The first chapter of our W.T.F Japan Tour Preview
“It’s been a good 5 years since I have been overseas and I am bursting at the seams with excitement to go. Japan is the perfect destination to release the pent up need to explore the world – what better way to do it than a whirlwind trip of the craziest country on the planet?” Jesse ‘King Frog’ Perez Feb 2011
W.T.F Japan Tour: Osaka Preview
First Stop – March 11th / 15th
Osaka is Japan’s 3rd largest city by population after Tokyo (and Yokahama) and it’s located at the mouth of the Yodo River on Osaka Bay. It use to be referred to as the “nation’s kitchen” because it was the centre of trading for rice, creating the first modern future exchange market in the world.
Historically it’s the commercial capital of Japan, evident by the ratio between daytime and night time population of 141%, the highest in Japan. Its night time population is 2.6 million, the third in the country, but in daytime the population surges to 3.7 million in the city itself. Lots of busy bees working away and then retreating at night as it were.
We’ll be in Osaka for 5 days, during that time we’ll be heading out to Kyoto and a few other local regions. I actually know very little about Osaka, but one of the big draw-cards in Osaka is the imposing and world famous Osaka Castle (it’s less than a kilometre from our hotel) built way back in 1580.
So expect to see Dan, Jesse and I leaping around the grounds pretending to fight off invisible ninjas. We’ll have had extensive training I can assure you, because we’ll have already been to the Ninja Museum and battle arena.
In terms of views, every major city has a look out tower – in Sydney its Centrepoint, in Auckland its the Sky Tower and in Osaka, it’s called the Umeda Sky Building, complete with ‘Floating Garden Observatory’. It really has to be seen to be believed, because as a structure it’s unlike anything I’ve witnessed before.
You can have cocktails and a romantic dinner up there apparently – would any ladies like to volunteer to be wined and dined by Sydney’s finest? Answers on a postcard please.
Luckily enough, during our time in Osaka a short train ride will take us to the Nabana No Sato Park, where there is a current exhibition of 5.8 million LED lights illuminating the entire grounds! That’s a fair few lights as you can imagine, all glowing and blinking away with Mt Fuji quietly resting in the background. Spectacular photos guaranteed methinks. I’d imagine it would be like being in TRON….if TRON had gardens.
And sure fire highlight will be the series of events held annually from March 1 to 14 at Todaiji Temple, again not far from Osaka via train in the Nara region. The events are part of Omizutori – a collection of Buddhist repentance rituals which have been held every year for over 1250 years, making them one of the oldest reoccurring Buddhist events in Japan.
Among the many different events held during Omizutori, Shuni-e is the most famous and spectacular. Just after sunset on every night from March 1 through 14, giant torches, ranging in length from six to eight meters, are carried up to Nigatsudo’s balcony, set fire to and held over the crowd. The burning embers, that shower down from the balcony, are thought to bestow the onlookers with a safe year. I’m not entirely convinced you’d have a “safe year” if your hair caught fire and you were wearing a flammable jacket – but that’s just me.
I think Osaka will be a great introduction to Japan at the very start of the tour. Mixing the modern, with the traditional as it were – I’m sure we’ll all be buzzing having literally just stepped off the plane.
I’ll leave you with this, a little video which nicely sums up the highlights and key areas & institutions in Osaka City itself.
Seriously, we cannot wait!
