School kids in line in front of Aquarium
We saw lots of rays
Crowded covered outdoor mall...
Looking up at Lumi Skywalk
A close up of floating escalators...
City view from Floating GardensOn day one of two, we returned to Osaka’s fascinating aquarium (which we had visited on our Ring of Fire cruise a few years back). They have amazing fish, sea anemones, penguins, sea otters, a sloth, spider monkeys, alligators, dolphins, and sharks…much more than any other aquarium we’ve ever visited. Our visit coincided with the departure of hundreds of uniformed Japanese school children. You’ve no idea how many children had invaded the facility and surrounding parkway.
Once again, we had a ferris wheel…this one was so close to our ship that guests on the starboard side forward could see the faces of the riders! Besides the ferris wheel, the aquarium, and a lovely three story mall within a 60-second walk from the ship, our location was on a very active river…all creating a wonderful two-day setting.
At 5:00 on our first evening, we joined twenty other passengers for an “Osaka by Night” tour. An amazing four hours were spent among the local inhabitants. We watched thousands of them shop, eat, scurry about, visit, and work (all men working late in the offices were wearing white shirts, ties, and dark pants). We were driven to an outdoor shopping mall…a very long covered street that is lined on both sides with small boutique shops, bars, restaurants, and pachinko parlors. We were turned loose and advised to be back at a specific street corner at 8:00 p.m. That gave us an hour and a half to explore. Jan found a fabric store and we made stops in two cell phone stores to ask if they could help her receive email on her phone. Unfortunately, when we exited one the second phone store, we must have taken a wrong turn, and found ourselves headed in the wrong direction in the mall. We discovered our error at around 7:25, and we found ourselves at least a mile from where we were expected to be in 30 minutes. Panic set in, and we began running (as best we could, at our ages) toward the meeting intersection (which, by the way, we evidently ran right past!). We stopped several Japanese (including 2 policemen), trying to get directions to make sure that we were going the right way. We ultimately found an American lady that verified that we were headed in the right direction, but that we still had a long way to go. We finally reached the tour group, eight minutes late and truly exhausted.
After hundreds of days on ships, and a like number of shore excursions…we found ourselves living our worst nightmare. We were late to get back when we pride ourselves in always being early. Fortunately our Cruise Specialists’ guests, George and Sherri Burke, were there and they knew there was something wrong with us being late (they had done the World Cruise with us in 2005 and knew how insistent Jan is about punctuality). The entire group and tour guide were all very forgiving (of course they could see our sweat and red faces). Hopefully we have crossed that on off of our Bucket List! And because you know Jan, you know she was determined to be back on time! Jerry was also, but he kept reminding her that we had another 24 hours before the ship departed, we knew how to get back to the ship, and we had plenty of yen to get us there (we still ran our little legs off).
Our stop at Osaka Castle was too far away from the building, and the castle was covered by trees, for photographs. But, Jerry’s photo of the surrounding moat and corner guard tower is lovely.
The piece de resistance was our trip173 meters above ground to the outdoor Lumi Sky Walk at The Floating Garden Observatory. It was amazing, but highly intimidating. Although our photos might not show it, we traveled up a 45-story completely glass elevator on the outside of one building. It was like we were transported through space to the upper levels of the skyscraper. Next, we walked onto a 3-story glass covered escalator that went from our building to a twin tower, over 200 feet away. The Observatory was a disk-shaped platform that was sitting between the two towers. The escalator was inside of a glassed-in tunnel, giving us the feeling that we were being transported on thin air as there was no visible flooring support below. That ride was one of the most unnerving adventures that either of us has even taken.
When we finally reached the second tower, a three floor hike up stairs took us to an open air observatory, which seemed to float in the sky above the glittering city below. We held onto each other as we ventured out into the darkness, hundreds of feet above the pavement below! The view was spectacular as you can see from Jerry’s photos.
Panic…we then realized that we had to get down from that disk in the sky. Jan suggested that we all talk and laugh as we retraced our steps down the glass-enclosed escalator and elevator…which she proceeded to do with a couple of the ladies of our group. Jerry managed to get back to the safety of the ground floor using his own method…he closed his eyes until he was back to earth. Both methods worked. After further analysis, we would do the trip all over again. It was absolutely exhilarating. “This building would never be acceptable by U.S. standards,” one guest, who was a civil engineer, offered. That is, perhaps, why several of our group decided not to venture to the top!
