As I sit here in Liz's tiny studio apartment in suburban Osaka, the mid-afternoon thunder is rumbling away outside. It's summer and all morning the cicadas in the trees outside were "singing" their deafening chorus so loudly that I had to shut the door. Oddly, most of them have stopped now. I guess it's the change in weather. I have laundry hanging out on the patio, but it's not drying. I guess it's too humid. Yes, that's summer in Osaka - hot, HUMID and a little bit more humid.
Despite the oppressive weather, we have been getting out and about quite a bit. Here are some pictures from the last week or two:
You never know what you're going to see in Osaka!!
Maybe a giant octopus climbing down the wall of a restaurant?
Maybe a giant crab?
Giant gyoza (pot-stickers), perhaps?
or maybe even a giant hand holding a whopping great sushi? Or the massive fugu (pufferfish) behind...
and of course, let's not forget the plastic models of food outside the restaurants. This is actually one of my favourite things about Japan - you can see and exact replica of what you're going to get before you even walk into the restaurant. And the plastic looks so real!
This is Shinsaibashi-suji covered shopping arcade. It goes on for miles, changing names at certain points, but basically it's miles and miles of covered arcades. This section is called "Shinsaibashi-suji".
Liz on the Ebisu-bashi Bridge (bashi means bridge, so I guess I should call it "Ebisu Bridge"?) just after we were accosted by religious preachers who were out trying to convert people...aaarghhh...
Liz again on the Ebisu Bridge in Osaka, with the Dotonbori canal behind.
Yes, that's a ferris wheel on top of a building in Umeda district, Osaka.
Oh, and here are a bunch of pictures from one of our day trips to Kyoto. We started at Kiyomizu-dera Temple, and walked down through the narrow back streets (a pretty touristy area) to Yasaka Shrine and then down Shijo Street into the downtown shopping district (no pictures from that part of the walk)
Me looking at "antique" pottery in Kyoto
You gotta love Kyoto's central train station.
Liz standing on a little stone bridge in front of the Seiryo Tea House (the Lake Tea House) in the Seiryu-en garden, Kyoto
Walking down the old narrow streets of Kyoto can be like stepping back in time.
This is the street entrance to a traditional restaurant we decided to eat at in Kyoto. Neither of us had ever eaten here before (we'd both walked past it countless times over the years though).
Liz had zaru-soba
I had soumen noodles with egg tofu and nishin (herring)
The dish with the wooden lid (in both pictures) contains rice (just in case you were wondering).
The garden at the restaurant. Can you see the koi carp in the pond?
Maruyama Park in Kyoto
It was a hot, hot, hot day. As we were walking towards Maruyama Park (a place we know like the palm of our hand), we were both really looking forward to getting an ice cream at the little ice cream shop there. Obviously, Liz was simply looking forward to it, but for me it was all that I was living for at that point. I had ice cream on the brain. And so, it was absolutely shattering to find, upon arrival, that the bloody ice cream shop was closed!! I stood outside in numb disbelief for a moment trying to make sense of it all and figure out where to go from here... and Liz snapped this shot of me.
After picking up the pieces of my shattered hopes and dreams, and walking away from the closed ice cream shop, we visited Yasaka Shrine. The heat was giving Liz a good chance to use her newly bought fan.
Yasaka Shrine.
Here endeth the entry for today.
