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I have posted 20 shots taken on our first day in Japan. You can see all of them in the DPNow gallery and I have included a selection in this post.We flew to Osaka and stayed at the New Otani hotel which is in a business district of the 2nd City of Japan. We landed at 8AM and we were greeted with heavy rain and grey skies!
Above was the view from our hotel room looking south.
The big structure near the hotel across the canal is the Osaka Jo Hall - a 16,000 seat indoor arena used for concerts and sports events. 'Jo' means 'castle' and is so named because in the background is Osaka Jo (Osaka Castle) which dates back to 1583.
This is a closer view of the castle.
The present castle structure is a modern construction replica of the main tower completed in 1997 after the rest of the castle variously burned down in various conflicts over the centuries and while rebuilt much of the castle was destroyed during WW2.
Closer view at night
By lunch time the rain had gone and the sun arrived. A working lunch was followed by a visit to down town Osaka.
The famous Yodabashi electrical and electronics department store - it has a very large camera department.
Back-lit Osaka side street
A famous chain of restaurants specialising in spider crab - the big model on the front of the building moves, by the way!
Quite common around Japan and especially so in Namba in central Osaka are shopping arcades formed from side streets that have been completely covered over.
Shop decorations can be quite ambitious!
A speciality of the Osaka region, this is Takoyaki
Takoyaki it starts off like a pancake and then the filling is added; chopped octopus (Tako) and other ingredients. The pancakes with filling are then formed into balls using a special hot mould and served with various sauces. They are very tasty but they are served steaming hot
We had some in Tokyo too!
And here is one of the people who cooked and served our Takoyaki
Finally, part of our very tasty dinner to round-off day one.
Ian
Above was the view from our hotel room looking south.
The big structure near the hotel across the canal is the Osaka Jo Hall - a 16,000 seat indoor arena used for concerts and sports events. 'Jo' means 'castle' and is so named because in the background is Osaka Jo (Osaka Castle) which dates back to 1583.
This is a closer view of the castle.
The present castle structure is a modern construction replica of the main tower completed in 1997 after the rest of the castle variously burned down in various conflicts over the centuries and while rebuilt much of the castle was destroyed during WW2.
Closer view at night
By lunch time the rain had gone and the sun arrived. A working lunch was followed by a visit to down town Osaka.
The famous Yodabashi electrical and electronics department store - it has a very large camera department.
Back-lit Osaka side street
A famous chain of restaurants specialising in spider crab - the big model on the front of the building moves, by the way!
Quite common around Japan and especially so in Namba in central Osaka are shopping arcades formed from side streets that have been completely covered over.
Shop decorations can be quite ambitious!
A speciality of the Osaka region, this is Takoyaki
Takoyaki it starts off like a pancake and then the filling is added; chopped octopus (Tako) and other ingredients. The pancakes with filling are then formed into balls using a special hot mould and served with various sauces. They are very tasty but they are served steaming hot
We had some in Tokyo too!And here is one of the people who cooked and served our Takoyaki
Finally, part of our very tasty dinner to round-off day one.
Ian
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