(links to sections of Osaka at bottom)
I reached Osaka and found my friends still recovering from the Fuji fiasco. They did some initial scouting around in Osaka while I was in Nagoya. The main plan was to see a kendo practice in a police station, and maybe also see Osaka castle. This man was an unexpected surprise. You can see all his equipment here, including the scary pink thing. He was theatrical and very focused. We could not understand what he was shouting about (and he shouted a lot), but we were convinced he was a good actor.
There were lots of free concerts around Japan in general. This seemed like a "Battle of the Bands" or something, because they were right next to each other. When you stood in front of each band, 90% of what you heard was their music, so it worked pretty well.
These groupies knew where to get the best view from.
We had a pretty nice hotel room in Osaka. It was near a mall with tons of retstaurants. Maybe 30-40. I took this shot from one of the upper floors. You can see they were setting up for something. You also can see how the mall was laid out. It was a big open area surrounded by 4 floors on the perimeter.
We chose this sushi bar, and it was a nice choice. This was our main sake experience in Japan. We probably should have drank more sake. Because everything required cash in Japan (it was rare for credit cards to be accepted), we had to budget ourselves at least somewhat. Here we had a large assortment of sushi and other treats. We just kept ordering more plates of slimy stuff until we were full. A Japanese couple sitting at the bar was surprised by our affinity toward sake.
Trees were lit up in blue lights outside our hotel, the New Otani Hotel. The hotel presented us with a wonderful view of the Osaka castle from our window. Charging 30 dollars for the pool was not appreciated, however.
Sightseeing cruise
Kendo practice
Osaka Castle
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