kỷ sở bất dục vật thi ư nhân.: Sweet Osaka

I intended to save the best for last, means leaving Osaka to be the city I told about at last after our Japan trip. However the busy life throw me up with the busy things, and till now finally I can summarize my days in Osaka, and the memories are still there, as sweet as it is like yesterday...

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On March 30, we left Seki for Osaka. We arrived Nagoya – Tsubakicho around noon time and took shinkasen to Osaka. It was an hour and 30 minutes long trip. Osaka station is an amazing station with so many people and traffic. There we were so warm meeting our old handsome friend, Teratani-san, who opened a sweet stay for us in beautiful Osaka.

FUKUSHIMA

We spent about 15 minute walk from Osaka station to the apartment where we would stay. Fukushima is clear with much fresh air. The streets are all very clean with colorful flower plants in front of the houses. At the traffic light, when the sign for pedestrians cross the road, we can hear the sound of cuckoo together with the green light. I am impressed with that design. It can help the blind as well as remind us on our absent minded waiting for the green so long. We don’t see many houses; instead all are the shops and restaurants, and buildings. The building we lived is Osaka Fukushima Tower, a 45 floor building, where we lived in Japanese style apartments and one modern apartment.

Dinner at Teratani-san home

Teratani-san and his lady treated us so well with a lot of tasty food. She made so many foods to serve all of us that we feel rather guilty giving Teratani-san family a hard time. JI have tried how to make a … cake. It is a cake made by a mixture of powder and a lot of additions that I can’t remember. The way to cook is the quite the same with our Vietnamese banh xeo but it is less oily, more powder, and to me tasted better than banh xeo. We all love our beautiful Hitomi-san so much.

Osaka Aquarium

At 9am March 31, Teratani-san and Hitomi-san brought us to Osaka Aquarium in Chikko – Kaigandori – Minato-Ku. It was a sunny day. We used tramway from Fukushima to Kaigandori, and arrived the aquarium at 9:40 am. The entrance ticket is about a thousand yen/an adult. The ticket is cute with the little sea lion. I can’t imagine such the size of the aquarium. For 7^th floor, there display the show of river otter, waterfowl, sea otter, sea lion, ring-tailed coati, capybara, penguin, dolphin. On 6^th floor, we can see a wide range of fish in Pacific Ocean. On 5^th floor they display penguins and fish in coral reef. Especially, in 4^th floor we can observe the show of diver communication in huge water tank. There are also the shows of ringed seal and rock hopper penguin twice a day.

The way the Japanese do the aquarium is worth admiring. They try to bring as much nature as possible to a fixed building. You can see the seal happily swimming, jumping, and circling in joy instead of sadly sit in their cages like we normally see. I even can witness two seals kissing each other. Wow. Things are so real. The ocean fish are in a huge size that will shock you. The variety of animals will make you surprised. And the penguins, how amazing the way they react. So lovely. We were so impressed with the huge blue shark, which is the amazing symbol for Osaka Aquarium.

Osaka Castle

The next day, April 1, we head to Osaka castle. The weather that day was very cold, about 10oC. We took train to Chuo-Ku. The place welcomes us by plenty of cherry blossom. Flowers everywhere. W pass by a typical Japanese garden that stole my heart with the pure arrangement. Osaka castle located high some distance up the park. As it was in the afternoon, we had no time to reach the castle. But walking around the area did bring us peaceful feeling by the high big trees, yellow leaves carpeting the ground. The landscape is so beautiful, a beauty of peace and made you sad and recall of the good things. Crows everywhere. They are as big as a hen. Their shape on high trees print on the sky. Crow sad sound make you feel sad. Now I know why the “Norwegian Wood” novel was condensed with the image and the sound of crows.

In the park, under the cherry trees, groups of Japanese gather to have dinner or drink wine happily until midnight.

Umeda Mall

Leaving Osaka castle, we have some time visiting Umeda shopping mall. The mall has a very bright display. We see so many luxury items on fashion, cosmetics, just window shopping as they all have very high prices. Umeda also has area of food court and fruit selling. To tell the truth, I did want to buy everything if I have enough money. Mom and Dad was impressed by the modern of the city looking out the street from Umeda station. J

Those more than a year has passed, the memory about Osaka with the family of Teratani-san, Hitomi-san and their daughter, is still remaining sweet and lively in our heart with much appreciation.