Well we're off the floor and in a bed and also sitting down to go to the bathroom! The traditional Japanese bed is a 1-2" pad called a futon rolled out on a matted floor. That's been our bed since we got to Japan…which we both admit we slept fine on and we got lots of laughs out of how comical it was trying to get down & up from them! Traditional toilet is the squat type. We were glad that once we flew into Osaka, we had both a "real" bed and sit down toilet which also had a seat warmer & a bidet!
The flight was easy and since we arrived hungry, we ate at the first place we found, McD! My hamburger was similar to US but meat not quite the same and they only had Coke Zero. I ordered a large and it was almost as big as our medium. Rog got a Terriyaki chicken sandwich. We ate this like everyone else in the restaurant was eating, standing up next to a counter. Later we'd see a McD that advertised how many chairs it had! Rog then did his magic to get us to our hotel first taking the monorail, then train, then DiDi (like Uber). We just laid on our real beds for the rest of the night watching some TV (in Japanese) except for a quick trip to a Lawson's which is a small convenient store that's on most every corner!
Next morning we set out to find the National Museum of Ethnology. We took several twist & turn around a before we found it but we did. It's located on the Expo '70 grounds so we saw the huge Ferris wheel and Tower of the Sun too. The museum was huge and jam-packed with cultural artifacts from all over the world. The plaques had very little English but who reads all them anyways! We sure recognized lots from other countries we've visited. We spent extra time in the Japanese section. Actually were there over 3 hours. By the time we got back near our hotel, it was time to find dinner which we did in an Okinawa restaurant for a dish called taco salad —taco meat sauce over rice with a bit of greens. We were ready to just read our guide book & plan the next day when we got back.
Next day we were able to get around pretty efficiently! We started by going to the Osaka Castle. It was originally built in 1583 & is surrounded by a moat with massive stone wall. One of the stone used was about 12' x 20'. Imagine moving that! The castle was filled with ancient painted hangings and 20 dioramas that included holograms. They are so amazing to watch as they told some of the history of the time. Rog decided to sit out going inside the castle so just walked around the beautiful grounds until he found a good bench. A Japanese man, Takashi Saito sat down next to him and of course, they started to talk. He then handed him a folded paper parrot that he'd made. As they continued talking, he folded a butterfly, samaurin hat then peacock. He told him this was his hobby. Finally he gave him a card he'd painted Mt Fuji on that had his name on it. Rog was happy he'd found that bench. Next to the castle was a Shinto Shrine similar to the one we'd seen in Naha except filled with cherry blossoms in bloom!
Back on the subway, we headed to where we had reservations for a later show. With time to spare, we wandered around this part of town until we found a local restaurant serving squid, shrimp & egg rolls. Not the best but okay. We got to the auditorium where we had reservations for a show about 1/2 hour early hoping to get good seats. Well, all 20+ of the audience had good seats! the show, Osaka Night Fusion was pretty radical with a mix between very cultural dancing to very risqué dancing. Traditional Japanese instruments were played beautifully along with lots of loud & rapid drumming. Songs switched between more current Western music to traditional songs. Flashing lights and a constant changing video screen in the background lit up the stage vibrantly! A sword swallower, yo-yo expert, several tumblers & lots of dancing filled the one hour show. Pretty overwhelming! But guess we didn't get enough as we headed to the canal strip to see the ultimate flashing light ads. Sensory overloaded, we headed back to our hotel around 7:30. Osaka is certainly the modern, flashy Japan! We have to say it's striking how orderly the Japanese are. Everyone lines up single file to get on elevators & subways. They wait patiently for people to exit before getting on. This happened on our flights too. Never been on a flight that loaded & unloaded so quickly! Also the streets are clean as a whistle. Almost 3 million people live in Osaka but no trash anywhere. Pretty incredible. This city is filled with tall apartment buildings but the traffic is so light thanks to their excellent public transportation. And finally, another amazing thing is we see lots of bikes parked & not locked. Chris told us that many times if someone does commit a crime, he will turn himself into the police rather than bring more embarrassment to his family. We're pretty impressed!
