Japan Day 10 - Osaka Sky

Wow it's hard to believe I've been here 10 days already. It's gone by really fast. I'm having too much fun!

Today we took a trip to see several buildings in Osaka, which is about a 40 minute train ride away Kyoto. We took the Honshu line there instead of JR because its cheaper- only like 320yen ($3.20) oneway instead of 700ish to take a JR train there and the time difference is negotiable. We took the Honshu line for the first leg on Tuesday too.

The first stop in Osaka was to find 13 English subway maps which was a bit of challenge. We followed Stan around in a big circle around the Osaka Station looking for them. We finally found them close to where we started...

The first stop was to see The Osaka Sky building it by Hiroshi Hara the same Architect who designed Kyoto Station. Its facade was an interesting mix of materials- There was everything from granite to metal and concrete. Quite an interesting composition. We went up to the top "Sky Garden". Garden is a bit of a lie- it was just a cool observation deck. The only plants I saw was on the counter of the ticket counter. What makes interesting is the way you get to the top- You go up to the third floor in one tower then you take bridge across to the other tower where you take an elevator up the 35th floor which is where you by tickets. Then comes the coolest part- to get to the 39th floor you take an escalator up and over, back to the other tower. While you ride the escalator up you can look out and see the city all around you. the 39th floor had an indoor observation deck which wasn't a nice as the one in Hancock center in Chicago but it had a nice view of the city and of the escalators we just rode. The outdoor deck was two stories above that. It was quite windy up there and it was too cloudy to see very far but you could definitely get a sense of just how big Osaka was. Osaka is about the same size as LA. We had lunch in the building's food court which is down around the lush Garden.

Even though it was indoors it looked like a traditional Japanese street. We split up. It ended up that Me, Dusty and Stan all ended up at the same place. I had a Ramon noodles in a soy broth with rice. It was tasty and was one of the things I hadn't tried yet here. It was great deal at 500yen($5) for a very filling lunch.

After lunch headed to the next site was the Osaka Musuem of Art by Arata Isozak. It was a bit far to walk but wasn't far enough to take the subway... When we finally got there we were greeted by a closed sign. Its not a very big museum and it was closed while they changed exhibits. Most of the museum is underground to preserve the courtyard space above so we were only able to see the crazy metal pipe sculpture entrance.

The next site was Next 21 a Modular/living Residential project. It was designed so it would easy to change the project around and about every years they change the outer panels. The building looked very nice with all of the plants growing off it. For more information check out their website

The next site was further away. it was a public bathroom by Shuei Endo that Brandon wanted to see. On the way there we stop by a convenience store to buy drinks and I got something I hadn't seen before- it was Orange Fanta frozen in a bottle. Once it melts a little bit, you shake it and it turns into a slushy. It was good! On the subway platform while we were waiting by pure coincidence Stan ran into a former student of his who was touring Japan with two other people. Apparently they had tried to make plans to meet some time over our trip but hadn't worked out the details yet. They ended up traveling with us for the rest of the day.

The public Bathroom looked more like a cool piece of sculpture than your typical public bath. A few of the girls went in and used it and came out describing it as hell. So maybe great form doesn't lead to great function... It had traditional Japanese squat toilets and didn't have any toilet paper. to make matters worse some of them encountered mosquitoes too.

The final building of the day was to see a Shigeru Ban building that was nearby. While it was near by we didn't have firm direction on where it was exactly so it took a bit longer than could have. It was cool building. I don't know too much about Shigeru Ban but I'm now curious and looking up some more info.

We decided to have dinner as a group out in the main part of Osaka (I'm not sure exactly where we were because we took a bunch a subways there and back). I had a grilled chicken dish that was really good.

On the way back the Train back was packed full and this time it was us who were the squished sardines. luckily that only lasted until the next stop.

Now I'm back at the hotel working on sketch of my ideas to show Stan tomorrow. He wanted to meet with all tomorrow instead of Monday.

Photos Day 10