The Great Escape

I finally managed to escape from the hotel and enjoy a day in Osaka without getting soaked.

I met up with Naka and Tsubasa again after I realised that today wouldn't be a good day for riding and we spent the day on the town. We were all quite hungry so we went out for a traditional Osaka Okonomiyaki lunch together. The food was great and the beer was ice cold - a perfect lunch on a hot steamy day.

Continuing with our sightseeing we went to Nanba in southern Osaka and paid a quick visit to Hozenji temple. There are three statues there and you can splash water on each of them. I gave it a go with an, "Ole!" for good measure. Apparently this temple is quite famous though I had never heard of it.

Following that, we went to Dotonbori where we crossed the famous Nampa-bashi (pickup bridge) and I took a photo posing as the Glico man. On the bridge we were interviewed for Kansai Television about recent news that had caught our interest. The reporter presented a list of stories but truthfully, I wasn't interested in any of them. Being a foreigner, perhaps the reporter thought I'd be interested in the car crash in Utah. Anyway, I simply said that the typhoon (#4) and the bad weather was what I am currently most interested in. Hey, it may be boring but when you are on a bicycle, it's the weather that counts!

Next I will take the train across Osaka to the far side of Kobe (I'm not riding my bike here - the drivers here are lunatics!). Hopefully I'll find a nice place to camp out for the night and then get an early start tomorrow morning.