Osaka

The thought of travelling in Japan was quite daunting for me.  Most of the places I'd travelled to before were either like Mexico, which takes its American tourist dollars very seriously and is thus set up for gringos, or like Europe, which is so aggressively multi-lingual that you have to search long and hard to find a restaurant that doesn't have its menu in four languages. Not so in Japan.  It is a wealthy island nation, and has a reputation for merely tolerating, not catering to its foreign visitors. As it turns out this is mostly bunk.  The infrastructure of public transportation is well set up for the english speaking tourist.  While it is not particularly hard to find restaurants that have menus only in Japanese, it's difficult not to trip over the thousands of other restaurants with picture menus designed for tourists from all over the world.  In this regard Japan reminds me strongly of the United States -- a huge marketplace, with enough room to cater to both the locals and the foreigners. But I didn't know that before travelling, and was daunted.  Fortunately I was lucky enough to have friends living in Osaka, and so it became my first port of call.

Osaka was completely rebuilt after World War II, but the urban planners still had to make some interesting compromises as it grew.  In this case, the connector ramp for the freeways does in fact go right through the middle of that building.

Large cities around the world are legendary for their parking problems, but the Japanese use  a number of solutions that I've never seen elsewhere.  In this case, what was two parking spaces becomes four, through the use of these lifts.

While there wasn't much by way of city-owned sculpture in Osaka, many buildings had private fountains and art installations.

I liked this one.  It was outside a place that is roughly analogous to the Children's Discovery Museum in San Jose.

This is less "art" than, "wouldn't you like to eat me for dinner tonight."  I pale to think how much money has been spent on oversized seafood sculptures in Osaka.

These two pictures are related, but I'm not going to spell it out.  He knows who he is.

Gambling is technically illegal in Japan, but if you happen to be playing Pachinko and win, it's possible to trade in your winnings for televisions, etc. There are a *lot* of Pachinko parlours. Much like Las Vegas (though mind you, I'm not comparing Pachinko to gambling, because gambling is illegal) , attracting people's attention at any cost is the name of the game.  Hence this large, garish, inverted statue.

This is the front of the Osaka Industrial Safety Musuem, the existence of which proves, I think, that no matter what culture you may be in, there is still someplace absolutely tedious to take kids on a field trip.

Japan is a land of traditions, one of the largest of which is english speaking foreigners arriving and taking pictures of odd almost-english phrases. Consider my part of this tradition done with -- if you want more, the web is full of examples.

I arrvied in Japan expecting to find a nation of people who were absolutely fanatic about following the rules.  This is much like showing up in Britain and expecting everyone to be polite -- I.E. a big mistake.  One of the first things I noticed was this row of flattened cones.  The cones are there to force people to go straight and not make a u-turn right here.  The reason they are flat is that everyone drives over them while making a u-turn right here. The Japanese do seem to be in general more law-abiding than Americans, but that's about as far as it goes.

This is an interesting variant on the familiar toll gate you see on the U.S.  When you pay your money (or take your ticket) the chain is lowered into a groove in the pavement, and you drive over it.

Speaking of interesting variants, this is the first toilet I had ever used that was plugged into the wall.  The toilet seat was nice and toasty, but I must admit I stopped short of playing with all of the buttons to find out what they did. Much more interestingly, the fixture on top of the toilet is a small wash basin that the water runs through while filling up the tank.  This allows you to rinse your hands in the same water that will later be used to flush the toilet again.  Very elegant design, and one that I'm surprised that I haven't seen in water-conscious California.

These are some of the local beetle population.  The big ones are about three inches long. Incidentally, I made the mistake of suggesting that there were cockroaches in this display, much to the dismay of one of my hosts.  Just to recap -- Giant beetles with nasty pinchers that look like they could easily chop off a toe are elegant and cool;  Cockroaches are horrible.  Might want to keep that in mind while wandering around Japan.

This is a collection of Japanese coins from the 13th century.  I found them interesting because they are pounded flat and marked with various stamps to discourage counterfeiting -- this as opposed to the european style of using simple inscriptions but being very detailed about the weight of the metal.  Different solutions to the same problem.

Osakajo, the main castle in Osaka.  As with virtually all other artifacts in the area, this is a reproduction that was put together after World War II.  I should note that what was there before World War II was also a reproduction -- stronghold fortresses were flattened by conquerors with startling regularity in Japanese history.

Osakajo is surrounded by a large public park.  As with all other large public spaces in Osaka, hundreds of blue tarps have been formed into tents and houses.  This is Osaka's homeless population, which is quite large. Unlike the United States, the homeless in Japan do not tend to be the mentally handicapped.  Instead these are workers who have lost their jobs, and usually lost face with their community is some way.  Alcoholism is also rampant. I walked past and through many of these encampments, and came away with the feeling that these were some of the most relaxed and happy people in Osaka.  Unlike the people rushing around downtown streets in their business suits, they smiled and greeted me as I passed.  Only one person asked me for anything, and that was to hold two boards together while he wrapped rope to bind them together.

Pipes springing from the sides of walls and following this profile are a staple of Japanese science fiction landscapes.  I was amused that the only ones I could actually find in Osaka were springing from the side of Osakajo.

One of my hosts, the fabulous Ellie Wanamaker.  With a really big bowl of soup.