There are several rivers and canals in Osaka. This is near an island that houses municipal buildings, museum and gardens.
This is one of the city buildings. A contest was held to select the architect. You can see the same building in the photo above, and the one below.
Bycicles in Osaka share the sidewalk with pedestrians.
A rose garden in February. Notice that the workers are wearing uniforms?
A short walk away I came to the Tenmangu Shrine.
A flea market was going on here. These items had no prices posted.
A roofline in the shrine.
People were going in the entrance just to the left of the big tree. I could tell they were taking their shoes off and the admission was 500 yen. I decided to see what was in there, so paid the admission (around $5) and took my shoes off and put them in one of the plastic bags provided so I could carry them with me. This was all done without spoken language.
At the end of the corridor a door to the right led to another room of Bonsai Plum trees.
These trees lined 3 sides of this room.
I don't know what the signs said. They may have indicated the age of the trees, but I couldn't read any of it. The trees are clearly old.
A little mountain of moss and plum trees. An island to the left had a pine tree and one to the right bamboo. These three were also a common combination used in the old pottery.
The enclosed garden had platforms with red felt covers, so we could walk in our sock feet or sit and enjoy the garden.
Another view of the garden.
Some kimonos in a kimono shop. The price of the obi sash at right is 393,000 Yen or roughly $3,930. The kimonos were priced in the 3 - 5 thousand dollar range, so I did not come home with a souvenir kimono.
More kimonos and accessories. Don't you love the matching silk purses and flip-flops? Well I know that's not what they are exactly, but close.
The first thing we saw was this elevator. We thought it would be a short cut so we went up.
At the top we had a nice view of Osaka. We are just at the northern edge of the city where the hills begin. We also found a health spa up there and found out that to get to the waterfall we would have to go back down the elevator and take the trail/road to the waterfall.
This is the beginning of the trail. We weren't the only ones going there, but it wasn't crowded either.
We passed this temple on the way.
This bridge connects two parts of the temple.
Helpful signs indicated the way to go. Well helpful if you read Japanese.
The trail followed a stream. It took about 45 minutes to get to the falls.
The waterfall of Mino!!! I could hardly believe I was actually here.
One of the nicest public restrooms I've ever seen in a park.
A sign we passed on our way back down. The small print that may be too small to see reads (in English) "Colorful and cute, the cool paradise"
Another shot of the trail on the way down.
Our hotel - Hankyu Senri Hotel north of Osaka
There was a pretty park behind the hotel. Our room is one in the middle on the top floor.
A very large shopping center just across the street from the hotel. We had dinner in restaurants here 3 times, as well as coffee and lunch. I found a craft shop here, where I bought some yarn, and a grocery store where I bought snacks. The kimono shop was here as well as the shop selling Hina Matsuri dolls. There was also a subway station, a monorail station and bus stop here.
A Japanese menu--no translation required--well unless you want to know what exactly is in the dish.
Another one. Most restaurants had these outside.
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