October Asia Trip - Part 2 - Osaka, Japan

I arrived at the Osaka Airport the evening of October 11th. After collecting my baggage I bought a ticket for the JR train, the express "bullet train" that goes from the airport to the center of Osaka and on to Kyoto. In order to ride the express train, you purchase a regular ticket plus an "express" ticket for an extra 1150 yen. Somewhere between purchasing the ticket and before the conductor came to stamp tickets my express ticket disappeared. While I had a receipt showing that I had purchased both tickets, they wanted the actual ticket, not just the receipt. I hadn't converted any cash yet, and they didn't accept credit cards, and just when I was afraid that they would haul me off in chains, a kind Japanese lady who spoke English offered to take my American dollars and give me the required amount. I was very grateful for her kindness and will look for opportunities to help visitors to America to pay her back.

My hotel in Osaka was the Laforet Hotel, which is adjacent to the train station, within walking distance.

Here are some pictures of the view outside my hotel room.






I spent Monday in my hotel as it was a national holiday and I had lots of work to do. I also had time to nap and recover a bit from jet lag, and went for a walk around noon to see the neighborhood. There was a lovely doll at the train station.

I was also amused when a small Japanese child noticed me and pointed me out to his mother. It's a bit of a twist to be the stranger that is different and gets noticed.

My hotel wasn't a typical American tourist hotel, but catered more to Japanese business travelers, and so the experience was quite different than I expected. The staff was very gracious. The lobby contained some beautiful flowers - the yellow blooms were unusual and quite striking. The lobby was also immaculate and spacious.




The area around my hotel is a major intersection, with the Shin-Osaka train and subway station close, so there was a lot of traffic. The sidewalks between the station and the hotel were elevated, as were the highways. I found out later that the "regular" streets were on the lower level. You can see some of that in the next set of pictures.







I took a taxi to the office on Tuesday. Japanese taxis are nice and tidy with lovely doilies on the seats to keep them and you clean.




The Japanese also drive on the other side of the road. Here are some shots from the back of the taxi. There were also many people on bikes - school children, people on their way to work, shopping, etc. Most cyclists rode on the sidewalk, especially the school children.







Close to the office is a tennis club - the building design is shown in this shot:



On the first trip to the office, the driver stopped on a small street in front of a shop that looked like a car mechanic or welding shop. He was quite puzzled and had to finally call someone to find out where the office was. It turned out to be on the other side of the block, and we had to go around, as there was no way to get through the block. The 2nd day, the driver did the same thing, but this time I knew where I was and indicated that we had to go around the block. I'm not sure that he believed me until we pulled in the driveway of the office and I pointed to the sign and said "AKT!"

The area surrounding the office is quite industrial, but there are occasionally blocks which are planted in rice.


After working in the office all day the Japan Sales Team took me out to dinner, where we were served "shabu-shabu." Before entering our room, we removed our shoes. The room had tatami mats on the floor, and a low table, which, luckily for me, had a space underneath so that I didn't have to sit on my feet. The waitresses were clad in kimonos. Shabu-shabu literally means "swish-swish." Thin slices of beef were swished briefly in a pot of boiling water or broth and then dipped in a sesame or soy sauce. We also ate various kinds of vegetables which were cooked in the broth - onions, carrots, tofu, and even slices of pumpkin. Both rice and flour noodles were cooked in the broth and eaten, as well as steamed rice. Dessert was "maroon" ice cream - ice cream made with slices of chestnuts.






On the 14th I also worked in the office. At noon we went to a noodle restaurant about 10 minutes from the office. On our return we walked through a park or green-belt area, where we saw some local kindergarten classes on a field day. We also saw lots of pretty flowers and some fountains that have water in them during the spring, but were dry at this time of the year.






One interesting difference in both Korea and Japan is the arrangement of buttons on an elevator. I was on the 14th floor in Seoul and on the 11th floor in Osaka. Here's a shot of the elevator buttons in Osaka:


My first reaction was to wonder where the button for my floor was, until I figured out the arrangement went from bottom to top in 2 columns.

The sales team also took me out to dinner on Wednesday night, to an Italian restaurant. I didn't take pictures, but the food was Italian with a Japanese twist. For example, one of the appetizers consisted of eggplant slices topped with cheese and tomatoes, but done up to look like sushi.

On Thursday I checked out of my hotel and took the bullet train back to the airport. I was careful to make sure that I had both tickets - the regular and express tickets. As I was departing during the day I was able to get pictures of the train.





I enjoyed seeing the city and country between Osaka and the airport. There were many industrial areas, but also apartment buildings with balconies where the people hang their clothes and bedding to dry. Other areas gave views of city streets and buildings. As we got farther outside the city there were also many rice fields, several of which were being harvested.






The flight from Osaka to San Francisco took around 9 hours, and after a brief layover the flight to Boston took another 6 hours. I arrived home at 10:30 PM on October 15th, and woke up to snow the next day, with more on Sunday.