A Symphony of Colors – First Impressions of Osaka
The plane touched down at Kansai Airport and I looked for the train ride to Osaka. The plan, originally, was to stay that evening in a hotel in Osaka, then the next morning I would see Osaka Castle before heading out to Kyoto.
I saw a ticketing station when I just came out of the airport. The ticketing booths sold JR tickets, and naturally I bought a JR ticket, although there would have been (slower but cheaper) trains on the Kansai Airport Rapid trains (Nankai Rapids) to Osaka, for which I could have paid with the Suica Card.
As it turned out, I purchased the ticket for the Limited Express Haruka train, which presented Hello Kitty, Japan’s sweet ambassador. This boded well for my trip. It brought up pleasant childhood memories seeing the most enduring icon of Sanrio. Hello Kitty was my very first encounter with Japanese culture, and it brought forth a fuzzy sweetness.
The Osaka Metro
It took maybe about an hour for me to reach Osaka station. It was well into the night when I arrived, so I could not quite see what Osaka was like outside.
Inside the metro, however, I saw an urban scene that was very familiar. It appeared that a lot of commuters were going home. Tickets in, tickets out, people hurried through the station minding their own business. It could have been anywhere in the world, really, that the motions of life take its pre-programmed course, automated in a foot traffic that runs a mindless rhythm until one reaches his destination. No one paid attention to anything, perhaps not even to himself.
Serving a population of 2.75 million in Osaka, the Osaka Metro is the integral part of the extensive mass transit railway system of Greater Osaka. This network of metro transit system reaches eastward to Kyoto and extends westward to Kobe, consisting of more than 1,000 stations. I noticed that some stations seemed slightly tired. Indeed, the Midosuji Line that runs through Umeda Station began its service in 1933, the second oldest metro line in Japan.
My First Ever Japanese Meal in Japan
I then made it to a mall at Umeda to have the very first Japanese meal in Japan in my life. I opted for grilled beef bento at Romantei Lucua at the Umeda Station, and, while it was not too bad, I was a little disappointed.
“Once you have had Japanese food in Japan, you would never want any Japanese food outside of Japan,” so I was told by numerous friends. Good food is expected at even the most unlikely, humblest of all places, such as the kombini’s (convenience stores), and at any kind of food court. This first grilled beef I had was not too bad, the quality of the meat was fair. The temperature was right, it was cooked to medium rare, and there was marble on the beef. But something was missing, namely, basic flavor. It tasted bland at the first bite. I added a whole lot of furikake powder, dipped it in the sauces, and it tasted better.
Well, as it turned out, the food I had in my first trip in Japan was the only, and single most, disappointing experience. Even at that first dinner in Osaka, I figured that I was simply too accustomed to the Japanese food that was adapted to local preferences, and that was why I always loved having Japanese food wherever I lived. There will be more on Japanese food on a later entry.
Hotel Keihan Tenmabashi
The hotel of the evening was the Hotel Keihan Tenmabashi in Tenmabashi. I booked this hotel because it was within walking distance of the Osaka Castle. The hotel room was clean and petite with a whole lot of free toiletries for guests to take freely.
I was so excited at my first night in Japan that I could not fall asleep. When I used to tell my Hong Kong friends that I had never been to Japan previously, they looked at me with disbelief. In 2023, the Japanese Yen was at its historic low and I thought it was the perfect opportunity to see it, finally.
Osaka was good to me. I had no trouble understanding how the metro worked and people were courteous. They did also understand my English as well. I already knew that I would have incredible memories in Kansai.