Japan 5.5: Xmas lights in Osaka and the Reptiloid Kappa

   The next day was a hotel transfer, though I remained in Kyoto.  I wanted to stay at my first hotel for an entire week, but they only had two days.  Therefore, I decided to take the five days and book two days for elsewhere.  The second hotel was right in the geisha district near Hanimakoji.  The Japanese are strict with the 3:00 check in, so I dropped off my luggage and planned for a day in Arishayama.   

  A short walk from the station, I stopped at the tiny Tenryu-ji Temple.  I thought that this would be an entire complex, but instead, it was a corded off tiny shrine.  I used google translate to translate the sign, then took a screenshot of it, and then rotated it.  I had to rotate it because Japanese writing is vertical, and Google Translate wrote it out sideways.  In any case, it is a shrine to electric and radio waves.

  It was drizzling, and as I approached town, there was a rainbow overhead.  I visited this region in 2017, to see the bamboo forest and monkeys on the mountain.  I planned to potentially visit them again, but with the weather uncertain, I decided to first visit the main reason I returned here.

  Mayumura is a shop that specializes in creating small figures out of silk cocoons.  It is found by walking down a narrow alleyway.  Most of the figures were of animals, such as turtles, cats, dogs, and dragons.  However, in one corner was a type that i could not identify.  I went up to the shopkeeper, and asked, in Japanese, what it was.  She responded with a term I was unfamiliar with.  Not sure if I had to translate it or not, I asked for her to write it down for me.  I used the translator app with her writing, and it matched what she said.  "Kappa."  According to Wikipedia, a Kappa is a reptiloid kami with similarities to yokai in Japanese folklore.  I learned something new.

  It began to pour outside, so I decided to simply return to my hotel room.  The new hotel room did not have a desk, so like what I had to do at the first Kyoto hotel, I created a makeshift desk with the laptop elevated to eye level.  

The bed was the width of the room.

  That night I decided to head out to Osaka to view Christmas Lights.  I decided on visiting Osaka City Central Public Hall, as online resources showed that it would be lit.  Osaka Castle was on my radar, but as I was leaving late, I did not believe that I would also be able to reach Osaka Castle in time to see their illumination display.

  I took the train into Osaka-Umeda Station.  The nearby alleys and shopping malls were interesting.

  I crossed the Oebashi Bridge, to Osaka City Hall.  The path just beyond it was lit with blue lights, leading to the Central Public Hall.  Even though the official Osaka Christmas Market was cancelled, there were tons of market stalls.  

Here you could see the public city hall.  Rather than being lit up, like the pictures online suggested, patterns were projected onto its front.

There was this strange person, pushing a Christmas tree on wheels, with their two dogs on board.

  The path continued, with odd items lit up.

  The lights ended near this spiral, which I walked up, on my way to the train station.  The next day was Christmas itself, and Christmas tradition demanded that I head to Kyoto Station and map out my travel path to Fujiyoshida, which I would be making the following day.  The transfer would involve 4 trains, after I took the subway from my hotel to Kyoto Station.  I also made reservations for my trip to Tokyo afterwards, and then the train to the airport.  I also made sure to trace the path from the subway's entrance to the bullet train, via a path that would allow for elevators for my luggage.

The view from outside the ticket office where I made my reservations.

  A short walk from Kyoto Station is Higashi Hongan-ji Temple complex.  This was am assive and free place to explore.  I had to take off my shoes and place them in a plastic bag in order to enter the insides.  I took a picture of the first shrine inside before a guard stopped me, instructing me not to take photos.  To be fair, I saw no sign restricting it.  Since my camera is silent, he assumed I had not been able to take any pictures.  He assumed wrong.

  My plan was to go next to a handicraft shop, named Isuke, but I planned poorly, as it was shown as closed that day.  I decided to walk back to my hotel, stopping at the gardens with the Boka-kaku Pavillion.

Random building along the way.

Random street north of the gardens.

  With encouragement from home, I decided to head out that night to Osaka Castle.  I paid for the Illumination event ahead of time, for speedy access.  Unfortunately, the Illumination was absolutely tiny and uninteresting.  I was also under the impression that it directly involved the castle, but it did not.  The display took place in the gardens of the moat enclosed castle complex.  Luckily, I was still able to visit the outside of the castle, which was lit nicely, albeit not in a holiday style.  Osaka Castle was destroyed by the Tokugawa shogunate in the early 1500s.  This replacement castle was built around 1930.

  Just outside Osaka Castle had an odd building just next to it.  It looked like a hotel.  I looked it up afterwards, and it is described as a shopping mall in a "chic complex...featuring restaurants, bars, and samurai and ninja themed stores."  I imagine that this is exactly what the original architects of Osaka Castle had eventually intended to add.

  I read about a Harry Potter display at the Grand Front Osaka shopping mall.  Despite not having an interest in Harry Potter, it sounded weird enough that it would be worth checking out.  After walking to the nearest train station, it was a quick three stop trip back to Osaka-Umeda station, to see this.  Every twenty minutes a little light show took place.  After waiting for it, I was thoroughly unimpressed.

  I was hungry, and so walked over to a nearby popular ramen chain, Ichiran.  Unfortunately, the line was out the door and around the corner.  I said, "Nope." to that, and took the train back to Kyoto.  

  Just near the train exit, I decided to check out a very small, local curry shop, named Pontocho Yakuzen Curry.  It was actually very difficult to find.  Google Maps showed the wrong location, and I had to follow clues from reviews, as well as pictures people had taken, in order to find it.  When I walked in, a woman was eating, but shortly after, I had the entire place to myself.  I order chicken curry, but decided that I wanted to have a second curry, this time vegetable.  The owner tried to explain that there wasn't more rice.  He eventually used a translator device to explain that he would have to make more and asked if I was ok with waiting.  I was.