day pass and headed for the park. There’s a path from the closest subway station to the park. If you look at the sign, there was an autumn fair going on.

The park is pretty big and has lots of areas with various activities going on. There’s even a horse riding area that I never got to.

In one of the open areas they were doing whatever this is. Bike Trial riding, I think. This little kid was pretty good at it.

There was an announcement of heavy machinery demonstrations. They let little kids onto the machines. The garbage truck was just arriving.

Ashiya University had their solar car, plus two smaller solar cars for kids to ride around on.

I didn’t take pictures of the Segway rides, or the slack-line, or lots of other things for kids to try out.

This is the entrance to the Open-Air Museum of Old Japanese Farm Houses. The gate is an old gate moved to the museum.

All of the houses (this is actually a barn) were actual houses moved here to the museum. I didn’t take a picture of the first house because they were having a woodwind recital inside. I’m also not going to say too much about the houses because I’d just be copying it from the pamphlets.

There were things going on in the houses (lots of activities for kids) and there were even little old ladies starting  cooking fires. Just like my grandma’s house, with grandmas inside!

This was a tea house and I almost stopped in for some green tea. But I don’t really know the procedure.

This is a kabuki stage.

There were looms in one of the houses where kids could try weaving cloth from silkworm thread (or so I’m guessing).

I took this picture because I remember this kind of construction in my grandma’s house.

They were even demonstrating spinning silk thread.

This is a huge house from Shirakawa where extended families would live together. It’s complicated, and you should look it up if you’re interested. The upper floors were used for growing silkworms.

I headed back into the park and these pictures can’t show you how steep this hill is.

The all-day ticket actually stopped at Esaka, and I had to pay extra to get from Esaka to Hattori Ryukuchi-koenmae. I bought another ticket to get back, and got off. I remember there were guys who would hang out in Esaka since, back in the day, the only Osaka Tokyu Hands was in Esaka. But Esaka didn’t look that inviting so I just looked at my iPhone map and found something interesting.

Yeah, it says, “Asahi Beer”. It’s not listed in any of the tourist guides so I figured it was just a factory (as it was) but I decided it was time for an adventure.

So it was off through the neighborhoods.

I found a rice paddy in the middle of all the buildings.

It was a long walk with not too much to see but I found a surf shop! The one thing my brother-in-law wanted me to look for was the fancy new Japanese stretch neoprene.

I tried calling my sister but the data throughput kind of sucked in that area. She wanted some fabric samples and felt funny about asking for them. Turns out this guy is the real deal and makes wetsuits upstairs and gave me some scraps for samples.

When I got to the train station at Suita, I realized I’d misread the map and there wasn’t any subway there. So my day pass was worthless to me.

I found a shrine, of course, right next to Hankyu Suita Station. This is Izudono-gū Shrine.

They were having a chrysanthemum display, and it’s the season for chrysanthemum displays.

You can see the only three people who were at the shrine. I asked them about how to get back to the subway or to Umeda, and they told me that it was incredibly far to get back to where I started much less walk to Umeda. Japanese people don’t go walking through the city like I do. They were really nice and helpful and kept me from going to the old Expo ’70 site because there’s nothing to see there except more chrysanthemums. They also told me the closest thing that would let me use my day pass would be back at Esaka.

This is Kanzakigawa, the first of two rivers I crossed walking back to Umeda. I walked about five hours, and at 3 miles per hour that’s fifteen miles. I have no idea if that’s accurate and I really wanted to rest today.

I couldn’t find a restaurant so here’s my lunch. I really have to plan my trips better.

Somewhere in the middle of my trip I saw this on my map. A museum in the middle of the river! But I figured the real museum is on land.

I went a long ways down this narrow sidewalk next to a highway.

The sidewalk got even narrower but I finally got to the museum.

I think this says that the museum is closed starting 4/1/2012.

Ah well, time to cross Yodogawa River.

This picture is for my sister, a sign saying, “Start, Osaka 30K.”

Still a ways to Umeda.

There were a lot of people in the restaurants in Umeda. I even had to wait to get into our favorite green tea restaurant, Toki. They had potato parfait and I couldn’t read the kanji so I tried it. I think I’m going back to just get the more traditional desserts soon.

I got back to the hotel and passed out in the chair in the room. No, the chair isn’t very comfortable, but I was TIRED. It was a lot more humid than you’d expect.

For dinner I was trying to decide where to go and I though, I have a day pass, it cost me ¥600, and I’ve only used about ¥230 on it. But I did notice there was a Bikkuri Donkey in Esaka as well as Dotonbori and I could finally have dinner at the place I saw on TV a month or so ago. So off it was to Esaka.

The menu is built into a huge window shutter and I had a hard time deciphering it. But I finally just asked and got the hamburger with cheese and potato salad inside.

Oh, and a beer.

The TV show I saw was one where they had to rank the popularity of the items on the menu. They’d try to find the highest ranking item, order it, and then see where it actually ranked. Everything they tried they kept saying was really good. Well, this is the best tasting hamburger steak I’ve had in Japan and it was pretty cheap. The beer was cheap and I wouldn’t order it again. The bitterness tasted almost medicinal.

It’s supposed to rain tomorrow and I already have plans. I want to see the Osaka Museum of Housing and Living and Japan’s longest 2.6km (~1.6 miles) shopping street. I’m hoping the shopping street is covered.

Please forgive today’s post if it’s incoherent. It’ll get obvious what I did to become incoherent. I’m also deleting a lot of pictures today because they’re repetitious. Like lots of ropeway and cable car pictures that all look alike. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Today I didn’t know what to do, so I figured I’d go to Kobe.

I got there and found the tourist bureau and got the English-language information from them. Then I was gripped by indecision and stood outside the office for a while and started walking back and forth until I decided to just get on the train and go back two stations and take a bus, cable-car, bus, and ropeway to get to Arima Onsen. Here’s the first bus.

Of course, I’m an idiot and I got off the bus too early. It was only about 700m walking but about 50m (165ft) of elevation gain.

So the second part of the trip is the Rokko Cable car.

Yep, it’s two cars attached by a cable. Here’s a picture of the small section of rail where they pass each other.

Here’s the car I rode in the lower station.

And in the upper station.

I guess it’s a good way as any to get up a steep hill.

You only have a short time to transfer to the bus and, of course, I spent too much time getting change and taking these pictures and 

 

Fortunately, I only had to wait twenty minutes. There was more time to connect to the ropeway from the bus so I could go up and try to find the high point on Mt. Rokko. I thought this was the top.

I didn’t stop at any of the attractions atop Mt. Rokko, including a Music Box Museum that had pamphlets back in Hamamatsu at the Musical Instruments museum.

I was told the highest spot was this weird dome.

