Feels like almost an eternity ago that I arrived in Yokohama with high expectations - all of which I must say have been met during my stay here.
Usually by this point of my stay somewhere I have moved on to a different country, but I'm glad that I decided to stay in Japan for a little bit longer as there really is so much to see and do.
If I had to select just a couple of cities to see as I had done in pretty much every country then I definitely would have picked Tokyo and then maybe either Yokohama or Kyoto because they are close by, and also big cities which are well known for their excellent tourism options.
Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines are the only other country where I have visited more than two cities on this journey and I'm glad that I have been able to squeeze in visits to a few more places as it has definitely made my trip much more fulfilling although I reckon I could have stayed in Tokyo for the entire duration and not got even close to being bored!
It was time to continue along the way again this morning as my three days in Kobe were completed with yet another awkward 10am check-out.
Having managed to fill more than an adequate amount of time when I arrived early for my check-in in Kobe I was hoping to do the same in Osaka which is the next city I am travelling to as I had even less of a train ride to fill the hours before I could get into my room. It's not even that I really actually want to get into my room, it's just the hassle of having to leave my bags at reception and then come back later, good job the weather was looking pretty bright for today or that would be an interesting experience - don't be surprised if that's a tale I have to tell at some point later on in this journey!
Osaka is between Kyoto and Kobe, and originally I had chosen to go there third out of the three because I was going to fly from here to the southern part of Japan, although now my plans have changed. It doesn't really affect things, thankfully, as it's still a good place for me to leave from in three days time.
Before worrying about that though I had to figure out how to get here first which actually wasn't too much of a problem considering that I'd gone through several stations in the vicinity of Osaka on the way to Kobe.
Checking where I was actually staying it turned out that I could get on the train at the station that was just around the corner from my hotel and ride it all the way to the second last stop on the line which is pretty close to my hotel in Osaka.
Once again it took me some time searching through the map to find out precicesly where I am staying in relation to the centre of the city, but if you count 'Osaka Station' as the central point then I'm not that far away at all. In fact I am in between Osaka and Shin-Osaka so I figure that stands me in good stead in terms of getting to wherever I need to.
Osaka is the third largest city in Japan, and the second most 'important' after Tokyo so I'm sure it will take me a while to get my head around things - and by that point it'll probably be time for me to leave, that's how it usually works!
As on my way to Kobe from Kyoto, I tried to find the slowest train possible, but I don't think I did a very good job as we got up to quite a high speeds and started whizzing through stops at random which probably meant that I'd boarded some kind of express service. I was really tempted to get off and board a 'local' service, but even then I don't think that would have slowed me down too much, and as I figured I'd done in a couple of places, I could leave my bags and then have pretty much half a days extra exploring which is always a bonus.
In other countries having that extra time might have been a bit more of an issue, but in countries like Japan, Korea and Taiwan I have been able to use the train or the metro to get about relatively easily, and because I'm staying in large cities rather than small towns, it's likely that there are going to be things that I can do a bit closer to where I am staying.
I arrived at Juso Station just before twelve and using the map inside the station half figured out where I was supposed to be going using that, and combined what with the screenshot I'd saved of the map I got on Google last night.
Where I am staying is a collection of hotels very close together so it was just a case of finding the right one which didn't take too long at all actually.
........ OK......
..... I'm going to explain a very delicate matter that some people familiar with South-East may be aware of, and others may not.
As well as capsule hotels being popular for businessmen-type travellers making brief stops in the city, the other option where people choose to accommodate themselves are what is commonly referred to as a 'love motel'.
They're not as seedy as they sound (well maybe they are), but I guess their origin comes from the US where motels just seem to be located in the middle of nowhere, but in exactly the opposite way, these kind of motels are usually close to the station.
It's something which you commonly find in Korea and they are usually pretty much next to where all of the bars and clubs are so that people can pretty much stagger their way home after a bit too much sake.
I can't pretend to be an expert on the subject of all things Asian, but I do know that it's uncommon for Asian men to move out of home until they are married so therefore if you manage to 'find' yourself a lady, or are in a long term relationship, but aren't at the stage of getting married just yet, then somewhere like one of these 'love motels' might be where you spend the weekend with your significant (or insignificant) other.
