Cutting some new name slips for the luggage tags.
Throwing milk for the full moon.
Ogii likes being covered in the warm blankets from laundry.
Termite frass on the top of this countertop.
They were busy over the night.
With the Alaska and Hawaiian merger, they're going to one app.
I'm going to miss the loading screen of the guy swinging in the hammock between palm trees.
More goats for Ogii to watch.
More Pitt episodes.
Another political scene.
And a fun one.
About sometimes not needing expensive medical equipment.
This homeless guy was very happy they cleaned him up and gave him a haircut.
Some tomatoes growing.
Ogii with one.
Getting a picture of the sunset.
My coworkers had brought some donuts, so we had those for breakfast, along with spam and eggs.
At the airport.
No line at security, as always.
Some new artwork.
We had seen these outlines earlier, but now they're filling them in.
This one is halfway done.
And not started.
Info on the artist.
My favorite sculpture.
Ogii using the little sniff stick Ben got us.
Boarding.
Flying to Honolulu first.
The convenience store at the airport...
... sells CBD hemp gummies. I thought you needed a prescription for those, but I guess not. And I guess THC is also available OTC if it's a low dose; only the higher dosages are rx.
We ate at Mauka Market.
It was really good.
Ogii had soup.
I had a burger.
Snacks.
They're offering an upgrade.
Although you bid on them, like for cruise ship cabin upgrades. Maybe I'd pay a few hundred, but not a minimum for $600.
A little bag.
With a sleeping mask, ear phones, and ear plugs.
We both got a window seat. Ogii likes to put her feet up.
Arriving in Osaka in the evening.
The bay.
There's a ferris wheel.
We were hoping to see the cherry blossom trees.
According to the maps, it's borderline.
T-Mobile has 5GB per month of international data. Usually that lasts about a week if we use it for Google Maps walking around and then connect to wifi at the hotels.
If we run out, this company is supposed to be good for cheap. It's only $2.60 per day.
Welcome to Kansai airport.
Very cute.
Now we have to go to the JR Ticket Office.
Down a nice hallway.
To the train ticket machines.
First the green one to print our pre-paid JR train passes to get between cities.
Then the blue one.
To buy Icoca cards for in-town buses and subways.
Now we need to get to the hotel.
I think this is our subway train.
Google Maps is great; it tells you which stops are along the way.
Except this isn't on our list. I guess I had us get on the wrong train. But it's OK; it's still going where we need to it, it's just the slower one with a few more stops along the way instead of the faster one that skips those.
Leaving the train station.
Looking back at it.
There are some statues out front.
Another one.
Mission accomplished: we found a cherry blossom tree.
Our hotel was only a few blocks away.
The rooms.
Good thing we arrived by check-in time.
They have hot spring baths, but the men's and women's are on different floors.
Our room was tiny.
As was the bathroom. But since all we were doing was sleeping and showering, that's fine.
The clock and radio seemed to be pretty old. The radio had preset stations.
This Namba neighborhood had some outdoor malls.
With many restaurants and entertainment venues.
The restaurants had fun 3D signs above them.
I liked the dragon with chopsticks.
This place has many anime games.
A fishing restaurant.
Although this one didn't have very good reviews. Ogii had found Zauo earlier, so we decided to go there instead.
Many places selling wagyu.
Tengu mask.
Italian.
Fun cat.
A motorcyle group. The first guy seems to have a ton of cameras.
I wonder how hard it was to get the 88-88 plate.
This looks like the entrance to a fishing restaurant.
Yep.
Neat old chair.
You can buy these seafood items.
But we wanted to fish.
Well, you don't really fish. There's no bait on the hook, so you just have to snag a fish.
I got one.
Ogii's turn.
She got one, too.
Holding up her catch.
The we sat at our booth while they cooked our fish.
There's a big boat in the middle.
Where an employee bangs a drum when someone on the boat catches a fish.
Other items you could order.
Ogii with our fish.
They were a bit small, but we weren't too hungry.
Fish swam right by us; I could have just grabbed one.
A Lamborghini.
There are many vending machines around.
They take all kinds of cards.
Up the next morning.
Uh oh, the time zone change broke our Wordle streak. We should have played it last night.
My home screen on my phone: calendar of events by day, post-it note of today's plan, task list of other things to do, exchange rate and common phrases, and weather.
Walking out through the mall area again.
It's empty now.
Well, almost empty. There are actually a few walkers, bicyclists, and cars that share the same path.
A giant boba.
Tiny area of tree and ground.
Burger King.
Movie theater.
No American movies.
Fun octopus.
