{"id":11052,"date":"2024-04-19T06:28:09","date_gmt":"2024-04-19T13:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/?p=11052"},"modified":"2024-04-19T06:28:09","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T13:28:09","slug":"japan-2024-day-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/?p=11052","title":{"rendered":"Japan 2024: Day 4"},"content":{"rendered":"

First a picture from yesterday. Kevin\u2019s kid said it was OK to post her picture in front of the only cherry blossoms we saw in Kyoto at Kiyomizudera.<\/p>\n

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We stayed at the edge of Dotombori last night at an APA Hotel and everyone agreed with me that it was tiny but clean and efficient. Everything you really needed in a room and it was only $84 per night. Somehow we all thought we got breakfast in Tokyo but no breakfast in Osaka but the opposite was true. I\u2019m not sure what\u2019s wrong with booking.com.<\/p>\n

I forgot to mention just how happy I was to be back in Osaka. I\u2019m not sure why because it was just as crowded and dirtier, but I used to live there and I just like it.<\/p>\n

We had breakfast at the hotel and of course I forgot to take a picture until after I\u2019d eaten a bunch of it. I had scrambled egg rolls, sausage, yakisoba, fish, and a croissant as well as salad but all you can see is miso soup, natto on rice, and my coffee.<\/p>\n

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Then I decided to take them back through Dotombori, which was empty at 8am. This bridge is packed with people later in the day with lots of people getting pictures with the Glico man in the background.<\/p>\n

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We walked to Hozenji where the Mizukakefudou is. Still all covered in moss.<\/p>\n

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Then we got a cab to Tsutenkaku (no picture, I forgot) which wasn\u2019t quite open and after that we went to Sumiyoshi Taisha where the only picture I have is of the turtle pond and the arched bridge. It\u2019s the oldest shrine in Japan and gets visits from sumo and the emperor so it\u2019s a big deal. Very peaceful and I bought an amulet to avoid calamity and an amulet to deal gracefully with calamity. I know how the Fujinaka luck is.<\/p>\n

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After that they wanted to go up Tsutenkaku, but I said we should go up Abeno Harukas instead. I asked the taxi driver if it was full and crowded like Tokyo\u2019s Shibuya Scramble Square, but he said, \u201cIt costs \u00a53000. Osaka people aren\u2019t going up there.\u201d Hahaha.<\/p>\n

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I wish I had a picture of the Tsutenkaku from up here but I forgot to take a picture in that direction. At 103m, it looks tiny from Abeno Harukas which is 300m tall.<\/p>\n

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We didn\u2019t have a chance to go to Shitennoji (see the pagoda in the middle?)<\/p>\n

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or Osaka Castle (the tiny white thing next to the two black buildings a little left and above center) but we did see them from here.<\/p>\n

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Kevin and his kid were getting a caricature drawn so Bill and I decided to walk to the edge of the top of the building. They\u2019re very safety conscious and make you empty out your pockets and give you a strap for your glasses. After they run a metal detector over you, you put on coveralls and a harness.<\/p>\n

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We even leaned over the edge with some extra restraints, but it wasn\u2019t very scary. Not like climbing radio towers.<\/p>\n

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We were going to Kuromon market or another shopping street for lunch, but we decided just to head to Shin-Osaka station so we wouldn\u2019t miss ANOTHER shinkansen. Here\u2019s my omurice\/curry\/katsu.<\/p>\n

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The trip back was mostly uneventful. I slept from Kyoto to Nagoya, as I do, and tried to take pictures of Mt. Fuji. It was too cloudy on the way to Kyoto. It\u2019s not that easy taking pictures from a train going 300kph.<\/p>\n

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But enough pictures and you can get at least one.<\/p>\n

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We were pretty tired and were planning on eating combini food, but I convinced everyone to try Mos burger and luckily they liked it.<\/p>\n

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Back at the hotel I got all of my sister\u2019s packages (and my repaired jeans) and it looked huge.<\/p>\n

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But it\u2019s just Amazon packaging. No problem at all.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0<\/p>\n

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First a picture from yesterday. Kevin\u2019s kid said it was OK to post her picture in front of the only cherry blossoms we saw in Kyoto at Kiyomizudera. We stayed at the edge of Dotombori last night at an APA Hotel and everyone agreed with me that it was tiny but clean and efficient. Everything you really needed in a room and it was only $84 per night. Somehow we all thought we got breakfast in Tokyo but no breakfast in Osaka but the opposite was true. I\u2019m not sure what\u2019s wrong with booking.com. I forgot to mention just how happy I was to be back in Osaka. I\u2019m not … Continue reading Japan 2024: Day 4<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-japan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11052"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11053,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11052\/revisions\/11053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.i8u.org\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}