Well, there aren’t really any whales there, but the Osaka Kaiyukan Aquarium does have some really spectacular whale sharks in their enormous tanks for public display. I saw them this past weekend, when I spent the day with a group of other Japanese language students from the Osaka YMCA Gakuin on a field trip to [...]
Earlier today, just as the sun was setting, my brother and I set out to explore the Osaka Castle Park. I’d visited the park on several occasions before, but forgot how massive the park is—over 1.07 million square meters—and how majestic the castle appears, particularly when seen under a clear night sky. The best view [...]
I’ve talked with a lot of Japanese friends about how many bicycles there are in Japan. Osaka is littered with bicycles parked (illegally) here and there. Considering that bicycles are used by the vast majority of Japanese residents, it is not surprising to find that Japan is #3 in the number of bicycles in the [...]
Yesterday, I stopped at the McDonald’s restaurant in front of the Momodani train station for breakfast and to do a little bit of homework before heading to my Japanese class. What I’d failed to heed was the no parking sign for bicycles. It’s easy to overlook, as such restrictions are universally ignored. But it turns out that this area was to be “swept” of all unattended bicycles … this morning. (…)