We decided to have breakfast in the Oriental Hotel.
Their bathrooms.
I like their very modern men...
... and women signs.
A Brazilian steak house; I love those.
Many restaurants here.
We actually paid for the buffet at the hotel.
You're always supposed to pay in the local currency and let your credit card company do the exchange to dollars later. If you pay in dollars, you'll get a bad exchange rate and often also be charged extra fees.
Cute stuffed animals at the buffet entrance.
Many different items.
Mostly Japanese food.
More fish stuff.
Ah, here's the American section.
More my kind of food.
What we got.
A little card you can flip over to reserve your table.
Ogii got a poached egg.
Which was very good.
They had some pretty manhole covers on the street.
Many more stores.
Kitchen supplies.
Maid cafe.
We decided to take an Uber to our first stop.
They are very nice inside.
Bull mural.
We passed some cherry blossom trees.
Our fist stop: Shitenno-ji, the oldest temple in Japan.
At the entrance.
Google Translate is great for reading any info that's not in English. You just hold the camera up and it translates it instantly.
The area.
Inner entrance.
Ogii ringing the bell.
And washing her hands.
And spinning the prayer wheel.
Buddha.
Inside.
Trees and rocks.
More buildings to the side.
Ogii lighting incense.
Me placing one.
It opens at 9am, and the only other people there right then are other white tourists.
Inner area.
Us with a tall building.
Old underground structures.
Looking back at the central area.
Walking along the side.
Another building over here.
With a bell up top.
Some cherry blossom trees.
Surrounding a pool.
Ogii with them.
Many turtles.
Another building with a circle in front.
Another set of buildings.
With more trees.
Even more trees.
A shrine to Benzaiten. Because she's a river goddess, the shrine is surrounded by water.
Close up.
Ishigami-do shrine, dedicated to the god Gooson. Legend has it that when Shitennoji Temple was built, the cows that carried the stone and lumber used for construction materials turned into stone as soon as the temple was completed.
Kamei Fudoson, founded in 593.
With water.
And another bell.
Many small statues.
Shinran-shonin statue.
Which is a monument to world peace and the power of the atomic bomb.
Then just a short walk to our second stop, Isshin-ji Temple.
Another huge tree.
Large sculptures at the entrance.
Nice carvings on the doors.
Inside.
A little tree growing out the side of a large one which was cut down.
Main hall.
Better view of inside.
Some guys at the corners holding up this stone.
Northern area.
Another neat manhole cover.
Flower buds.
Our next stop is the Tsutenkaku observation tower. Just walk a few blocks towards it.
These fences had animal pictures if you were in the correct position.
Because the zoo is behind them.
The Tsutenkaku observation tower.
Funny picture for a restaurant.
And another one.
Pringles store.
Us with the tower.
Underneath.
Taking the elevator up the tower.
Nice view, looking towards the east.
There were signs pointing out landmarks.
Southeast.
South.
Another sign.
Southwest.
West.
Another sign.
Northwest.
Landmarks.
North.
Northeast.
Isshin-ji temple we were just in.
Wake bridge.
Zoo.
Great spot to paint an ad on your roof.
Giant octopus.
One of the shopping street radiating out to the south from the tower.
Another good ad.
The Minato Bridge and Akashi Kaikyo Bridges.
Very skinny parking building.
The Ferris wheel.
Another shopping street to the north.
The red and white Tokyo Tower and oval Ferris wheel Ebisu Tower.
That looks like a bell covering a rooftop water container.
Us.
You could go out on this observation platform.
It would take a picture of you that you could purchase, or, in our case, just swap photos with another couple.
Close up.
Then we headed down a few levels.
The different heights.
Pocky history.
Miniature.
At night.
Me in a billiken.
Ogii with Kinnikuman.
A little slide.
Store.
With many toy vehicles.
And candy.
Ogii wanted some eye drops, so we went to a pharmacy.
That looks like them.
It even says "for itchy eyes" in English.
And appears to be the highest strength.
Although the ingredients don't seem like anything in particular for itchy eyes.
Walking down one of the shopping streets.
Lots of art on the walls.
Another.
Bird and turtle.
This intersection...
... had a decorated building...
... at each of the four corners.
Last one.
Some of the nasal sticks.
Flower mural.
The Shinsekai ("New World") area has a retro vibe modeled after Paris and Coney Island.
Hawaiian Breakfast.
Island style cafe Limally Cafe.
This place was closed.
Because the store next to it had a fire.
Another market street.
This one was covered.
Interesting masks.
A classic ad for Oronamin C.
Ogii in a cutout of it.
