Nozomi (Osaka I)

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It appears that sometimes I'm really confused.. I mixed up the travel dates to go to Osaka. Tried to go through the ticket gate at Nagasaki Station but I was stopped.. It said 3rd June i.s.o. the 2nd. Had to go to the JR ticket office to change the dates to one day earlier and luckily you can change your journey once only. Looked at the hotel reservation and yes ... that too was for the 3rd. Called the Tokyu Inn and thank God they still had a vacancy for friday night (There was a big baseball game on on Saturday..!!) and they too changed the dates....
Getting older isn't all that wonderfull ...... apart from loosing your shape you also loose your memory.

I finally made it to Osaka, the big city in the kansai region and not too far from the old capital Kyoto. The trip per train (regular from Nagasaki to Fukuoka and then by Shinkansen to Osaka) takes about 4 1/2 hours. This was the first time I have travelled on the high speed Nozomi train (300 + km/ph) and it's quite a thrill. You even hear the wind blowing when it makes a bend. It wasn't very full (not surprising for 27.000 yen for the round trip) but it's quite an experience.

Arrived at Shin Osaka station and from there you it takes a 3 minute ride on another JR line to Osaka station. Teru was there to meet me (he had just finished working at the University of Kyoto where he is an associate professor at the Law faculty). Went for Okonomiyaki and lotsa beer (it was 25 degrees there, humid and no wind). It was just great to see him again after we had met in Kobe last year in July.

After a drink in a gay bar called Physique (a little noisy for my liking but nice never the less) I just hit the hay.............

The Tokyu Inn is very conveniently located in the Umeda area and a 3 minute walk to all the gay bars.... Fab.

After breakfast I met Teru and we decided to do history first (there are not many old buildings left since the city was heavily bombed during WW II as a compromise they didn't bomb Kyoto; similar agreement as to not bombing the Cathedral in Cologne).
Started off with the Osaka Museum of History opposite Osaka Castle. Very interesting to see the development of Osaka (It had been the Capital of Japan before Nara in the 7th century and in 1583, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who accomplished the great task of unifying the country, chose Osaka as his base and constructed Osaka Castle, making Osaka the political and economic center of Japan.
They have a nice life-like reconstruction of the court life in the Museum plus an over abundance of Bunraku dolls. Bunraku 文楽 is the Japanese art of Puppetry and two or sometimes three men in black will make each puppet come alive. Especially the facial features like eyes, eyebrows and mouth can be changed in order to create diverse looks on the dolls face.