Monday, October 23, 2006

Oh! Osaka!

Yay, Osaka!

It was too bad that the first time I went I had no camera, so this time I made sure it was charged, full of batteries, and empty. I set the picture quality up so that I would be able to take plenty of shots and off I went...

First, a few random shots in the train station:
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This is where we got off in Osaka, underground.

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And a random statue with a big open area in the underground mall called the 'Namba walk.' The mall itself was pretty cool.

Namba Walk Monument
(switched to Flickr to continue)
And here's a monument in the mall itself.

Out to the surface and we find...
The mechanical crab
Dotonbori (after a short walk) and a mechanical crab! Next time I see it I'll try and video the movement.
Dotonbori
Dotonbori is a famous shopping street in Osaka. There is the home of such landmarks as...
And the glico man
The glico man! A giant neon sign.

And most famous of all is Kuidaore Taro.
Kuidaore Taro
And Kuidaore food
He's even got Kuidaore themed food.

Here's another shot of the river beside Dotonbori.
The river beside dotonbori

After leaving dotonbori we headed for Nipponbashi, otherwise known as Den-Den town. The Den comes from 'Denki' or electricity. Den-Den town is full of video game and electronics stores.
So starting off from Dotonbori we headed south along the road past Namba station, past the Shin Kabuki-za...
A big theater

And the Nankai building (which I hear has a theater inside)
Nankai building

And here comes tower records as we round the corner...
Around the corner, Tower records ahead

And we turn down a side street to see...
Dotonbori
The beginning of the several miles of game stores.

Things really pick up once you get to the Nipponbashi proper.
NipponbashiNipponbashi 2Nipponbashi3

And you can find stuff like old video games...
Old game cartridges
Or plastic figures and models...
Some figures

Or even giant figures!
Snake!
Smile, snake!
Me and Snake

At the southernmost end of Nipponbashi is Tsutenkaku, another monument of Osaka.
Tsutenkaku
We walked right up underneath it!
TsutenkakuUp
And ate Takoyaki, a fried ball of dough with a little octopus leg inside.
Takoyaki
It didn't taste that good though. Well, I didn't like the texture.

Since night had fallen we walked back to that intersection and I took a photo of Tsutenkaku at night... except they didn't light it up! bummer.
Night tower

And that was our trip to Osaka!

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