And I remember all the towers from when I rode my bike up to the top of Mt. Rokko. Twice. I was young and stupid. I did it during the summer and it was hot at the bottom and freezing at the top. I thought this was the top. I think this area is 880m (about 2900ft) above where I started.

I took some more pictures because it looked like it was clearing up.

This is the ropeway.

Actually, I think this is supposed to be the top of Mt. Rokko, where that tower is.

The next three pictures are of the deepest valley in the Mt. Rokko area.

And finally, it drops straight down into the Arima Onsen area. 

Of course the ropeway ends in the middle of nowhere. Fortunately the town of Arima is downhill.

I didn’t even bother going to any shrines or temples.

So there’s two main hot springs where you can just go in and have a soak, KInsen and Ginsen. Kinsen is “ferruginous, sodium chloride, saline, high temperature” while Ginsen has two: “carbon dioxide spring (carbonic acid spring)” and “radioactive spring (radium spring).” Of course indecision hit. I wanted to go to the carbonic acid but avoid the radioactive and finally ended up just going to Kinsen. Turns out Ginsen was closed for the week.

The 42°C (107.6°F) bath wasn’t quite hot enough but the 44°C (111.2°F) was actually painful. Of course I sat in the hotter one for a while. I got out and have been only semi-coherent for the rest of the day.

Here’s all the things I bought at Kinsen. Arima Cider, a towel, a comb, and access to the bath.

The Arima cider was not that sweet and pretty good. Especially after taking hot bath. 

I’ve actually never been to Arima and it was a nice traditional hot spring town that’s been in existence since the 500’s or so. Yeah, three digits.

You wouldn’t think cars would use this street.

I missed lunch again, and about 3:30 I had a matcha soft ice cream cone. Lots of guys were drinking beer or at a stand-up bar having beer or sake, but I figured that would just knock me out.

I took the bus straight back to Umeda station. It was a bit more expensive, but I didn’t have to change buses or trains and I knew even if I fell asleep I’d get woken up when we arrived back at Umeda.

This is a picture near the bus stop and I knew this would be a million dollar picture after the fall colors change.

On the way back I saw this Friendly and I think this is one where I went on a date in the past with my old fiancée.

I went out to find dinner and I figured I’d try the new South Station building (the Daimaru) and almost went to the Mexican restaurant, Chico’s and Charlie’s. We used to go all the time back when I lived in Japan. I ended up going back to the Yodobashi Camera and the all-you-can-eat bread place, because nobody was lining up anywhere in the South Station building but they were at “Baqet”.

So that’s it for today. I wonder what I’ll do tomorrow.

My timing is getting off. I started doing laundry when I got back to the hotel after 5PM and didn’t finish until 9PM. I guess it takes about 40 minutes to wash and 30-45 minutes to dry. Since I was going to wash ALL my pants, I had two loads to do. There’s no going to the laundry room pantsless. That’s something to do at home.

I’m getting ahead of myself. Today i decided to go to the Tennoji area to see Shitennoji Temple. I knew there must be a lot of people visiting the area when I found a tourist bureau in the Tennoji train station. There’s only three offices of the tourist bureau in Osaka. I was told that the Shin-Sekai area around the Tsutenkaku Tower is a lot safer than it was 20 years ago, so I was going to check that out as well.

But I still needed coffee even after my late start this morning and so it was off to Mister Donut. There was a line and people were buying boxes and boxes of doughnuts. This weekend is ¥100 doughnuts and Osaka people love bargains.

There are small temples everywhere you see just walking down the street in this area.

The first temple I saw was Tennoji Koshindo Temple.

This was busier than the pictures show. Lots of elderly people all throughout the temple grounds. This is the main temple. I could hear chanting in the temple. In fact, most of the temples today had chanting or reading of the sutras.

There was some sort of festival going on and maybe this is the day to eat lucky konnyaku. I’m not familiar with the traditions.

There were seeds and nuts and another vendor selling spice. I didn’t realize this until just now, but the “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” monkeys are from here.

Walking outside Shitennoji Koshindo Temple, you can see Shitennoji Temple.

This is a busy road you cross to get to the temple grounds.

This is the main temple grounds, protected by two warriors.

Here’s another view showing the pagoda.

A monk and a prayer wheel.

This is the large gate leading into the the area.

A bell tower, I think. I kept hearing bells and chanting.

This is something my mom told me about, the pool full of turtles.

Temple, chanting.

There are a lot of temple buildings on the grounds of Shittenoji Temple.

I’m not sure what this is, but it held a shrine and burning candles and incense.

Another view of the pagoda. You could get into the inner area, but I was too cheap to pay the several hundred yen to see this or the Japanese garden.

This is the gate leading to the whole complex. A traditional traveling monk is begging outside the gate. You can see the more ornate gate inside. Shitennoji was one of the less busy temples I saw today.

I started heading towards Shin-Sekai, avoiding the Tennoji Zoo. Back when I lived in Japan I went to see a movie (I think it was Total Recall) somewhere in this area. I passed through the zoo grounds and I saw the most frightening thing I’ve ever seen in a zoo, a crazed orangutan with a growth on it’s head swinging around screaming.

In any case, I could see Tsutenkaku Tower in the distance.

Walking down the busy street, I saw this huge glass and metal structure and two warriors or demons underneath. There were people streaming in and out of this area. Usually something that modern means it’s an odd new religion, so I was busily trying to get my iPhone to tell me what the heck it was.

Turns out this is Isshinji Temple

This is the main Temple and has the graves of historic kabuki figures and was started after the founder of the Jodo sect stopped in the area.

The other rather odd thing is the seven Okotsubustu, statues of the Buddha made out of the cremated remains of 150,000-200,000 people per statue. There are at least two in this building.

There are at least five in this building. There’s constant chanting and the smoke is incense burning.

There was also another “round” building filled with lighted candles.

I saw on the map that Yasui Jinja Shrine was close by. I somehow made it in without going up these stairs.

It was a smaller shrine.

The area near Yasui Jinja Shrine is known for the nanasaka, or seven slopes. This one is Tenjinsaka.

To the left, where you see the flags, was a small temple. I was looking for Kiyomizudera Temple (not the famous one in Kyoto, but the local one) but this wasn’t it.

Walking through the neighborhood, through some back alleyways towards a large cemetery and then wedged past something that looked like a storage area was Kiyomizudera Temple.

After that I pressed on towards Shin-Sekai. I was pretty sure I was getting closer as the streets looked seedier. Everything was just blank buildings under the freeway, but finally I found a bus. 

And the west entrance to the zoo.

And the first thing that looked promising was a kabuki theatre.

Sure enough, down that street was the Tsutenkaku Tower.

And a sign announcing Shin-Sekai. One thing I don’t think I took pictures of is all the Billiken. Like I said yesterday, they confuse me.

Oh, hey, there’s a Billiken to the left.

