11/13 - Final hours in Osaka

We would be heading home today, but we got some last minute shopping in.  Usually when we've travelled to Asia, we've typically pushed the limits of the monetary value of the products bought overseas; however on this trip, we spent so much of our time sightseeing that we didn't even come close to hitting the one person limit.

This morning we headed down to a bookstore known as Junkudo [淳久堂].  We had been in there a few days ago and there was a book that H was interested in, but didn't get it a few days ago.  However, he really wanted to get his hands on it now.  So we went down to the bookstore at opening time.

However, before actually getting to the store, H needed the all important breakfast to tie him over.  We stopped into the Lotteria along Shinsaibashi-suji [新齋橋筋].  Lotteria is a Japanese fast food place.  I had a pizza sandwich, which really all that interesting.  N, however, had an English muffin with a half-boiled egg.  Oh my gosh.  The egg yolk was so yummy.  It was much better than that dinky pizza sandwich that H had.

Junkado was all the way, way south. The store is well within the boundaries of Namba [なんば] and outside of Shinsaibashi [新齋橋].  There seemed to be a lot of tourists off the beaten path early this morning.  H quickly bought his book, a JR train catalog book.  What an otaku.  N bought some of her Japanese manga by Takagi Naoko [高木直子].  We were pretty much in and out of there.

As we headed back north to Dotonbori [道頓堀] for more gifts and souvenirs, we also noticed that all the pachinko parlours had huge lineups.  It was the middle of the day and people were lining up to gamble?  It was a little unreal.  Pachinko [パチンコ], for those who don't know, is a form of "gambling" in Japan that involves loud, noisy, and bright machines with silver balls that one shoots up to the top and you hope that it drops in the prize pockets.  Your job as the gambler is to control the speed of these balls in such a way that you win prizes.  Apparently, it's all very addictive.

After picking up some more souvenirs at the Glico store in Dotonbori, we headed back up to the Tokyu Hands department store.  We also ended up at the door just before it opened.  It's very interesting to watch a Japanese store open shop for the day.  An employee stands at each door and they time the opening of the doors and do a very polite greeting complete with bowing to everyone who passes through.  We grabbed a few things in the store and then headed back to the guesthouse.

We got all our stuff together, said our goodbyes to the Taiwanese guesthouse owner.  The owner kept forgetting that we came from Canada.  She thought we were flying "home" to Taiwan or Hong Kong. We walked back to the Honmachi [本町] subway station.  Here came all the stairs again.  We just had the most rotten luck trying to find escalators and elevators at key points to get to the train platform.  We took the Midosuji [御堂筋] Line, or Red Line all the way up to Senri-chuo [千里中央] up in the northern suburbs of Osaka.  There were even more stairs as we transferred from the subway to the Osaka monorail.  Oh was H's back hurting now.

The ride from Senri-chuo to the airport was pretty short.  It's only 5 stations long.  It was our last chance for some shots of the city. The central area of Osaka was far away and was visible on the horizon.  In the near field, there were things like a temple and canal that caught the camera's eye.

We got off the monorail at Itami [伊丹] airport.  There are two main buildings and it seems to be that one building is for Japan Airlines (JAL) flights and the other is for All Nippon Airways (ANA) flights.  At least that's what it looked like to the passing observer.  There was a lot of confusion as to which counter we were supposed to check in at.  The signs weren't entirely clear at one end of the building.  We discovered we had lined up for the wrong counter and were redirected further down the grand hall.  When we finally got to the other end, there was a more obvious sign telling us where international passengers travelling via Tokyo should check in.

After all that confusion and going through security, we still had a little time and we were quite hungry.  So we had to grab some supper.  We came across a little curry place inside the airport on the way to the gate.  It was actually really good food.  We found that surprising for airport food.  We both had curry and omurice (rice wrapped in an egg omelette).  It really hit the spot for a pre-flight meal.

A note about Itami airport.  If you are looking for something out of the ordinary to take a photo with, then you may want to pose with this gigantic onigiri (rice ball) outside the Airdeli between the two terminal buildings.


The flight from Itami to Narita outside of Tokyo was very quick.  Just a one hour up and down flight.  When we arrived in Narita, we realized that our flight had been delayed at least 30 minutes.  That meant we had a little more time than expected.  So we wandered the Narita airport and its stores.  There were lots of high end retail stores that wouldn't fit our budget.  However, there was one large "superstore" that sold everything from souvenirs to gadgets and from kimonos to snacks.  It seemed like everyone in the airport was in there.

Next to the store, we also took advantage of the Yahoo! Cafe Japan.  We didn't have easy Internet access for the past few days, so we caught up on all our email and Facebook feeds.  It had been a while since we had heard so much English.  People from all over the place were in this place taking advantage of Internet access.

Pretty soon, we were at the gate for our flight back home to YVR.  Lots of Canadians around now.  There was one group who was talking about their exploits.  Some of them were obviously big anime fans by the way they dressed.  Visiting Japan for them must have been like visiting their Mecca.  Across from our gate was another gate with a flight bound for Chicago.  H mused about hopping onto that flight since he would be flying there the day after next.  Talk about an upcoming case of major jet lag.

