photoblog

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The busiest place in Osaka - Dotombori

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The previous post in this series is here..

After being kicked out of Katsuoji temple right when they closed, we were lucky enough to get two taxis to take us straight to the busiest place in Osaka. It took us more than an hour in evening traffic to get there.

Katsuoji folks were ruthless. They did not allow us to use restrooms there as they closed the temple on time. One car had to do a restroom stop at a store on the way in busy traffic. Japanese drivers also are very strict about time = money. Eventually we all got there to the same location, a bridge with a mural on it.

Almost all of Osaka seemed to have converged there! It was really busy with so many folks. The river front had boat rides which we decided to skip. We walked through the streets and saw the restaurants.

We were looking for anything vegetarian. The kids were already like “another Indian place?” and I said “why not?”. There was one place which was like a Bhavikas that was highly rated. We had to go through some small stairs to get to it and it was a small space with 16 to 18 seats tops and every seat filled up while we were there.

The food was amazing! Even the kids agreed. After a nice meal, we walked back to the busy streets. It was time to head back to the Toyoko Inn in Osaka Namba for one last night of stay.. We did stop by at the busy streets and take photos with the night lights before closing out a busy travel day…

Here are some photos from a memorable evening.

I thought the photo in front of the Glico mural was great. Then Jr. told me “the insta spot in on a different bridge Appa!”. San was like so what? My reaction was “When we told our kids that they have to go around pulliyaar ummachchi clockwise, they didn’t argue. Today we shouldn’t argue when told that the photo has to be on a different bridge. There are rules in the Insta world and we have to respect them now!”

The same ladies who said there is absolutely no room for any more food at the Indian restaurant, stopped by this place which sold some kind of fruity kuzhi paniyaaram. They finished it between them and acted like it was no big deal. That has been put in deep memory. I ate half an extra butter naan to not waste it. It is water under the Dotombori bridge now..

A video highlights reel of our time at Dotombori river front..

This place was busy and noisy but an incredible experience!

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The cherry blossoms - reason for the whole trip

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Previous post in this series is here..

It was 3PM when we came out of the Shinkansen to Osaka station. We were seeing on social media that we were already a week late and the Cherry Blossoms were already on their way to falling off. By the time we reached Kyoto and Tokyo, there would be no blossoms. So if we wanted to see them in Osaka, there was one place on the hill to go see them. The Katsuoji temple!

It was an hour by car and they closed on the dot. We decided to grab two taxis again and just made a dash to the temple. An hour later we were dropped off outside the temple. There was a line for tickets. Yet again, Jr. came to the rescue by buying the tickets from her phone as we were going to the place. We went straight in with the “web tickets”. The temple is just beautiful. The cherry blossoms were still there. The whole place was surreal and immaculate. There were cute mini versions of the shinto gods everywhere.. placed on rocks, trees, in the water..

There were six locations which had stamps in different colors. You got a card at the entrance. If you put all stamps on them, you got a nice composite picture with the stamps. We made it to all the spots in the map, got the stamps and were literally the last visitors to be kicked out of the temple complex. We were all tired but happy. It was nice and cool in the hill. There were still a few taxis waiting. So we were lucky to get two taxis to go to our next destination.

Way too many photos post edit. Have created two galleries..

Portrait gallery

The final image after we stamped the card in all six locations.. The best one is mine as I used multiple alignment marks like a real integration engineer would!

Here is a short video of Katsuoji temple visit..

We were all happy at the end of the entire trip that we decided to go up to this temple even after an all day Hiroshima visit. We never saw Cherry blossoms like this after that day in Kyoto or Tokyo.

Our day was not over. The temple closes at 5:15 sharp. We got out at 5:14 PM. There was an hour plus drive back towards busy streets. Will pick it up in the next post..

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A history lesson in Hiroshima- A must see place for all Americans

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The previous post in this series is here..

Our day 2 in Japan started early. There were enough vegetarian options for breakfast at the Toyoko Inn. They also had Croissants. Only thing missing was chai. We always had instant packets of Wagh Bakri ginger chai and that made up for it. They even had a free machine that dispensed hot cocoa. It was nice. Once everyone was ready we made it to the train station. Till that point we had only been on local trains.

This morning we were on the Shinkansen from Osaka to Hiroshima. It was a long ride but the speed of the train and the timing to the second was just amazing! Thoroughly enjoyed the ride. Once at Hiroshima, we decided to go see everything by ourselves. There was a 20 minute ride from the train station to the center. We found a seven seater van to hire for this. (if you are a group of 4-6 chose this option in Japan. It is value for money but usually available only from train stations or on Uber apps. you can’t wave it down like a taxi)

It was a grim reminder of how low humans can go and also how folks can redeem themselves. There are lot of idiots in positions of power today with bloated egos. It does not bode well for the world.

We walked around all the memorials and museum. Decided to skip the boat ride. It was cloudy but you could feel the heat and humidity. Then we went to the Castle as the last stop. It was another interesting experience. Finally we made it to a marketplace.

Jr. had found an “insta” famous restaurant. When we went there it was closed! So we found another vegan place close by and decided to eat there. Given my allergies and it being the first time we were eating out, I skipped and sipped lemonade. Later we went to a bakery and got a lot of different breads including a cheese bread that I loved. The breads were different and so soft. Imagine bread that pulls off like soan pappadi! Just lovely.

Here are the photos..

After lunch it was time to catch the Shinkansen back to Osaka. So we took two taxis. At the very first light the two went in different directions. We knew it was a 25 minute ride from where we started. Good thing is we could track each other on the iPhone and catch up. More photos..

We walked by a Yoga studio in Hiroshima on our way to the train station. Given how Bikram had started teaching in Japan, I was interested in seeing the studio where he taught. We talked to a local guide and were pleasantly surprised to hear “in Japan, yoga now has a negative connotation. Ever since an organization bombed a train station with Sarin nerve gas and folks in that organization did yoga, we as a culture do not look up to it.. that is also the reason we don’t have dust bins everywhere. you have to carry your own trash back home! that organization used trash cans to leave the bombs”.. So we learned a few things on this trip!

A video highlight reel..

The return ride was a blur. Everyone was dozing off on the high speed train. When we came back to Osaka, it was a little after 3PM.

Decisions had to be made by weary travelers. Tough decisions.. but we made a great call.. that in the next post.

Copyright © 2012, Sundar Narayanan. All rights reserved.