This is Jan-Jan Yokocho street where women would play the shamisen, making the jan-jan sound to beckon customers.

There was a shogi club where people were playing the Japanese version of chess.

Jan-jan yokocho from the other side.

I think this is the famous kushikatsu restaurant where there are signs against double-dipping.

The giant blowfish of Shinsekai. I was hungry, but everything looked a little sketchy and I wasn’t brave enough to go anywhere.

Spa World, which I saw mentioned somewhere. No real idea what it is.

No real idea about this either.

So then i twas off to Nipponbashi. I was emailed a map of the ham radio stores by one of my old co-workers while I was in Mr. Donut earlier in the day. Unfortunately I think Thursday is the day they’re all closed.

I did find an interesting “Electronics Department Store” Silicon House Kyohritsu. I cut off the top as I was trying to take the picture while crossing a busy street. They had U.S. SparkFun kits as well as local kits. I was interested in the do-it-yourself speaker cabinets and amplifiers.

Here’s another look down Sakaisuji Avenue and Den-Den Town.

Here’s Hirota Jinja Shrine, a short way from Den-Den Town.

My final stop in the area was Imamiya Ebisu Jinja Shrine. I think this is a popular shrine for merchants. I was expecting more to it, and maybe a few more people.

Then it was back to Shin-Imamiya Station. I saw a few homeless guys, a few drunks peeing, and just “normal neighborhood people” staggering around in the streets. I would not suggest taking the route I took to Shin-Imamiya station. I had to walk all the way around the station to find the entrance and the whole of the neighborhood was a little sketchy.

Then it was back to Umeda. I figured it was about time for me to wash my jeans again and while I was at it I might as well buy a new pair from Uniqlo and wash those too. Well, the current sale is on pants, so I bought some khakis which will probably be too small for me when I get back to the US and start eating like a pig again and a pair of jeans which the guy said would shrink but didn’t, so they feel too big for me. But they’ll probably fit after I start eating again. Uniqlo hems pants for free, but it takes some time, so I went and had some cake. The bear is done in chocolate & strawberry syrup. (Did I mention lunch ended up being a rice ball at Lawson?)

So, after getting my pants and a t-shirt I ordered, I went back to the hotel and started my laundry. By the time I was ALMOST finished, it was 8:30 and I hadn’t eaten dinner yet. I finally decided just to try the Garden Café where I have breakfast in the hotel. There’s never many people there for dinner. I asked for suggestions and the woman suggested the steak.

The steak wasn’t the best, but it was good enough. The fries were cooked earlier and the soup seemed like it was reconstituted instant, but I’d get it again. Especially if I’m too busy to go anywhere else.

 The big drawback is that there’s no non-smoking area at night, so you just have to hope nobody sits near you and starts to smoke.

And there you have it. I thought I’d just be back in a couple of hours but I was out all day. And it’s past my bedtime again. Oh well.

My friend told me I had too many pictures and today isn’t going to be any different. I went to the Ando Momofuku Ramen Museum, walked around Ikeda, and then walked to where I was meeting several co-workers for dinner. Then when I got back the weird loud noise in my room, that I’ve had the past two nights, returned and it came from my Washlet! I think it’s water hammer, and the plumber agreed. They changed my room and I’m way behind. Plus, some dumb Mac program is making lots of connections to the intarwebs and the hotel doesn’t seem to like that.

So my first stop today was Hankyu Ikeda station, where the Momofuku Ando Instant Ramen museum is located. I found that Ikeda had a tourist bureau and an English-language map! Of course, it led me astray, but that was later in the day.

My first stop was Kureha Jinja Shrine. It’s a shrine dedicated to one of two weaving princesses and is popular with those in the apparel business.

I guess you get more than one shrine here as well.

I headed to the instant ramen museum and it was much larger than I expected! 

I saw all sorts of people with instant ramen they’d made in the museum.

A picture of the man! Ando Momofuku!

I think this is a recreation of the shack he had in his backyard where he experimented on making instant ramen.

Seriously, a mad scientist shack. I love this guy.

There were lots of displays showing how he came up with instant ramen and Cup Noodle and then a video presentation of it as well. Then there’s the long line where people get to make their own Cup Noodle.

Actually, you just tell them what to do for the most part and you just draw on the outside of the cup.

There’s even a snack bar with, you guessed it, different types of Cup Noodle!

Upstairs is a kitchen where you can actually make your own instant ramen from scratch. I checked the reservation system and they’re booked all the way into December.

The instant ramen museum was the only place on the map on the south side of the station, so off I went to the north, uphill.

I knew I was lost when I saw something that looked like a castle to my right instead of to my left.

And seriously, down an alley and up a very long and narrow set of stairs.

At the top was just a sign that said, “West Gate.”

I found an impressive park.

And what appeared to be a castle turret.

I found what looked like the main gate. There were a few guys talking about something, and I finally figured out they weren’t talking about how I wasn’t supposed to be there, but about a wild boar. They told me I was at the Ikeda Castle Ruins Park and gave me a map in Japanese which was much clearer but still not very accurate.

My next stop was the Ichizo Kobayashi Memorial Museum. He started the Hankyu Railway.

The map mentioned a restaurant, but I guess you need reservations and there were lots of older ladies dressed up so it probably wasn’t my sort of place.

So off I went towards Ikeda Jinja Shrine, uphill. The neighborhood was weird. Houses bigger than large US houses in between apartment buildings. It all looked pretty fancy. What I didn’t find was any restaurants.

I finally found a Lawson and got a candy bar to tide me over.

This is what I saw otherwise.

Looks like I’m lost, but I”m just heading towards Ikeda Jinja Shrine.

Every time I see stairs like this I just hope I’m headed the right way. When I got to the top of these, I saw a little old lady from earlier. I guess I didn’t have to go down the slope and up these steps.

At the top of the steps was a pre-school group but the moms didn’t know where the shrine was. Fortunately a construction worker did and he opined behind him and I popped out here.

The shrine is actually behind me, but this is a picture of the gates down the slope.

The main gate.

A side shrine.

Ikeda Jinja Shrine is dedicated to the other weaving princess, Ayaha. The main shrine building was built in the early 19th century!

And two more shrines on the grounds.

 A closer view of the center of the grounds.

And here’s the main building built in the early 1800’s.

I figured out where all the kids wet coming from. Up beyond this gate was a zoo!

I headed downhill, back towards the station.

This is the “Big Harp” bridge.

Ikeda Gofuku-za Theatre which was originally established in 1892 but was gone in 80 years.

Across the street is the Rakugo Museum. It’s mainly a spoken form of art, comic storytelling, so there’s not all that much there but a video library and a stage.

There’s also a Billiken which confuses me.

This is supposed to be a sake brewery, and all I saw were empties outside.

I was starving and it was past 2PM so that meant most restaurants would be closed. I went down the shopping street looking for something.

