When we arrived at the Aqua Bus Liner's ticket office, we discovered we had just missed the previous boat by 15 minutes and would have to wait 45 minutes. It's hard to time everything perfectly, but the wait wasn't that bad. We walked back up from the pier to the plaza just outside the Osaka Hall. It looked like a large school group was gathering in the plaza. A teacher was giving them instructions. It turns out that this large group had a private booking of the Aqua Bus. We watched them board two Aqua Bus Liners. We could also see that they all had bento boxes stacked on the tables too. Lucky group. They had lunch included with their ride.
Our boat finally arrived on time. We boarded and took our seats; however, there was some confusion about the seating and we ended up moving so that a quartet of Japanese tourists could sit together. We weren't complaining, though. We got our table all to ourselves after moving.
Shortly after leaving the pier, the boat started to demonstrate the hydraulic system that lowered the top of the boat in order to slip under the very low bridges over the Okawa River. N took a video of the whole demonstration.
You could see some of Osaka's river front life as we went up the river. As we got closer to Nakanoshima, an island in the middle of the Okawa River, you could see some people walking through the park or sitting and enjoying lunch. Also, Nakanoshima is famous for the older European style buildings that dot the island. The Osaka Civic Center probably being one of the most famous. We saw that as we arrived at the Yodoyabashi Pier.
After so much walking for over a week, it was nice to have a tourist experience where we could sit for an hour. Because it was close to lunch, H was feeling peckish from all the walking. So we ordered some snacks. The biscuit they had was pretty good, but a little on the pricey side. That's what happens when you're on a tourist boat. Actually, N ended up sleeping for most of the ride because she was so tired. My feet were just happy not to have my full weight on them for 60 minutes.
Pretty soon, we had completed our loop around the Okawa River (marked in red above) and disembarked at Osakajo Pier where we had started. It was a nice, relaxing way to see the city, but we didn't really see that much. You could see some of the taller buildings that were near the water and you could see Osaka Castle, which we had just been to. Otherwise, not much to see. However, it was definitely a welcome rest for our feet on Day 9. Plus, the 10% discount from the Osaka Unlimited Pass didn't hurt. Now, we had to rush off to the harbour front to catch another boat - the Santa Maria.
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