In and Around Downtown Osaka

Our first destination the following morning was Osaka Castle.  The castle is surrounded by an enormous -- and, might I say, quite lovely -- park, including this really sweet playground.  Ryan and I may or may not have gone down the slide a couple times.

Osaka Castle!  Unfortunately, we couldn't go inside that day.  Rather imposing from the outside, though, isn't it?

Ryan really loves taking pictures of torii gates.  This one was outside what we understood to be the former shogun's personal shrine.

A rock garden, shown to us by a random Japanese passerby named Hayashi-san.  He wasn't a tour guide, but he nevertheless took it upon himself to show us around the castle grounds and explain to us what was what.  He explained it entirely in Japanese, of course, but we got the general jist.

The NHK building.  NHK is basically the Japanese equivalent of PBS.

A graveyard near Shitennouji.  In Japan, people are cremated and their ashes and bones are mixed with those of their ancestors at a single family grave site.  Which explains how they're able to cram the plots so close together.

Amide (?) Buddha at a temple just outside Shitennouji.  The statue was much, much larger than it appears in this picture.  It was kind of breathtaking.

The gate to Shitennouji, Japan's oldest government-sponsored Buddhist temple.  First constructed by Prince Shotoku in the year 593.  I can't believe I actually remembered all that...

The pagoda at Shitennouji.  I just thought this was a cool picture that Ryan took.

Shifting gears entirely, here is a comic book/otaku shop we found when we were looking for Tsutenkaku tower.  It was in an area of Osaka called Den-Den Town, a district entirely dedicated to selling electronics, computers, DVDs, music, and all manner of entertainment.  And nerd stuff.  Lots and lots of nerd stuff.

And here are some of the aforementioned nerds now!  This was inside the comic shop.  What's weird is that the merchandise was like, ninety percent dirty comics.  And people were reading them out in the open and didn't really seem to care if you saw them.  Liberated?  Or just creepy?  You decide.

Japanese cosplay outfits -- which, by the way, far outstrip American costumes in both quality and price.  Especially price.

A Frieza costume.  God knows we were tempted, but it cost like sixty bucks!

A really neat video game store we found that had a heap of old Nintendo Entertainment System consoles (or Famicoms, as they were called here).

Also from the video game store.  The man pictured is Beat Takeshi, a super-famous comedian/actor/director here in Japan.  Takeshi hates video games, so he decided to create his own -- a game so mind-bogglingly unfun to play that it would inspire people to never play video games again.  Players were given tasks like pushing a single button 10,000 times in a row.  This is an advertisement for that game.

Tsutenkaku Tower!  Yes, we finally found it.

Billiken, a "god" created by an American woman back in 1912 that somehow became insanely popular in Osaka.  Now he's their unofficial mascot.  Rubbing his feet is said to make your dreams come true (hence the deep grooves in the statue's feet).

The view from Tsutenkaku.

A model of the old Tsutenkaku, before it was torn down for scrap during World War II, and the park that used to surround it.  I don't know why, but I got very misty-eyed looking at this model.  There's something so charming and nostalgic about it.

Doutonbouri, Osaka's night-life and entertainment district.  The mass of humanity here was both overwhelming and exhilarating.

Gigantic advertisements in Doutonbouri.

The river in Doutonbouri.  The bridge we were standing on when we took this picture was so packed with people that I honestly thought I was gonna get knocked into the water.

A super-cool, super-quaint okonomiyaki place we went to for dinner.  Note all the comics and Ultraman action figures.

We've already shown you Hiroshima-style okonomiyaki.  This is the other kind -- Osaka-style.  No noodles in this one, and the ingredients and batter are all mixed together instead of layered.  Still amazingly yummy!

In the evening, before bedtime, Ryan and I liked to go arcade hopping.  There were arcades on every corner, after all, and they all had their own unique flavor.  For example, this one had a little pond in the basement where you could catch real fish.  You didn't get to keep the fish; rather, you won prizes based on the size of the fish you caught.

The Typing of the Dead.  My favorite game.  Now and forever.  Where else can I use my rad typing skills to destroy an army of zombies?

This game was hilarious.  Basically, it gave you a little scenario, at the end of which you were supposed to hurtle that table at your virtual family.  Family dysfunction has never been so much fun!