I wanted to go down to this arcade.
We passed a Daiso.
It was two stories.
Double eyelid crease makers.
A book and magazine shop.
The porno mags don't have non-transparent covers over them like they do in the US.
Pretty animal mural.
Tattoo parlor. You don't see many of those here.
Another covered shopping area.
Here is my arcade.
They have many old games.
More.
This woman had a ton of coins for the coin pusher games.
Video poker in the back.
We got some tokens.
I played Street Fighter.
I still remember how to do all the moves.
Ogii played Tetris.
The Billiken statues are popular in Japan.
There were various game shops here: shooting.
Throwing stars.
And archery.
We felt sorry for the woman running the archery place because nobody was doing it, so we did.
Ogii's turn.
She hit the target and got a prize.
The taking another Uber/taxi back to our hotel.
We passed another shopping mall on the way.
And another.
Now time for some of that wagyu.
We got a lunch special.
With a few different meats.
Ogii cooked them.
Dessert.
Now time to take the subway.
Although we couldn't figure out which entrance to take.
Google Maps said it should be farther over, but nothing was there.
Let's just go down and see if we can find our platform.
Headed down.
Nice mural.
The maps is pretty complex; Google Maps is easier because it tells you which line to get on.
This seems like ours.
Waiting.
Done with a short ride and exiting.
The NHK Osaka Hall and the Osaka Museum of History are neat buildings.
A map of Osaka Castle.
A corner of it.
Us.
It looks like owners of these big fluffy white dogs had a meetup.
Entrance.
Gate.
With us.
Inner gate.
And another one across a bridge.
No water below this.
The wall had some massive stones.
Miraiza Osaka-Jo.
Is a shopping mall.
Osaka Castle.
With us.
You could pay extra to go in, but we decided to skip it.
A busker.
Catching blocks.
Some huge rocks.
Little flower about to bloom.
Ogii behind a cherry blossom tree.
Together.
A time capsule from 1970.
It actually has two identical time capsules, each with over 2,000 items. The first upper capsule was opened in the year 2000 and will be opened every 100 years after.
The lower capsule is to be opened in 5,000 years, so in 6970.
An upper park area.
With a view of the entrance.
Farther south.
Another tree.
With Ogii.
A view of the castle across a pond.
With Ogii.
A park to the west.
Various stages of blossoms.
Then taking the subway back.
They have colored lines on the floor to guide you.
A woman only subway car.
Another covered shopping area.
Cow parts.
Entrance to Hozenji Yokocho.
A moss-covered Fudo statue.
You splash water on for good luck.
An amusement factory.
With five floors.
Arcade.
Prizes.
More prizes.
More games. It was almost completely empty, though, so I wonder how they pay rent.
We were in Dotonbori, another area with tons of restaurants and stores.
Along with the 3D characters above the restaurants.
Wagyu.
Lots of it.
Even more.
Ogii and a cow.
Cat.
Dragon.
Crying dragon.
Famous people have eaten here, from former Prime Minister of Britain Boris Johnson to YouTubers.
Big crab.
Ukiyo Koji is a tiny alley with images of the area's past.
It has pictures of the Taisho and early Showa eras in the early 1900s.
Another picture.
Ogii near an older one.
3D signboard for Kushikatsu Daruma restaurant.
Ebisu Tower oval Ferris wheel, although it's not running now.
Very intricate 3D characters.
All kinds of different Kit Kats.
Dotonbori and Mt. Fuji.
Sake.
Strawberry and purple sweet potato.
Another huge crab.
A little river.
Which you can take a boat cruise on.
Glico Running Man.
Some singers.
A nightclub.
And a luxury bar.
A huge Don Quijote.
Six stories.
Packed with different stuff on each floor.
Luggage.
Colored contact lenses.
Alcohol.
This gold one is just under $800.
Sunglasses.
Second-hand luxury purses.
Watches.
An outdoors smoking area.
The signs look nice at night.
Sleeping cat sculpture.
A little pub.
Pretty entrances to a subway station.
The Amza1000 building.
Neat looking.
What's this pirate place?
A sports bar. Let's check it out.
Going up the elevator.
A spooky entrance.
With a pirate skeleton that talks.
Inside.
A view out the window.
We played some ping pong.
Then had pizza for dinner.
There were only two other people in there. I don't know how they can keep a place this huge in business with no customers.
Back to Namba by our hotel.
A hookah lounge with a cosplay theme.
We wanted to get messages here, but they were booked.
So we wandered over to this one.
It took a bit to figure out exactly which building it was in.
But then we finished the night with some relaxing massages.