This is the last in my series of "Summer Solo Excursions" since summer is now over... Maybe I'll do some Autumn ones...
Well this was definitely my biggest adventure, because it was the first time that I had ventured solo into Osaka which is a huge city. You may notice some hyperlinks, these link to photos I took this adventure. So firstly I had to get to Osaka, so I left on the Hankyu train from Nagaoka Tenjin Station on a train bound for Umeda. I didn't go all the way to Umeda, because I was planning to go to Shinsaibashi first and the easiest way to get there from the Hankyu Kyoto line is to change on the Subway at Awaji station. From Awaji I caught at train on the Sakaisuji subway line to Nagahoribashi. At Nagahoribashi I changed to the Nagahori Tsurumi-Ryokuchi subway line and rode it one stop to Shinsaibashi. At Shinsaibashi station it was a task and a half figuring out what exit to get out of the place and up to ground level. Once I made it to the ground level my first stop was the Apple Store Osaka, where I purchased an OS X 10.5 upgrade for our G5 just a few days before they stopped selling it. So now I've upgraded the G5 to the last operating system that will run on it, hopefully the security patches should keep coming for a few more years. Then I had BLT sandwich for lunch at a very nice and inexpensive cafe in Amerika-mura. After lunch I went to the Nike Store and purchased a pair of cross trainers (YES! they have sizes bigger than 27cm, the normal limit in Japanese shops). While there I had a good chat with the salesman in Japanese, because he's been to Australia and also has a Mac. After that I did some more wanderings around Amerika-mura and then I decided to head to Dotonbori. At Dotonbori I watched a few street performers as well as having chats in Japanese to people who were sitting along the river. I met a few photographers, one even had an FM3a. Then I wandered back up to Shinsaibashi via the road, because the arcade was way too crowded and I then caught a train on the Midosuji subway line to Umeda. Walked all the way to the Umeda sky building in the sweltering heat, thankfully some of it was through underpasses. At the Umeda sky building I chatted with some high school students who were sitting in front of a fountain in shady spot for about an hour, using a mix of Japanese and English. Once I could see the light was becoming good I went up the top of Umeda Sky Building and got some shots from there (sorry I haven't posted those yet). Finally once I came back down, I got this snap of the building in the waning daylight. Walked all the way back to Umeda Station and caught a Limited Express on the Hankyu Kyoto line. I made it back home just a little bit later than the 1900 I had planned.