Before we are leaving for Kyoto, let’ have a quick look back at what happened yesterday.
In the morning we visited Osaka Museum of History. The permanent exhibition was quite fascinating, which was an unexpected and pleasant surprise. The reason for our visit was, of course, the temporary exhibition, though: “Evangelion and Japanese swords”. It was as weird and cool as it sounds.
We went shopping in the city afterwards. Window shopping, anyway, although I bought something at the Hello Kitty store that can pretty much be described as the embodiment of what we got to love about Japan so far. One word: Shogoki Kitty. That’s right. They made a Hello Kitty figurine that looks like my favourite giant robot (which is not cute at all and partly responsible for ending the world as we know it). Needless to say I bought one. This seems to be an integral part of everything here: Cute as can be, no matter what. Everything is cute, sweet, and pretty here. We also visited a store where they sell maid costumes. It was mindbogglingly surreal and pure awesomeness. Danie had to restrain herself from buying more than a sweet Victorian style umbrella. The blend of old and new, traditional and innovative, wild and organized, laid back and exploding with energy was absolutely spectacular in Namba (Osaka city center).
Dōtonbori canal
Plastic food display – extremely helpful if you don’t read Japanese and can just point to what you’d like
We opted for Okonomiyaki, a savory pancake and the local specialty
In the afternoon we went for a ride on the giant ferris wheel near Osaka port, which made for a very nice goodbye to a city that has been more than good to us.
Ferris wheel (obviously)