It's always sad to end a trip, but it's always nice to go home.  So it was with a tinge of sadness that we said goodbye to Japan.  Obviously, you can tell that we will be back again.  Just wait until we buy our next travel book for our next destination.  Until next time, thank you for "travelling" with us to Japan and Kansai.

11/12 - Yuraku Onsen - 『湯楽温泉』

As evening fell over Osaka, we eagerly anticipated a night of resting our feet and bodies at a local onsen.  N's friend in Hong Kong had visited a little known neighbourhood onsen in Osaka.  The problem was, we weren't entirely sure where this place was.  After a quick Internet search and trying to figure out how to type out the kanji for this place, N found out where it was.  We found out that the place was called Yuraku Onsen [湯楽温泉] and that it was in the southwest of Osaka.

We entered Honmachi [本町] Station on the east end of the station.  The station is actually made up of 3 different subway stations along 3 different lines.  We needed the Yotsubashi [四つ橋] Line, or the Blue Line.  That part of the station, unfortunately, was on the west end of the station.  So we had to walk all the way to that part of the station before actually being able to hop on a train.  We worked hard for our relaxation.

After hopping on the Yotsubashi Line, it was a one-seat ride south to Kitakagaya [北加賀屋] station in the southwest section of Osaka. The station is the second last station on the line, so it was quite a ways out.  Once we stepped out, you could tell that things felt different in this section of town.  Things were a little more open and the buildings shorter.  We had to walk about 10 to 15 minutes to reach the onsen.  Fortunately, just outside of exit 4 was a large map showing the way.

Unfortunately, that was the only picture we took that evening.  We totally forgot to take pictures of the open areas outside of the baths.  One thing you notice about the place when you arrive is that it has, shock, a parking lot.  You would never think to find a large parking lot in Japan, but this is more of the suburbs of Osaka.  However, it was pay parking.  No free lunch here.

Upon entry, we had no idea how to pay.  We went right up to the man and woman at the desk. We just wanted to pay to go in, but they kept pointing to something behind us.  Finally, the lady came out and politely showed us the vending machine where we were to buy tickets for our admission and for extras such as towels.  Vending machines - they really are everywhere in Japan.

As with all sentos and onsens, the bath is divided into two sections.  Yuraku onsen's two sections are divided into the "rock bath" and the "wood bath" (those rough translations based on Kanji).  For this evening, the rock bath was reserved for women and the wood bath was reserved for men.  The men and women would switch bath sides the next evening.  However, for us, this was the only evening we would be here.

So after dutifully paying the vending machine for our entry and towels, we entered our respective sides.  We stripped down and entered the baths to enjoy a evening of relaxation.

In the wood bath section, there was also what looked to be a barber shop included in the changing room.  It looked like men could come here to get the whole bathing and grooming thing done in one shot.  There must have been a button on the vending machine outside to buy a ticket for this service.

Continuing into the baths, the areas were sub-divided further into several smaller baths.  On the inside portion, there were the typical cleaning stations complete with faux wooden buckets, faux wooden stools, shampoo, and conditioner.  After a thorough cleaning, we were free to enter whichever bath we so chose.

I guess some people would feel terribly uncomfortable in the presence of other naked persons of the same sex.  It only ever happens in changing rooms at swimming pools in North America.  In Japan, though, it's quite normal for naked men to commune with each other in the baths.  The same for naked women.

What was a little uncomfortable was there were three young primary school girls running around on the men's side.  They must have been with their father and grandfather from the looks of it.  The girls would keep coming back to one young man and another older man from time to time.  It's very interesting to see how nudity plays out in Japanese culture.

Each side had a special bath, on the rock bath side, there was the Dead Sea bath.  It's filled with salt water and you can literally float effortlessly on the salt water.  On the wood bath side, there was the rubber duck bath.  The bath was in a little dome shaped room with rubber ducks filling a very shallow pool of water.  I suspect that the girls accompanied their father especially for this bath.  However, the bath didn't seem to be popular with the men that night.

What was really fun was trying all the different baths.  You know it could get extremely boring sitting in the same old hot bath for 10 minutes.  So change things up.  Douse yourself with cold water and do it all over again in a different bath.  There were even a couple of large flat screen TVs to keep you occupied if you were really bored of plain, old relaxation.  There was a Japanese game show on the tele that night.

After about a good hour or so I've going from bath to bath.  Our feet had a well deserved treatment.  Poor little feet.  H and N met up outside in the common area and sat on the tatami floor.  Our shoes were all checked in at the front door.  N was reading some Japanese fashion mags while waiting and H grabbed a drink from yet another vending machine.  On our way out, a gentleman had set up a mini fruit stand.  Fruit sounded great after all this eating out, so we bought some oranges and took it back to the guesthouse to munch on. 

After a sento in Kyoto, the grand onsen ryokan in Arima, and Yuraku Onsen in suburban Osaka, we got a pretty broad experience of different bathhouses in Japan.  This was the perfect way to spend our last evening in Japan.