Museum day

Hey everybody!

I'm really creative with naming my reports right? :P Today was the first day of rain in Japan. I should have bought an umbrella in the morning, but I didn't... So I better get one tomorrow, because more rain has been promised this week :(

Anyway, today I went to 2 museums with my Osaka Amazing Pass. First I went to the Osaka History Museum. The first thing to stand out about this museam, was that I was asked to start at the 10th floor and then work my way down. It was for aa good reason though, because the 10th floor exhibition was about Osaka in about 750 AD., while the subsequent floors (down till 7) displayed Osaka in later era's. This was very interesting to see and I learned some interesting things as well. For example, Osaka was the first post-war economic power house of Japan. At one point it was even larger than Tokyo! At that time it had encompassed about 47 villages besides the original Osaka. The 6th floor was for special exhibitions, but I think there isn't one right now, because visitors were kindly asked to continue down. Floor 5 through 2 were for conference rooms and what not, and on the 1st floor (ground floor, it's weird, I know) the giftshop and the entrance. The Osaka division of NHK was in the same building by the way! Media and history in 1 building, what a combination!

Anyway, after the history museum I went to Osaka Castle again, but this time actually entered the castle. The museum displayed a little of the building of the castle, but mostly of who built it, the times it got destroyed, and when and who rebuilt it. Aparrently, when part of the castle was destroyed during the air raids of 1945, the reconstruction was funded by donations from the citizens of Osaka! I thought that was really moving :) After I finished the tour, I decided to have some lunch. And they sold takoyaki (small balls of dough, filled with octopus) in front of the castle! It tasted really good! :D So that is 1 of the famous Osaka specialties squared off :)

I originally planned to do a 1 hour cruise on a river as well today, but given the weather I decided to travel around by subway instead. I went to the harbor first, to briefly smell the sea before it started raining again. Then I took a long detour back to shinsaibashi station, so that I could read some today.

Previous days I had a capsule on the 3rd floor, now for the 1st time I have one on the 4th floor. After some resting it was time for dinner and I decided that I would square off another Osaka specialty; okonomiyaki (to quote the restaurant: "pancake Osaka style")! I found this nice little place by the water, there even was some entertainment on the other side of the water! When I was seated, a plate in the table was turned on, then when I got my okonomiyaki it was turned off again. But it sure kept my food warm!

Finally I returned to the hotel to write you guys. Tomorrow I originally planned to go to the zoo, but it will depend on the weather XD I also just now agreed to meet my fellow student from The Hague University of Applied Sciences for dinner tomorrow! We will be studying at Kwansei Gakuin University together and even live in the same residence. Looking forward to that ^^

Well, good night!


Laurens