11/11 - Tsutenkaku Tower & Shinseikai

We were out to squeeze the most out of our Osaka Unlimited Pass on this, the last day of its use.  We took the subway down to the Shinseikai area of Osaka.  We got out at Ebisucho [恵美須] station.  Shinseikai [新世界]literally means "new world" and was the buzz of Japanese modernization in the early 20th Century.  Nowadays, it's more of a older neighbourhood with a sketchy reputation.  However, there was one attraction that brought us this way - the Tsutenkaku [通天閣]Tower.

Now, I probably wouldn't have come to this tower if it weren't for the free admission.  And after having been up and down the tower, I probably wouldn't return again.  It was likely a great attraction back in the early 1900's when it was built, but the tower is not all that tall and gives a modest aerial view of the surrounding environs.

On the way up in the dark, dark elevator, you are greeted by elevator attendant and the starry night sky on the ceiling of the elevator.  Etched within the full moon in the starry sky is a strange image. As we would later discover, this is Billiken, the God of Happiness.

In one view, we can make out Spa World, a giant spa and hotel facility that claims to feature spas and onsens from around the world.  On the website, Spa World looks promising and fun.  However, the admission is quite pricy and we had decided not to bother going.  Besides, it wasn't the most unique spa in the world.  Our Taiwanese guesthouse lady mentioned to us that Spa World had become somewhat sketchy.  Sex workers knew that many foreigners would visit Spa World and she said that these workers could be found frequenting Spa World.  I don't know how true that rumour is, but the price alone kept me away.

On the other side of the tower, you could see the nearby Tennoji Zoo.  That was also free with our Unlimited Pass, but we weren't interested in seeing a zoo here in Japan.  The aquariums are much nicer :)  In another viewpoint, you could just see endless towers and buildings layout across southern Osaka.  I can see where Osaka's reputation of being a gray and bland concrete jungle comes from.

One of the big draws of Tsutenkaku Tower is the wooden idol of Billiken [ビリケン], the God of Happiness.  Many visitors apparently rub the soles of his feet for good luck.  Both soles were well worn and Billiken was in desperate and obvious need of a podiatrist, especially his right foot.  H, for one, refrained from touching the soles of idol.  He's just not into that kind of stuff.  Although he did go through that hole back at Todai-ji in Nara... oh and the caution tape is not there most of the time as far as I can tell.  There was a youth event going on in the tower that decorated the place in police tape.

[side note:  apparently Billiken has American origins that I discovered through a Wikipedia search]

The other thing we came across in the tower was a vending machine with a strawberry yogurt drink that N remembers having many years ago.  She couldn't resist popping a few hundred yen in the machine to sample this drink.  H bought one too of another flavour.  N really liked hers, but H thought his was really sour and bland.

Nightfall was upon the city and we were eager to get some food.  Tonight's dinner mission - The Gyoza Museum in Umeda.