I found a coffee roaster, and went upstairs to get some coffee at the very least.

My coffee took twelve minutes to arrive! Fortunately, it was very smooth and tasty.

I also got a snack of Japanese sweets and some vanilla ice cream with black honey.

Then it was off to head back to Itami, where I used to work. On the way, I first found what I think is Kodo Jinja.

The main shrine.

And down the row of gates to the side shrine.

 

Of course I ran into other shrines on the way, like this tiny one.

I also saw this weird building. I’m not sure if you can see the giant screws in the ramps.

And, in the middle of nowhere, what I thought was Kamo Jinja.

There’s a long path to the shrine.

This is just an odd name for a restaurant.

I’m getting close! This was “my” gas station!

If you’ve ever noticed the big scar on my left knee, this is the curve where I fell off my motorcycle and gave myself that scar.

My old apartment building.

The ditch where the drunk construction worker shoved me.

As was on my way here, to the vending machine in front of the book store (no longer there) to buy some, ahem, magazines.

I saw my co-workers. Mr. Hayashi (on the right) was on his way to his own going-away party so he just stopped by for a minute. On the left is my friend Shohei Moriwaki. Mr. Hayashi is quitting since he figured he’d retire soon anyway.

And finally, Mr. Hirose (another ham), Mr. Moriwaki, Mr. Shinsou, me, and Mr. Abe. Mr. Moriwaki works for Mitsubishi. The rest transferred to Renesas. Mr. Hirose is quitting, Mr. Shinsou is not, and Mr. Abe is “transferring” to another sub-company of Mitsubishi’s.

So there’s my adventures for the day. Time to hit the hay (it’s about 12:30AM now).

I was dragging again today and it was a rainy day anyway. My mom suggested that I hang the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the door and go back to sleep. I figured I’d go walking the underground a while.

One of the first things I saw was people lining up in the basement of the Hanshin Department store to get the cheap cake. I forget why there’s cheap cake, whether it’s oddly shaped or if they just sell a bunch of them for cheap.

Anyway, I had no idea what I was doing so the first thing I did was head towards Hep Five. And what did I run into? Whity Umeda!

And the first things I saw in Whity Umeda? Beard Papa and Baskin Robbins! (Actually the first thing I saw was a store selling traditional Japanese sweets, but that doesn’t make for as good a story.)

I didn’t actually go INTO Hep Five, because, well, I’m an idiot. And I had more time to kill. While I was there, I thought I’d try looking for our favorite green tea sweets shop. But what I found were new restaurants with a new underground river! Turns out the store I was looking for is BEHIND this store. It’s still there.

So this is in the northeast of the underground and I thought I’d go to the southwest where I was two days ago and where it was all shuttered up.

But I started getting tired and stopped at Chococro, in the middle of everything (pretty much) and had a coffee. I had to ask the woman like a retard what the strongest coffee was and she just didn’t understand what I was asking. So, for the second day in a row, I felt like I was getting in an argument about something completely stupid. I just didn’t want a weak-ass cup of coffee (again). I was in a much better mood after the coffee (especially since the girl running the coffee machine gave me and the girl on the cash register some advice on coffee).

Turns out the area towards the southwest isn’t shuttered up during the week. Lots of businessmen and stores.

Hell, I don’t know where I’m taking pictures any more. I think this is where I decided that I was going to follow the road to the far northeast again.

Sometime in the middle of all of this, I went back to Hep Five and, stupidly, sent Facebook messages to co-workers and got some information about next years insurance changes. You have to do it now, and I don’t know how you’re supposed to get it done when you’re on sabbatical. I also heard about some customers and I shouldn’t have asked. Fortunately there are plenty of things to distract you in Japan. Like a giant red whale in Hep Five. And women trying to help direct you to the proper boutique while wearing ridiculous uniforms.

I thought I’d get some lunch and by the time I got closer to the hotel and found a place to get some lunch. The Wired Café sounded annoying, and of course, it was. My phone stopped connecting to the cellular data network and I couldn’t get onto the “free” internet.

Fortunately, the taco rice (not tako rice) was pretty tasty.

I got back to the hotel around 3 or so and decided to take a nap. In fact, I didn’t do a whole lot more today. But I did get into my head that I wasted to get some tonkatsu. I asked the front desk and they sent me from the west side of Umeda past the northeast corner of Umeda to Chayamachi. I could swear they said Katsukura was in the Apple Rose building. Turns out it’s in the APPLAUSE building.

It was a serious tonkatsu restaurant. They give you goma (sesame) in a mortar and you grind it.

Then you add two types of sauce. And no matter how hard I try, I take a fuzzy picture.

On the way here I was thinking I haven’t had much seafood. I won’t point out the baby octopus in one of my previous pictures, but that and some fried shrimp are probably the only seafood I’ve had.

I had this exact same combination in Tokyo but I think this was a little better.

Tomorrow I’m meeting some old co-workers. The company that Mitsubishi turned into through mergers of several different companies is finally cutting back on all the factories they own and a lot of them are quitting or getting laid off. This may be my last chance to see a lot of them! In any case, I don’t know what else I’m going to do. Maybe see the Ando instant ramen museum? Or see what my cousin’s kid’s new house looks like?

Apart from the arguing, I do like Osaka best.

I was tired this morning because it turns out the rail noise on the “view” side of this hotel is really loud. Makes sense, because there’s lots of rail switches right in front of the hotel. I had to get my room changed. Otherwise, I slept OK.

Today was a hot day in Osaka, though not as hot as weather.com was saying. It was hot enough. Oddly, the people here were still dressed for the season, not for the day. I was sweating in shorts and a short-sleeve shirt and there were people wearing sweatshirts and vests.

I really didn’t know what to do, but I did start the day by making some phone calls. Nothing really panned out for today but I do have a tour of the Suntory Yamazaki distillery scheduled for next Monday. My mom’s calendar won’t go on sale until next month.

I figured it was scotch day and went looking for Bar Satoh that Barry Eisler mentions in his John Rain novels. His address isn’t quite right but I figured out where it probably is. The street-view picture is a little odd, so I decided to go walk to it during the day to see if I could find it.

The first new thing I ran into was the new Hankyu Department store. This was all under construction last year and looks great.

I walked right by the HEP Five building that my sister and I have been talking about.

Down some shopping streets that weren’t really on the way. They were open, though, which is a good sign.

This is a picture of an urban temple. I didn’t go to many temples today because, well, I’m pretty temple’d out.

There were some interesting buildings on the way.

And more shopping streets than I was expecting.

The route goes across Okawa River to an area with lots of huge apartment buildings.

Oh, and there was a river boat on the river.

There was a large hospital, and across from the hospital was Miyakojima shrine.

This is looking back down one of the last turns I made.

Onto a street with even more huge apartment buildings.

Down to a quiet neighborhood.