On our second day in Osaka, about 250 passengers disembarked and were replaced with even more people. Our numbers current are over 500 for segment 3. The Cruise Specialists’ group numbers 24 and we are thoroughly enjoying running into “family” around the ship. We are now bound for Nagasaki, after a much cherished day at sea.
Once again, we had a ferris wheel…this one was so close to our ship that guests on the starboard side forward could see the faces of the riders! Besides the ferris wheel, the aquarium, and a lovely three story mall within a 60-second walk from the ship, our location was on a very active river…all creating a wonderful two-day setting.
At 5:00 on our first evening, we joined twenty other passengers for an “Osaka by Night” tour. An amazing four hours were spent among the local inhabitants. We watched thousands of them shop, eat, scurry about, visit, and work (all men working late in the offices were wearing white shirts, ties, and dark pants). We were driven to an outdoor shopping mall…a very long covered street that is lined on both sides with small boutique shops, bars, restaurants, and pachinko parlors. We were turned loose and advised to be back at a specific street corner at 8:00 p.m. That gave us an hour and a half to explore. Jan found a fabric store and we made stops in two cell phone stores to ask if they could help her receive email on her phone. Unfortunately, when we exited one the second phone store, we must have taken a wrong turn, and found ourselves headed in the wrong direction in the mall. We discovered our error at around 7:25, and we found ourselves at least a mile from where we were expected to be in 30 minutes. Panic set in, and we began running (as best we could, at our ages) toward the meeting intersection (which, by the way, we evidently ran right past!). We stopped several Japanese (including 2 policemen), trying to get directions to make sure that we were going the right way. We ultimately found an American lady that verified that we were headed in the right direction, but that we still had a long way to go. We finally reached the tour group, eight minutes late and truly exhausted.
After hundreds of days on ships, and a like number of shore excursions…we found ourselves living our worst nightmare. We were late to get back when we pride ourselves in always being early. Fortunately our Cruise Specialists’ guests, George and Sherri Burke, were there and they knew there was something wrong with us being late (they had done the World Cruise with us in 2005 and knew how insistent Jan is about punctuality). The entire group and tour guide were all very forgiving (of course they could see our sweat and red faces). Hopefully we have crossed that on off of our Bucket List! And because you know Jan, you know she was determined to be back on time! Jerry was also, but he kept reminding her that we had another 24 hours before the ship departed, we knew how to get back to the ship, and we had plenty of yen to get us there (we still ran our little legs off).
Our stop at Osaka Castle was too far away from the building, and the castle was covered by trees, for photographs. But, Jerry’s photo of the surrounding moat and corner guard tower is lovely.
The piece de resistance was our trip173 meters above ground to the outdoor Lumi Sky Walk at The Floating Garden Observatory. It was amazing, but highly intimidating. Although our photos might not show it, we traveled up a 45-story completely glass elevator on the outside of one building. It was like we were transported through space to the upper levels of the skyscraper. Next, we walked onto a 3-story glass covered escalator that went from our building to a twin tower, over 200 feet away. The Observatory was a disk-shaped platform that was sitting between the two towers. The escalator was inside of a glassed-in tunnel, giving us the feeling that we were being transported on thin air as there was no visible flooring support below. That ride was one of the most unnerving adventures that either of us has even taken.
When we finally reached the second tower, a three floor hike up stairs took us to an open air observatory, which seemed to float in the sky above the glittering city below. We held onto each other as we ventured out into the darkness, hundreds of feet above the pavement below! The view was spectacular as you can see from Jerry’s photos.
Panic…we then realized that we had to get down from that disk in the sky. Jan suggested that we all talk and laugh as we retraced our steps down the glass-enclosed escalator and elevator…which she proceeded to do with a couple of the ladies of our group. Jerry managed to get back to the safety of the ground floor using his own method…he closed his eyes until he was back to earth. Both methods worked. After further analysis, we would do the trip all over again. It was absolutely exhilarating. “This building would never be acceptable by U.S. standards,” one guest, who was a civil engineer, offered. That is, perhaps, why several of our group decided not to venture to the top!
On our second day in Osaka, about 250 passengers disembarked and were replaced with even more people. Our numbers current are over 500 for segment 3. The Cruise Specialists’ group numbers 24 and we are thoroughly enjoying running into “family” around the ship. We are now bound for Nagasaki, after a much cherished day at sea.
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