17 degrees,
sunny and glorious
The ship stayed overnight last
night in Kobe so we didn’t have to worry about arriving late. Today started off
a million times better than yesterday. In fact, it seemed that yesterday’s gong
show turned some people off and many bailed on the morning’s excursion. The
last 3 groups (ours being one of them) were combined into one with only 14
people and 2 guides – jackpot!!
Our tour today
was in Osaka which apparently is Japan’s third largest city. Osaka is closer to Kobe than
Kyoto was yesterday and the traffic seemed light – we travelled from the port
about an hour before reaching Japan's oldest Buddhist temple in Shitennoji-Temple.
The grounds of this temple were founded in the sixth century but the buildings
have been repeatedly reconstructed because of earth quakes and other disasters.
We arrived just as a monk was performing a memorial ceremony – very
interesting.
Each temple we visit in every different
countries (and we’ve visited a lot) seems to have something slightly different
from the others. This one had 4 wheels under the west gate of the temple that
could be turned/spun. Spinning one of these wheels was considered as being
worth reading a section of the holy text – interesting.
Next we visited Osaka Castle. The castle
is set on a large area of land with various buildings. The main attraction was
the central castle building. This is an 8 story building the top being an observation
deck. Most of the inside of the castle has been turned into a museum.
Once we were done in the castle we
wandered the grounds a bit which were hopping with activity. There were buskers
and tons of food stalls. I got a squid on a stick and a beer. The squid was deep
fried, but not breaded, very delicious and although sprinkled with salt was
slightly sweet.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEdonyhKt-mWswPmkIFkXan0Ez_1edXllKs0VinS9l4SeUkXGp9nE4BcgqMHFjDoO0lYaW4K26WExcwhBt5Hkw1XEonmyAt6CRe2VSCWZCiNhxe5rKe3TkT9qLwPu6ohTq_1L2Zg/s320/IMG_2300.JPG) |
squid - minus a couple of bites |
Our tour ended with about an hour before
we were scheduled to sail to Tokyo so we took the opportunity to use the cruise
terminal wifi. I’ve said throughout the cruise how good the ship’s wifi is –
it’s all what you’re used to…the terminal wifi was lightning fast!
Our sail away was another wonderful
farewell by the locals. There was a band and a bunch of people on the outside
of the terminal to send us off – they were waving and like mad (so were we) and
some had giant hands they were waving.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCAe0P-ElCKsorXyDGR2nVugjZuf44ZrrJtZ-qny8JeN0SvHjWe_8A0WTsrE3mdRhIpp44cbFlNc6xU3M6FRgdG_JcqJ2Kawo14nfcIcA_v3a0hra_LwJNgT3YRyo2AAPopAaVEA/s320/IMG_2307.JPG) |
very proud of myself |
We have been very successful this trip
acquiring small trinket souvenirs that we will use for Christmas tree ornaments
and today was no different. What was different today was something else that
was for sale…ear picks…I thought the only thing that was supposed to go in your
ear was your elbow – kind of gross and probably not too good for your ear. One
of those will NOT be coming home with me for the tree!!
One of the 2 guides today liked to tell
jokes, here’s one…What’s the difference between a snow-man and a snow-woman?
Snowballs – haha! When he told the punchline, I completely didn’t get it until
I realized he said snowBALLS and not snowBOARDS – it was a bit of an ESL moment. There were a couple of others, but one is a bit too offside to write
down.
The Japanese
washrooms continue to fascinate me…the one I used at the Castle had all the
bells and whistles that I’ve come to expect from a Japanese toilet…’shower’ as
our guide called it, warm blowing air, scent and sound. What was new was a baby
‘holder’. This was a gizmo attached to the wall next to the toilet that a baby
could sit in, it kind of looked like a small high chair without the table and
legs – seemed brilliant to me.
3 comments:
What did the squid taste like?
OMG I'm laughing out loud at work. That joke is awesome.
I need to place an aliexpress order for ear picks. Apparently you can get them for your keys. HAHA
Well done on buying the street food. You are all grown up now, Lisa. :-). It looks yummy!
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