Japan Day 9: In Search Of Warm Ears.

It may not have been snowing in Osaka but the wind came direct from Siberia and I grieved my lost beanie as I set out to explore. I was soon in awe of Osaka's bicycle culture. Grannies and Grampas, young men and women in power suits, parents with children in tow: they were all riding bicycles hither and thither, Siberian wind be damned. I saw paid lock-up bicycle parking, double storey bicycle parking, dedicated bicycle parking lots, and lots of ad-hoc random wherever-it-fits bicycle parking. I took lots of photos of bicycle parking options as I wandered around trying to get entry to the Botanic Gardens.

I know you're as interested in bicycle parking as I am, so here's a sample.

The trees were edging closer to Spring. Some of them more quickly than others.

Desperate measures: a mask and my puffer jacket hood in an attempt to keep out the cold.

Good. I'm in the right place.

Entry to the gardens was the princely sum of 300Y which reqired registering, creating an account, using a credit card blah blah... I was just too cold to be bothered so I skipped the Botanic Gardens and went to the City Museum of Fine Arts instead, which was all about the art and nothing at all to do with being inside all warm and cosy and with confortable seats, of course not. I saw a very interesting exhibition of old Chinese and Japanese masters, plus pottery and sculpture and exquisitely designed picnic sets from days before plastic.

Next was a quick wander past Tsutenkaku Tower which was proudly displaying a count down to World Expo 2025, due to kick off in Osaka in a matter of days.

The hustling bustling centre around Tsutenkaku hosted a plethora of billikens, the Japanese diety whose origins were neither Japanese nor diety but no one seemed to care and the creepy baby was everywhere in Shin sekai.

All this while I kept looking at shops, trying to find a new beanie and bum bag and having price apoplexy all over again. The trouble was that I didn't know where the cheap shops were and I didnt want to pay tourist prices for fancy pants beanies and I couldn't understand why anyone would come all the way to Japan just to shop for the same stuff they had at home and my ears were cold and I just WANTED A BEANIE!

Take a breath.

Hmmm. Time to have a warm drink and calm down a little, methought. And this being Japan, there was a vending machine with hot cafe latte dispensing forthwith.  Now all I needed was a beanie vending machine. Where's innovation when you need it?

Equilibrium restored, I gave up on my beanie quest and went back to the hotel for a bit of a lie down. I needed a rest anyway because at 6pm I met two other Australians, two couples (Brazil and Mexico), an Indian New Yorker out to eat meat because his wife and daughter were vegetarian, and a Scottish guide who visited Osaka for a weekend 30 years ago and never left. For 3 hours we ate and drank our way around the tiny restaurants of Shin Sekai, learning about the history of the food, the city, and the country. 

The dumplings were my favourite.

Tsutenkaku by night.

Teams Brazil and Mexico had a strong commitment to exploring sake culture, the food being merely an excuse. The Chinese Australian and I were on the soft stuff and the others were more measured in their intake. By 9pm we had finished off with sweet potato chips in honey followed by fried ice cream, and Brazil and Mexico were simultaneously ready to hit the nightclubs and struggling with straight-line navigation. The rest of us thanked our guide and went our separate ways: Australia and New York went to Dotonbori for the vibe and I, party pooper that I was, took my cold ears home to bed. Mind you, I still got to hear the vibe of Dotonburi outside the window well into the night.

And I still don't have a beanie.

Tonbori River near my hotel.

Today's Tiger Shrine.