Loving the Kansai Region!

by Josie Losh

Flying away from Kyushu and towards Honshu on my first domestic flight within Japan.

Hello, Readers! My first travel of spring break has just finished and do I ever have a lot to share with you!

Along with five of my friends, I set out on a 6-day spring break trip to Osaka, with day trips to Nara and Kyoto. Our group composed of two Japanese, Swedish, Armenian, Belgian, and American exchange students. For most of us, it wasn't our first time in the Kansai region, but it was our first REAL stay there, and boy was it worth it!

Getting away from the rural life of Saga and into big-city life in Kansai was like doing a 180 in terms of culture. Not waiting for traffic signals to change to green, stepping out into crosswalks, huge crowds of people swirling around me, taking trains with 12+ cars, eating famous foods, and having people talk to me in English; it was all so different from Saga.

Even though I originally really wanted to wait until sakura season to visit the Kansai region to be able to see the sights with cherry blossoms blooming, it turns out that the timing of our trip was lovely as it was. We had lovely weather every day and as we left, it started raining. We lucked out.

Our first night in Osaka, we set out to try to unravel the train and subway systems in and out of Nanba, the center of the city. In Nanba is Dotonbori, the brightly-lit famous restaurant and souvenir-loaded street. Nearby is Shinsaibashi, a covered street with clothing and brand-name stores galore. Sandwiched in between is the famous Glico-Man, who we, of course, took pictures with.

I've separated this post by districts and cities within the Kansai region.

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道頓堀 / Dōtonbori

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The bright and bustling Dotonbori!

Our delicious okonomiyaki supper. I'm drooling all over again looking at this picture.

Lantern-lit alley

The drummer-mascot of Dotonbori, Kuidaore Ningyo.  "Kuidaore"-食い倒れin Japanese, literally means "to ruin oneself by extravagance in food." That's how we can tell Osaka's Dotonbori is the most famous eating district of Osaka.

Takoyaki- probably Osaka's most famous food behind okonomiyaki. "Tako" means octopus in Japanese. If you've never tried octopus before and you're not sure you'll like it, I highly recommend trying takoyaki first. It's super good.

Kani-Doraku: The most famous crab restaurant in Dotonbori, its moving crab sign has been functioning since the 1960's.

The Dotonbori canal bridge facing Shinsaibashi.

The Glico-Man, honestly the first thing I think of when I think of Osaka.

The Dotonbori Canal bridge.

The following day we took a group picture.

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心斎橋 / Shinsaibashi

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Can I just say that I successfully found my little piece of Korea in Shinsaibashi? A k-pop store was something I wasn't expecting!

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大坂城 / Osaka Castle

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We intended to reach Osaka Castle during the daytime and take the tour of the castle, but in the end, we ran out of time. Luckily, the castle was still perfectly wonderful from the outside.

The gold components of the roofs shone against the white background.

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新世界 / Shinsekai

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The south part of Shinsai-sekai, exploring Osaka our first night.

Another of Osaka's famous foods: kushikashi. It's basically any meat/fish/vegetable/cheese/mochi breaded and fried and then dipped in a special sauce.

The aftermath of our all-you-can-eat.

Billiken, originally an American pop-craze from the early 1900's, was made popular as "The God of Things as They Ought to Be," and symbolized a "hakuna matata" ideal of Americana. This little mischevious-looking god has arms too short to reach to touch his feet, so it is said that if you rub his feet for him, he will bring you good luck in return.

The most important anatomy of Billiken.

 There is also an "American-town" called America-mura in Osaka, but we didn't make it there. It's said to be the place where young people like to shop and display the newest trends in fashion as well as thinking. It is also known for having many bars and clubs, haha. Maybe next time I head to Osaka I'll be able to see for myself what idea Osaka residents have of the U.S.

The Shinsekai (literally "New World") Tower, built in 1912 to model New York City in the U.S.

 Nara

We took off on a sunny morning by train to see Nara. In about 40 minutes we left Osaka completely and were in Nara. We took a short bus ride took Nara Park where we would be able to see the Great Buddha, the famous temples of Nara, and of course, the supposedly thousand sacred deer that roam the park.

Sacred deer in Nara

Right after arriving and taking our cameras out of our bags we bought deer "senbei"-crackers to feed the deer.

Marie and her little Bambi.

So fuzzy

Someone got a little too curious...

Looking for senbei

 The Todai-ji Buddhist Temple was pure amazing. The sheer amount of effort it must have taken to create such big wood buildings way back when... And not to mention casting a 48 ft.tall Buddha from copper in one single try.

The gate to Todai-ji was enormous compared to other temples I've been to in Japan.

The South gate of the temple.

Finally reached the main building! This building has been reconstructed twice as it was burnt down by two fires, but the original was built in the 8th century. It still has command as the biggest wood building in the world. Standing at 159.89 (48.74 m) tall, it is massive.

The shibi crowning the roof of the temple are to protect the temple from burning down. They are the tails of mythological sea creatures.

The original 8th c. octagonal lantern depicting the values of Buddhism.

The biggest Buddha in Japan, made entirely of cast copper.

A deer happily enjoying the sunshine.

Curious

Shy

Climbing steps to another temple in Nara Park.

Japanese witch-hazel in bloom.

Really not sure of the purpose of these culms of bamboo, but it seems like family names were written on them, maybe they were piled to be burned. So pretty though.

Our very last full day in Osaka we got up nice and early to go to Universal Studios and buy day passes. We got in line early enough to obtain student express passes good for three rides in the park, and boy, did that save time. Skipping the lines, we got to ride with about 5 minutes wait in the Hollywood Dream Coaster, Back to the Future, and Space Fantasy. Although the coaster was pretty brilliant, everyone's favorite ended up being the Spiderman 4D attraction.

My favorite? The Jurassic Park water ride where you're taken through lush jungle-like scenery with all real plants, lots of semi-realistic dinos that interact with the water, shrieking velociraptors as you enter the warehouse full of escaped dinosaurs, and then the end: where as you head into a black hole, the T-REX attemps to attack and you are thrown STRAIGHT DOWN a 25.1 meter drop waterfall where you make a huge KA-PLOOOSH into the water below and get very wet. It was mind-blowingly fun. I screamed so loudly and for so long that I think my throat is still feeling it. I did it again, of course, borrowing my friend's unused express pass to cut the line.

We ended the day touring the Tako-yaki Museum and at Hard Rock Cafe for dinner, where I met up with my host-sister, Akari. We stuffed ourselves silly with the American-size portions and I had a pina-cola the size of the moon. It was a great end to Osaka.