Voyage Junkie

On our second day of adventure in Osaka, we decided to head south to the port.  It was remarkably sunny and hot early in the day, so we were very happy we had chosen to spend the day inside various attractions.  First on the list: Osaka Maritime Museum, a huge glass globe structure set out on the water across from a working pier.  Talk about visually stunning!  We arrived at the subway station and took a leisurely walk to the museum entrance, marveling at the glistening water, port activity, and fish jumping out of the water.  To the left is a photo of a Chinese ship being unloaded.  On the far right of the photo are three cylindrical towers.  They are trash incinerators, making power for Japan out of trash.  You can't see it in this picture, but their tops are golden, and they shine beautifully in the sun. To get to the museum, you walk underwater, where you can see through into the sea at various points.  The museum itself is a spe...

For our first day in Osaka, we decided to see historical sites.  We had quite a day rushing around trying to see everything on time, mostly because Osaka is a crazy city that is impossible to navigate.  At every turn our maps would be wrong, showing sites in completely different places than they were in reality, causing us to wander in circles.  That was the most frustrating part of Osaka for us.  Osaka is definitely the most oddly laid-out and confusing city we've visited.  That's not to say it's all bad.  We met some nice people, were upgraded for free in our hotel room (they threw in a kitchen, dining area, big TV, and washer), and the subway system is actually very fast and direct. We were able to visit an inordinate amount of sites because we bought day passes to the city.  For 2,000 yen a day we could ride the subway as much as we liked and visit 27 sites for free.  There were also 15 sites we could visit at a discount, and coupons to use...