Osaka: Tomato by 11.

Monday, 31st March, 2014.

After the luxury of the Nikko Kansai Airport Hotel, we were spending our next two nights in the quaintly-named Tomato Hostel in downtown Osaka.  While we couldn’t check in until 4pm, if we arrived by 11am, we could leave our luggage there.  If we didn’t make it by 11, we would have to cart our luggage around with us all day until 4.

Before we boarded the train for Osaka, we had to collect our JR rail passes, so we arrived at the JR office only to find a very slowly moving queue of about 700 people ahead of us. 

Half an hour had ticked by, but if we ran, we could catch an express train to Osaka which might just get us there in time.

We ran, found the right platform, the right destination, the right car and the right seats, with five minutes to spare.  Congratulating ourselves, we heaved a sigh of relief, and were surprised when the train stated straight away. Although everything else was right, we had managed to board the WRONG TRAIN – not the limited express, which would arrive in time, but the all-stations train, which wouldn’t.

However, a kind Japanese lady near us consulted her iPhone and worked out which stop would coincide with one of the express train’s four stops.  It just happened to be the one where we were, so we managed to tumble ourselves and our luggage out of the train in the nick of time and hurl us and it onto the express once again in the nick of time.  How exciting!

Here are some pictures of the way in to Osaka, taken from the slow train:  (The express was too fast for taking pictures.)

Every available square inch of land had been put to some useful purpose.  Neat rows of crops lined the railway.

 

Yes – cherry blossoms!

 

We made it!  Here are Fran and Carol outside the Tomato Hostel, with a couple of tomato banners to help with identification.  A bit of a contrast with the Nikko Kansai Airport Hotel.

 

Tomato Hostel, longer view.

The grass in the foreground of this picture is the base of a grassed earth flood levee.  On the other side of the levee is a broad park and then a river.  The Tomato Hostel is going to be one of the first places to go under if the levee breaks its banks.  This shot is taken from the top of the levee.

 

We were warned to take care if fishing from the top of the levee to avoid being electrocuted.

 

Looking over the top of the levee.

Beyond the park, you can see the river, which was thankfully looking disinclined to break over the top of the levee.

The twin-towered building on the other side of the river is the Umeda Sky Building, Osaka’s most dramatic piece of modern architecture, designed by Hara Hiroshi, who designed the famous Kyoto Station.

If ascending the tower, for the final five stories you take a glassed-in escalator across the open space between the two towers. 

We didn’t get to do this – to Carol and Frances’ relief, I think.

 

Yes, it’s spring time in Japan.

Outside the hostel, on a steep bank, fluttered a brave cheerful daffodil.

 

There was also a cherry tree!

 

I climbed over a railing and slithered down a steep bank to pose for this photo, while Frances risked her life standing in the middle of the road to take it.  Do you think it was worth it? 

(Carol says I look as though I have a beard, and that the cherry tree is growing out of the top of my head. Do you think she is being a little harsh?)