A crazy 24 hours in Osaka

If you’re going to have a wild night out in Japan then Osaka is a good option. And we just happened to be heading here on the afternoon of the Wales vs Australia Game…

We arrived in Osaka mid afternoon, and after a walk through Tennoji Park (where the rugby fanzone was, but unfortunately not open that day as the match wasn’t in the city) to our hotel in the Shin-sekai district it became abundantly clear that we had entered a very different world to the temples and culture of Kyoto we had just left. The district contains the Tsuten-kaku tower, which is sort of like a futuristic Blackpool tower, that was built in the 50s and has been left to rust since. The lonely planet described the area as “cutting edge” a century ago, but now it “mixes down-on-its-heels with retro cool”. Quite apt! The parts of Osaka that we saw were pretty wild. Huge neon signs, random cartoon graphics exploding from every wall against back drop sounds of laughter and Pachinko (Casino) machines. The streets were alive!

After settling in to our much more ordinary hotel we headed out to a ‘Hub’ bar, a chain of bars which we discovered a) were all across Japan (including Kyoto), b) are the perfect places to watch the Rugby and c) that half of the world’s Rugby watching population already knew this. We joined a huge contingent of Welsh supporters (definitely outnumbering the Aussies; partly as it was propped up with other home nations fans and Kiwis) and realised we were in for a treat of a game after a Wales drop goal 90 seconds in.

Over the next two hours we helped all our new best friends drink the bar dry as we watched Wales power to victory. The following food and karaoke bar tour (picking up new best friends as we went across the city) proved to be an excellent way of getting to know this crazy, fabulous city.

Funnily enough the next morning was the slowest start to the day of our trip so far. We did however, make it out to Osaka Castle for a late morning stroll. The castle is beautiful and is perched on top of hill with large castle walls, moat and gardens separating it from the rest of the city. It was a hot morning and we were enjoying the shade of the trees in the Citzens Forest when about 20 Japanese bird-watches got very excited by a brown bird in a tree near us. We obligingly got our cameras out and joined in with their bird paparazzi trail, as the bird hopped from one tree to the next. For all we know it was a sparrow…

That afternoon we said goodbye to Osaka and caught a train down the coast to Tanabe, a small seaside town that would be the starting point for our next adventure. We checked in to our very traditional Japanese overnight stop and headed out to the beach. The beach was empty and the sea (unlike the Canadian side of the pacific) warm. We swam and sunbathed on the beach as late afternoon turned to early evening. A relaxing end to a great, crazy 24 hours!