They obviously have a bit of a bad rap because of this, and it doesn't help that they are pretty much the most lit up buildings on the street, but I guess that's to attract people in as I imagine that most of their guests are walk-ins.
So why am I staying in one you might ask!?
Well truth is, the Fine Garden Juso is actually on the border of 'love motel-ville' in Juso, and I read on the reviews that it's actually quite a nice hotel, and for the price I'm paying I figured it'd be worth the risk for a couple of nights. Hopefully the area isn't too shady after dark and the walls are soundproof.....
From what I've seen so far, if this is the kind of place you bring a women, then I think they'd be very impressed with staying here as it's really light and pretty classy in all honesty. It would stand up well against any of the other hotels that I've stayed in!
After leaving my bags with the receptionist I quickly used the wifi (love motels maps aren't very detailed) to see what was nearby and I saw that across the river from where I'm staying is the main heart of Osaka so I decided to spend some time walking there to see what was around.
It's one of the tallest buildings in the city, but is a noticable landmark in Japan because at the very top it has an observation tower and an open air sky garden which you can pay to walk around.
I headed in the direction of the building itself and took in the surroundings as I ate some lunch and sat underneath it:
I'd seen quite a lot of people coming in and out so I decided to go and see if I could at least see how much it was so I took the elevator to the 3rd floor as instructed and then hopped in a lift which took you up to the 39th floor.
It was a glass lift which meant you could see everything around you, and 39 floors looks a great deal more then you can see through the lift taking you up to the top!
From here you rode on an escalator to take you to the 73rd floor which is where you pay to get into the sky garden itself. The weather didn't look too fantastic to be walking out in the open air so I just walked around the little shop up there and also took in the view through the window before heading back down on the escalator:
Whilst I was in the Sky Building I picked up a guide to Osaka which came in very useful for the rest of the day and also pointed me in the direction of the main train station which I figured would be an interesting area to explore as I thought there might be some shops that I could perhaps walk around.
Osaka train station was massively confusing with tracks heading off all over the place, but then I guess it's only what Tokyo would be like if they didn't divide all the traffic between six or seven different main stations.
I eventually managed to find a shopping centre which had a few interesting shops to look through, but I spent most of my time just browsing and taking everything in. I headed out of the opposite side of the department store and came back to some stairs which led into the station, and from there I spotted that very much like in Taiwan there was a shopping mall with a ferris wheel on the top of it;
I intended to head that way later on:
From where I was standing I'd spied that there was an electronics shop very much like the one I'd spent some time in, in Kyoto so I went up and down several of the floors comparing the prices for laptops and other products that I can't afford, but would like to have. I spent some time working out the conversion between English and Japanese prices - needless to say that if I hadn't have brought a camera in Malaysia then I'd probably have been purchasing one here instead.
An hour or so of browsing, and playing on the latest games (and also with an iWatch that I was seeing for the first time) I headed off in the direction of the shopping mall with the amusement ride on top which I discovered was called the HEP Five Mall.
As well as a ferris wheel at the top there was something called the SEGA Joyopolis arcade, which was a mix between a regular arcade with UFOs and cabinets, and then also some other 3D rides which were in different places all around the top floor. Some of them looked pretty good, although I'd imagine that they were all in Japanese so no good for me.
I carried on walking away from the station area to see what else I could find and eventually I got to an area which was a bit like the shopping street which kept my dry that I walked from Chinatown into last night in Kobe.
This one was known as Tenjinbashisuji Shopping Arcade which is a street which stretches for 2.6km and is filled with about 600 shops and restaurants. I think I joined about half way along, but most of the places looked like small independent traders selling different types of goods.
In order to head back to the station area I walked along another shopping street, Tenho Nakazaki Arcade, which had just as many shops, but which wasn't quite as long or extensive.
Using the ferris wheel as a guide, I navigated my way back to the station eventually and then headed back past the Umeda Sky Building in order to go back and check in to my hotel.
My bags were thankfully still behind reception so I was able to get into my room and settle in for the night:
I told you it looks pretty decent to say that it's meant to serve only one purpose!
Love Shack
B-52s (1989)
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