First left turn after the runner.

The light blue fence is the same in the picture before and after.

This is the building that fixing Barry Eisler’s address led me to.

Sure enough, if you look closely, there’s a sign that says Bar Satoh. It’s kind of in the middle of nowhere and I wonder how Barry Eisler found it. He did work for the CIA so I’m not really sure I want to know, but this looks like the kind of bar that’s a secret to everyone but the neighborhood.

I started walking south towards Osaka Castle. It wasn’t all that interesting. Kind of light industrial and residential with not many stores. I also kind of got lost trying to cross the Neyagawa River and what I think is the Daini Neyagawa River.

About the time I had to find a bathroom (for the usual reason and to wash some pigeon poop off my had), I saw a Mickey D’s. I was about resigned to eat at the Mickey D’s when I saw a Mr. Donut! I’ve been meaning to go see if they still had rice flour doughnuts (they didn’t) so I had one of their October pumpkin doughnuts. I even got a refill on my coffee! There were several pudgy white guys in suits there too. They just kind of stood out in an odd sort of way.

The Mr. Donut was in the Osaka Business Park, across from the Osaka Castle.

The park around Osaka Castle is pretty huge.

You go past two moats to the inner area and the area around the castle is pretty big as well, housing a museum and the castle.

Hōkoku Shrine is also on the grounds.

There’s a statue of an important Japanese guy who I don’t know on the grounds of the shrine.

I started heading towards Nipponbashi and the electric shops that were there when I lived in Japan (20 years ago!) The first thing I saw was Osaka Museum connected to NHK Osaka. The main display was gold statues from the Ukraine, so I kept going.

 On the way down Matsuyamachisuji there was a small shrine, Ikutama Jinja, in between buildings.

Then it was down the street, going over some large intersections on pedestrian bridges.

There were odd stores along the way. Nanshin Bussan is supposed to be an importer of jewelry, but it looked like a store full of cloth for suits.

Then the stores got weirder. This store has a guy riding a giant gold koi. It looked like a store of traditional Japanese dolls. I wondered if I should go buy one and have it sent directly to Goodwill since that’s where I’ve been taking all my traditional Japanese dolls.

Then there were lots of stores with toys and, oddly enough, Christmas decorations.

More decorations.

And more decorations.

A sign advertising Christmas decorations.

This store, like many of the others on this street, has a flag advertising fireworks but was mainly selling Christmas decorations. The sign says Japanese dolls, fireworks, and Christmas stuff.

Another thriving shopping street.

This is a view back up the street with all the Christmas decorations after seeing several more stores, one full of the kind of toys you can only get at festivals and two with Gundam models that said, “WHOLESALE ONLY,” I figured out this must be the wholesale toy neighborhood. i was careful to stay on this street because I didn’t want to get sidetracked by the Nakadera area where the map shows 22 temples. Probably more.

Here’s a picture I saw on the pedestrian bridge, right before Ikukunitama Shrine.

Going through this gate, by the way, is not the best way to get to the shrine.

I’ve taken a lot of pictures of gates, and sub shrines, but this shrine was something else. Here’s the main shrine.

This first panorama is the path to a couple of sub shrines but if you follow the path to the left…

You ned up in this park with six more shrines. It confused me.

After that I got really lost looking for what I remembered of Den-Den Town in Nipponbashi. I got really lost. I did go by the National Bunraku Theatre where I have to go get my mom’s calendar, but that’s not for several more weeks. I was wandering around looking for some electronics shops but they were mostly gone and replaced by the same sorts of crap that Akihabara is full of. Ah, well, I headed back towards the hotel, knowing I’d have to eventually take the subway.

I did see the giant mechanical crab on the way.

And some cops in front of a giant dragon.

Or is this the giant crab?

And what the hell is this?

A ferris wheel at Don Quixote, which I think is a discount store.

After that it was braving the crowds (which are not nearly as bad as Tokyo) to get back to the hotel. Dinner was back at Yodobashi Camera where I unsuccessfully searched for some Japan-only North Face stuff for my sister. I saw somewhere advertising REAL Kobe Beef hamburgers, so I had one. I’m not sure it was worth ¥1,370 ($17.17) since it was just OK.

And there you go. I’m not sure what I’m doing tomorrow, since it’s supposed to rain. Maybe explore all the underground some more. I’m sure I’ll figure something out.

I got up early to get ready to go to Osaka today. I’m not sure why I bothered, since I did a lot of putzing around and then realized it’s less than an hour from Nagoya to Osaka on the Shinkansen. And the Shinkansen station at Nagoya is small and very, very close to the Toyoko Inn.

Well, fortunately, I’m feeling comfortable here in Osaka (since I did live here in my 20’s and even got engaged). Maybe a bit too comfortable. I’ve eaten too much and feel like passing out. Fortunately the intarwebs are a normal speed here and my pictures are uploading quickly so I won’t have to stay up late to wait for that.

There’s this tea I’ve seen the past two days that has the big characters describing what type of tea it is. Yesterday I had “SHIZU” or Shizuoka tea. Today is “KYO” or Kyoto green tea. I looked carefully and it’s special tea that they make for JR.

I got to the hotel at 11:30AM, way before the 2PM check-in time. I spent an hour in the hotel lobby (free wifi) and in the station near the tourist information bureau trying to figure out where to go today. I usually sit in front of my computer all morning trying to figure that out. I finally decided just to start walking south, towards the Bunraku Theatre since I promised my mom I’d get her a calendar there. I called and found out that the person who knows about that stuff isn’t working today, but I figured I’d go anyway.

On the way through the station, I saw a couple of Asian guys that looked a bit off and I just started talking to them in English. They were lost and North American and I actually knew where they needed to go. After helping them down into the weird subterranean world that is Umeda, I kept heading south. This whole area always seems shuttered up.

 

Up into the sunlight and down southward ho!

There were lots of sculptures of naked women on the route. I’m not sure what the deal with the sculptor is.

Across several rivers, too.

Past the sculpture of some old-timey Japanese dude.

And down the street with lots of empty office buildings. But oddly enough, every few buildings there’d be a store or series of stores open. I saw a bunch of people waiting to get into Butter Pancake and it was 1PM and I was hungry.

Here’s where I was waiting for my $20 pancake.

I can’t tell you how good this pancake was. The coffee was tasty too. That’s a block of creme brûlée on the pancake too.

Around the corner was a coffee shop that looks interesting as well. It seemed odd that there were all sorts of people going into building in an otherwise empty neighborhood.

These three guys came out of the coffee shop.

Then it was off to find Goryō Shrine, as the map said it was close by.

The main shrine.

Two sub-shrines.

Looks like this shrine is popular enough to have an electric sign.

Off in the distance I saw a huge old Japanese roof, so I had to go see what that was.

It was Osaka Kaikan, undergoing repairs.

