I’m tired of the city. The hustle. The bustle. The endless lines…

Where I am staying in Osaka is basically the city centre. The two stations Osaka and Umeda are connected by a hellish labrynith, guarded by a fierce and terrible beast…

Okay, so no Minotaur, but it’s true about the labrynith. There’s a department store reaching to the sky and endless interconnecting underground passages. Ground level is roads and crossings. There are skywalks and passages under roads. A million and one separate subway lines and then the JR (japan rail) station is separated into different places. exit points are hard to find, and GPS doesn’t work so well underground and hard to navigate without landmarks…

Basically, it’s crazy and tiring, and the million people are all doing it at the same time make a game of dodge ’em. I haven’t even done it in rush hour as well.

The city doesn’t have the clean feel that other places in Japan do. No one goes out to sweep the street, and there is constant bike traffic coming up behind you as you walk. Smokers at every corner, pedastrain crossings, and every vending machine and now vaping. Japan is really big on vaping, pop-up booths promoting certain brands, and in the shops just hanging on the shelves, with pretty models and fresh slogans.

Each department store has unique stores with ridiculous brand names and gimicks. Like the ferris wheel I rode this afternoon. With grand sweeping views of the station and some directions beyond.

There was the Jump store (Manga shop) and all sorts of unique fashion.

I found an orange juice vending machine. It was quite good. Sweet and chilled.

I was glad I chose to spend most of the day going out to the suburbs. But, I’ll leave that for another post.