Then I headed back to the hotel. On the way I saw these dragon boats, but they were being towed!

Big blocky government building.

Old-timey government building I’ve seen on the TV news.

I got back to the hotel using an underground route. Looks like the old convenience store that they tore down is back again.

I went to Yodobashi Camera for dinner. There’s used to be one-and-a-half dining floors and they were fixing them up the last time I was here. Now there’s only one floor. I picked the diner by picking a semi-long line for food that looked good. The place I picked also had all-you-can-eat bread which was a mistake.

I had something called a fondue hamburger or something. It was tasty. If I lost any weight with all my walking, I’m going to regain it in Osaka.

I found my favorite t-shirt shop and bought a couple more t-shirts (the weird Japanese ones I always wear) and then went to drool at the same watch I always drool over (a Grand Seiko). The price is down a couple of thousand dollars, but that still means it’s several thousand dollars. I’ll go drool on it a couple more times, I’m sure.

Tomorrow it’s supposed to be hotter than it was when I was in Tokyo! I’m not really sure what I’m going to do with that.

Oh, and finally, I’m a cheap bastard and I’ve been carrying two pain-in-the-ass umbrellas, each costing ¥105, from Tokyo. I FORGOT THEM ON THE TRAIN TODAY. Plus I carried my leftover laundry detergent from Tokyo and the washing machines at this hotel automatically dispense soap! (On the plus side, the washer and dryer are industrial-sized at this hotel and it only took 30 minutes to wash and 15 minutes to dry my clothes!)

I just realized why the intarwebs could be slow here. They have ¥500 video-on-demand and all the businessmen were probably watching pr0n as I tried to upload my pictures. I’m going to be up late again uploading all this again, I’m sure. I didn’t end up going to Nagoya Castle or to the shrine that seems to hold one of the three treasures of the Imperial Family. There’s lots more to see here than I saw.

The first place I went was the Toyota Museum. I got on the subway and bought a ¥600 all-day pass you can get on the weekends and started going the wrong way. I didn’t have much luck with the subways today. When I got off at the right station, the map set me off down in a direction that didn’t look museum-like.

The temple on the way was tiny, too.

I think I took this picture by accident, in front of the tiny temple.

The first thing you see in the Toyota museum is a huge circular loom. Toyota started out as a textile machinery company.

As you go in there are several cotton thread spinning demonstrations and the main loom Toyota designed and patented.

Then it goes into thread spinning throughout the ages and the display is huge.

There’s huge industrial machines for carding and spinning the thread.

The whole hall is huge. I swear I spent an hour looking at different shuttle technology for looms.

Some of the looms were huge.

This loom uses air instead of a shuttle to get the thread across. I didn’t take a picture of the loom that used water instead of a shuttle.

There whole factory is turned into a museum so there’s lots of space for the automobile museum as well. I didn’t spend as much time in the automobile museum because I’m familiar with lots of the automotive and metal working technology from high school.

I didn’t take pictures of the displays describing engines or gears or brakes or fuel injection or anything I already knew about.

There were kid areas as well and I took pictures of this set of gearboxes that you used to get the wheel connected to the kinetic ball machine.

The gears go on the floor between these two. This was in a side-building and there were even more kid attractions in the main building.

After that it was off to the MAGLEV and Railway Park at the end of a random train line.

The first room has dramatic lighting and has three trains, a locomotive and two maglev mock-ups. I was hoping this wasn’t the whole thing because the first room was just crap besides the locomotive.

Beyond the first room was another larger room full of real trains! Lots of models of bullet train as well as old trains. This is the original model Shinkansen and there’s a placard with the date so you can take a picture and remember when you were there (10/20/2012 for me).

Several styles of Shinkansen trains.

Older trains, a long-distance train on the left and a standard train on the right. The old model train would tilt and could go 80kph. The Shinkansen goes in the 200’s.

Some engines, some sleeper cars.

This is a special bullet train used to monitor track and wire conditions.

These are old long-distance trains.

Really old trains. I think the ED 11 2 is imported from England.

The looks similar to the Tokyo Chuo line trains.

I went out to the smoking lounge just to take a picture of the industrial wasteland that’s across the bay. I shouldn’t say wasteland; it’s probably just a steel or chemical plant.

And the bridge across the bay.

I had a bento at the train museum. They have the same bentos that they sell at the bullet train stations! I missed eating one on the way from Tokyo to Hamamatsu, so I got one today. It was even more awful when you eat it at 2PM at the train museum rather than noon on the train.

After the train museum I went back to Nagoya station and got back on the subway and got off at the wrong station again. I finally made it to Ōsu Kannon Temple. You can’t tell by this picture but the temple is busy. The building on the left is full off Buddhist statues of the Kannon or Goddess of Mercy. The building to the right is a library that houses ancient texts, including one about how the Japanese people came to be.

The side gate.

The main gate.

Right outside of the temple was a shop selling old Japanese treats. I missed a puppet show because I was buying and eating this.

This next picture is for Eric of a place I found while I was wandering around the area by Ōsu Kannon Temple.

This is a neighborhood shrine I saw.

A smaller shrine right next to the previous one.

This is the Hinode shrine. There were a bunch of guys sitting around drinking beers.

Turns out it was a festival and it was Nagoya day or something. I missed a parade at the station.

For dinner, I had tebasaki, or the famous Nagoya chicken wings. This is how I spent ¥4,240 ($53.47 USD). The flavoring was sweet and peppery and quite good.

I also had Tarzan-yaki.

I also had wing gyoza, where they split and stuffed the chicken wing with gyoza filling.

So that’s it. It took OVER FOUR HOURS to upload these pictures and I went to sleep instead of waiting on the upload. So sorry this is late!

Today started out too early. I had to get to the Toyota Kaikan for my tour of the factory by 10:30 and it was a weird series of trains I took from Hamamatsu to the middle of nowhere. I couldn’t eat the ‘free” breakfast at Toyoko Inn because it was too crowded (as they often are) and made do with an egg sandwich and awful coffee at a Starbucks. Then it was off schlepping my bags on “normal” trains for a couple of hours.

As I left Hamamatsu and tried to find the right train station, I saw a weird building. “May One” is something engraved on a stapler I have that came from a closed state home for the mentally challenged so I thought it was a weird coincidence.

This is what passes for a rush-hour train in Hamamatsu.

I had to transfer twice and this was the busiest train.

Seriously, Toyota’s headquarters is in the middle of nowhere. If you look carefully, you’ll see that the train traces from both sides of the station merge into one line.

The train itself wasn’t all that impressive. Two cars on this one.

The directions were pretty poor as well. The last step was “take a taxi or start walking”. I figured out which direction to go and first ducked into this building to ask where I was supposed to be.

Turns out it’s the supplier’s building, and the headquarters is the tall building.

This is the Toyota headquarters, in the middle of nowhere.

If I had followed the road instead of the walking paths, I would have seen this as the Toyota Museum.

I wasn’t able to take any pictures on the factory tour, but they let me take pictures inside the museum. I don’t have that many, besides the backwardness of the inside of this car.

I finally got to sit in a couple of Lexuses as well. The museum was full of guys in nice suits. Mostly Koreans and Indians and I’m not sure what the Indians were doing besides playing a lot of grab ass.

I didn’t take any pictures of the new cars or any of the race cars, but I do have a couple of pictures the classics.

The factory tour was pretty cool. I tried to go on one in Kentucky, but couldn’t schedule it due to several busloads of school kids showing up at the same time. This time the only problem was my sniping at some of the suited Indian guys who kept pushing past me for no reason other than, like I said, to play grab ass. They weren’t paying attention and just wanted to get ahead for some reason and kept shoving past me. The lack of sleep and food made me particularly testy and I just said, “What is wrong with you Indian people?”

Anyway, the factory trip was pretty cool.

I got back to the station and couldn’t find any restaurants. I finally realized one of the buildings right next to the station was a restaurant and they had a lunch special which I misread as “tenteki”. Tenteki means IV infusion or it means mortal enemy and I just about passed it up. It actually said TONteki, which means pork steak. It was tasty.

After that I headed back to Nagoya. I’ve been taking my train tickets out all day long and showing them to various conductors on the train and when I got back to Nagoya I realized I had my four-day ticket from Tokyo to Osaka, and I somehow had my ticket for the short train from Mikawatoyota to Okazaki, but I didn’t have Sunday’s shinkansen ticket from Nagoya to Osaka. I went back to the train station to replace the ticket which, fortunately, was only ¥2,920 ($36.86 today) and also got a huge page of explanation of what I was supposed to do about a missing ticket. I guess I’m supposed to get special validation on the replacement ticket so if I ever get the old ticket back, I can get a refund of most of my money. I think it’s going to take lots of special rubber stamping of my ticket.

I was hungry, but didn’t feel like eating dinner yet so I went to Cafe de Crié. The coffee was so-so and the cake was bland and it cost more than my lunch. 

When I finally made it out to dinner I had a Nagoya specialty, tonkatsu with miso sauce. Other guys sitting next to me at the crowded counter were getting it half-and-half, one half miso and the other half regular tonkatsu sauce, but I figured I might as well go for it. I wasn’t disappointed.

I wish I could say I’m getting to sleep early, but uploading these pictures took several hours. The internet connection at this Toyoko Inn is kind of slow. Ah well. Tomorrow I explore more of Nagoya and probably see yet another Toyota Museum and, of course, shrines and temples. Or maybe the maglev museum. I haven’t figure it all out quite yet.

My last night in Tokyo was pretty loud. I figured I could put up with it for one last night. I got up and had to make it to Tokyo Station to catch the Shinkansen for Hamamatsu. Man, was it crowded. I had to push my way onto the first train.

Part of the trip was through Shizuoka prefecture and I tried to take a picture of the hills. There’s tea in them that hills. Instead of fields of rice paddies, there are fields with tea 

Some of the stops were quick and I was expecting Hamamatsu to be the same, but there were lots of people getting off and it was a long stop.

And there goes the train.

Hamamatsu looked inviting.

I dropped off my bags at the hotel and started walking towards Hamamatsu castle. I saw a temple and the gate was closed.

It was a rainy day and there was almost no one on the streets. It was a lot different than the streets of Tokyo.

Here’s a temple I saw on the street. It looks like a shrine from someone’s house.

Holding the camera under the umbrella is going to make for a lot of crappy pictures today.

But there were larger temples on the way.

I finally made it to Hamamatsu Castle Park.

I couldn’t figure out where I was and the signs led me to believe I was supposed to go up these stairs.

Fortunately, the stairs lead to the tower of the castle.

I found out that the tower was rebuilt in the 1950’s and is the only part of the castle left other than the walls.

But there was a nice view from the top of the tower. Here’s the view back towards Hamamatsu station. I also saw a lot of jet fighters from the self-defense station in town.

Here’s another crappy picture of the statue of Tokugawa Ieyasu who was at this castle.

Then I went looking for some lunch, but there weren’t many stores to be found. In fact, all I saw were several Lawson convenience stores. I finally found a store and at 1PM it was pretty empty. I was also told that they were out of the daily special and only had the tonkatsu. Turns out the tonkatsu was pretty good.

I started back towards the station and the Hamamatsu City Museum of Musical Instrument. But I did see some large temples. This one, I think, is Shofukuji Temple.

Whatever it is, it’s new and big.

Across the street is Saint Christophers, which was odd looking enough that I took a picture.

I also saw Shinzoji Temple, which looked pretty large from the street. I had to go way around the neighborhood to find the entrance.

Next door was an even larger shrine, Gosha Shrine.

It was a huge temple.

I finally found my way to the Hamamatsu City Museum of Musical Instrument and it was pretty cool. I listened to the museum recording and there were EIGHTY stations. The pictures are especially shitty because, well, they’re shitty. The first display was of a gamelan.

There were also a lot of Korean instruments.

Of course there were traditional Japanese instruments as well.

 

When I got downstairs there were lots of western and African instruments and there was a demonstration of a giraffe piano (a type of upright).

It was in a hall full of pianos, clavichords, harpsichords, and other unique keyboards. There were also cutaways that showed how the keyboards worked.

The other half of the floor had lots of percussive instruments as well as string instruments and wind instruments.

I mean seriously, this is a European instrument from the 1800’s that is no longer played.

Or this valve trombone thingy?

This was amongst all the other trombone-like things.

Tucked away upstairs were the electronic instruments.

And hidden behind those was a large room of Japanese-made pianos, and then a play room with lots of instruments to try out (including a banjo!).

The third thing I wanted to try was the famous Hamamatsu eel. I went to a small shop where I was the only customer and the prices of the fresh unagi varied by size.

I had a medium one. The unagi had a fresh flavor and not just the cooked and flavored taste I’m used to. It was tasty.

So there’s Hamamatsu. I’m blaming the blurriness on the rain. Just pretend I did it on purpose with Instagram like I was a hipster.

This is my last day in Tokyo, at least until I come back on my way to Pusan, and on the way back home. I was a little tired because, once again, someone was making noise as I was trying to sleep. They switched my room again and the other room was a lot quieter.

I had to get out of the room early because today was the day I had tickets for the Ghibli Museum. They let people in twice a day, and you can stay in as long as you want. It’s a ways out of town and I got there in time.

There was a long line to get in. The one curves to the left. Right behind me is a fake ticket booth with Totoro in it, but you have to get tickets at a machine in any Lawson convenience store.

Almost in. The clock says 10:03 and my ticket is for 10AM.

You can’t take any pictures inside but you can outside. I took a picture of this guy on the roof who is from a movie I haven’t seen yet.

There’s three stories. The bottom story has a small movie theatre (you get to see the movie once per visit) and one display room. The second story has two. The third story has the cat bus and the store. I don’t think I’m forgetting anything.

There’s also a cafe that has a long wait to get in.

I spent two hours at the museum and I had to work at it. Turns out that some of the crowded rooms empty out if you wait, but I’m not sure if it was worth the build-up. I’ve seen more interesting things at real studios in Portland.  I wouldn’t talk anyone out of going, but it seems like it would be a lot more fun for kids.

I took the bus to the museum but on the way back I walked through the park again. I found even more wood chimes in the park, including ones you run by hand.

It was a lot nicer to walk than to be crammed in a bus.

I took a slightly different path back, and I saw the spring that feeds the lake. This is one of the historic water sources for Tokyo.

I also saw some people practicing some sort of dancing at the edge of the park.

On the way back to the hotel I changed my tickets for my trip from Hamamatsu to Nagoya to make a side-trip to the Toyota factory museum. I didn’t know it was in the middle of nowhere until I checked more carefully on the intarwebs.

It was starting to rain by the time I got back and I spent the rest of the afternoon waiting for my laundry to finish. Lunch was from the Tesco and dinner was at Saizeria. I was looking at some of my pictures and I think I should have been more adventurous in my dining in Tokyo. Oh well.

Tomorrow I’m off to Hamamatsu. I’ll have to get some eel when I get there.

Today I was trying to decide what to do, besides drop off some guidebooks at the hotel my sister is staying at. Instead of hanging out in Tokyo with her (and Lim) I’m going to Toyama. I figure adding a few days in Tokyo didn’t make any sense. My mom is going to Toyama at the same time, and is also going to be there while the three of us go to Busan.

I was thinking of going to the Tobu Railway museum, but after looking at the museum on Google maps, I thought it might not be all that interesting since it looked so small. My mom mentioned old buildings that survived the fire bombings of World War II but I couldn’t figure out where that was. So I decided to go to Arakawa Ward since there’s a bridge they also call the train museum.

I didn’t stay long enough to see the Shinkansen trains. or anything beyond the Yamanote line and I think the Tobu line on the very right-hand side of this picture.

The map I had showed a 30-minute walk through the temples which I turned into another five hour trek. This area is temple central and I’m thinking many of the temples I saw were of the Nichiren sect. This is the gate of Hongyōji Temple.

This is the temple itself.

Around the corner is Kyōōji Temple.

According to the guide, “After losing at the Battle of Ueno in 1868, members of the Shōgitai (an elite corps of the shogunate) hid themselves at this temple where they were confronted by troops from the new government. Bullet marks form the fighting can still be seen on the main gate.”

The temple itself is undergoing repairs.

Keiunji Temple, which isn’t mentioned much in the guide.

This is the gate of of Yōfukuji Temple with two guardian statues carved by Unkei.

The temple itself is less impressive.

On the way is also Fujimisaki slope, where you can see Mt. Fuji on a clear day (not a hazy day like today). This slope is seen in a lot of wood block printings.

Next to each other are Jōkōji Temple and Suwa Jinja shrine.

The temple is newly rebuilt and is known for it’s good view.

The shrine is a little bit more traditional.

This is a stone owl at the back of an elementary school commemorating the school’s 100th anniversary. The placard next to it is engraved with the handwriting of Kōtarō Takamura, a poet and sculptor who graduated from the elementary school.

The path passed through Nishi-Nippori park where there was a statue. There was a sign describing the statue on the street, but it was in Japanese so I’m not sure of the significance.

The path continued around Kaisei Senior High School which is one of the best high schools in Japan. There’s a tiny shrine nearby that is used to pray for success in entrance examinations.

Then the path continues down to the area that’s at the bottom of the slope. Next is Seiunji Temple.

Next door is Shushōin Temple, that is supposed to have be in lots of Utagawa Hiroshige’s wood block prints and houses a statue of of one of the Seven Lucky gods. I didn’t see the statue but the parking lot was full of cars and bicycles and I could hear Nichiren chanting from inside.

Hōkoji Temple.

Nansenji Temple.

These are the Yūyake Dandan stairs. The tea shop to the left is where I had lunch.

Looking behind me from the stairs is an old shopping area.

Lunch was tea soba. The small teacup had umekombu tea (which I drank before I took the picture) and the other cup has hōjicha.

I noticed my friend Megan had good medical news and said to have a dessert in celebration, so I had a matcha cream puff.

This is Emmei-in Temple.

The guide book (and the placard) mainly talk about the chinquapin tree which is a national monument.

After that it was off in the direction of Ueno station to try to buy another (cheap) bag. I almost gave up because I looked at a map and saw the number of temples that overwhelmed me.

I wish I could remember anything about this Nichiren temple.

After this was the large graveyard of the Ieyasu clan.

After the cemetery was residential streets.

That didn’t slow down the number of temples.

This is the temple of a samurai who made the first waterworks in Edo.

A huge temple deserving of a civil engineer (I’m an infrastructure nerd).

I kept seeing signs for the Daimyo Clock museum, so I headed off in that direction. what did I find? More temples.

The signs led me to this overgrown garden.

This is the entrance to the museum. It was a single room full of old clocks. Not sure if it was worth ¥300, but that’s just because I couldn’t read any of the signs. Cool clocks, though.

Then it was off to try to find my way to Ueno Park. I found myself on a tiny path between houses.

This is what everyone was looking at, a hand pump.

The path got narrower, but it went through.

At the very end was another temple, then city streets.

And a rental bicycle store.

One of the things I missed on the my last trip to Ueno was the giant statue of Takamori Saigō. Of course I found a way to have to climb a bunch of stairs to get there.

I could tell it was popular because people kept getting their picture taken in front of it.

I bought another bag at Ameyoko, this time a gym bag for the huge price of ¥900.

Then I thought iI’d walk back to Nippori Station so I could see Zenshōji Temple.

I think I saw this the last time I was in Ueno.

Turns out I took the LONG WAY to get from Ueno Station to Nippori Station and it took me by hundreds of love hotels. I saw policemen patrolling the area in groups.

I finally made it to Zenshōji Temple, where the mother of the sixth Tokugawa shogun is buried.

Other than the history, it wasn’t that impressive.

It’s supposed to rain tomorrow and I have a ticket for the Ghibli museum. I have to get out early to get there. Then it’s time to pack for my trip to Hamamatsu, Nagoya, and then a week and a half in Osaka. I just got a ticket to visit the Toyota factory, so I have to change my train tickets from Hamamatsu to Nagoya. I guess I get to stand in line at the train station again as well. I don’t like it when my trip starts sounding like work. I guess I’m just lazy.