After being in the Tokyo area, I took the famous Bullet Train to Osaka.

This view from my hotel window shows the characteristics of this particular neighbourhood as well as the city as a whole. In this shot, you can see the highway running over a river with roads snaking around all over the place.

This is some public artwork near the top of the Business Innovation Center, where the conference took place.

Lots and lots of bikes! It is actually somewhat dangerous to walk on sidewalks as people riding bicycles zoom past and around you. I witnessed a person on a bicycle running into a person who was walking. No one was hurt, as the bike wasn’t going fast.

I visited a temple on the way to the shopping district.

A night shot of a large department store which isn’t far from other shopping districts and a major train station. This department store occupies pretty much all of the large building, which isn’t something we see too much of in Calgary.

A night shot of a famous display of ads, including the walking man. Although you can’t see in this still, many of these ads are animated in some way.

More photos from Osaka are in my Gallery.

Upon arriving at the place where I was staying in Osaka near the University, Dr. Kitamura who was hosting me suggested we go out to a traditional Japanese pub for dinner. Driving with him to the pub was my first time on the left side of the road in a car! (I’ve been on the left in buses before in the UK, though)

This is the table where we sat inside. It was quite uncomfortable for me sitting on the floor since it is not a position I am used to!

This is one of the many Japanese dishes that Dr. Kitamura ordered for us. I don’t eat seafood though, so I had to pass on some of them.

This eggplant pizza actually tasted quite good.

If I remember correctly, this is a bottle of Sake. This bottle belongs specifically to Dr. Kitamura and is stored at a special spot in the pub.

My main academic reason for going to Osaka was to present at Osaka University in the lab where my supervisor, Dr. Ehud Sharlin, has worked previously.

This is me presenting as students from the lab watch. Thanks to Dr. Yoshifumi Kitamura for this photo!

It was here at the university where I became familiar with a few more Japanese customs. For example, before entering the lab area, everyone removes their shoes and puts on slippers. There are big cabinets to house everyone’s shoes, including some pairs for guests.

After this, I have one more post for Japan. Stay tuned.

Besides Osaka Castle, I saw a few other sights in Osaka. I also spent some time just walking around, at least when the weather was cooperating.

Tsutenkaku (informally known by some as Osaka Tower) is a famous landmark in Osaka. I went up. They have a gift shop up top, but unfortunately they accept cash only, and I was short on cash and couldn’t buy some post cards I saw there. Post cards are actually hard to find in Japan compared to other tourist areas.

The city of Osaka seems to stretch forever in this view from from the tower. This is actually a better view than what I saw in person. There was plenty of clouds and rain occurring.

This is one of Osaka’s bustling streets near the tower. Convenience stores like the one to the right are everywhere in Japan, almost on every street corner and they are open 24 hours a day.

Osaka at night is brightly lit and active, especially around one of the main train stations where I was here.

In Osaka, there is a section of several street blocks of electronics stores everywhere.In the centre of this photo, you can see a sign identifying this particular building as the Windows Tower. The logo being used is quite old from the Windows 95 era.

Some are the many stores are smaller versions of North American big box stores, while others are small and carrying various electrical components like you see here. One store also sold used versions of every iPod ever made, and many stores carried all kinds of tiny laptops.

And now, I will talk about some of my sights from Osaka. This city is one of Japan’s largest cities. It is quite expansive, though not quite like Tokyo. I explored much of this city on my own, so I tended to waste more time than I like.

One of the main tourist attractions is Osaka Castle, which I walked around at night time. It is also one of Japan’s most famous castles. You can also go inside, though I’m told the outside is the most impressive.

The castle area is surrounded by a moat. Of course!

Many locals were just relaxing around it, fishing and other such activities.

There were a bunch of cats sitting around and one person was painting one. This cat was looking at me, but didn’t seem overly amused! It also seems to have one blue eye and one green eye!

Here it is! This castle played a major role in the unification of Japan in the 16th century. This structure is not original. It was destroyed in 1615.

The architecture is quite impressive close up.

The ground are also quite relaxing, and likely quite busy during the day when the castle is open, especially at the height of the cherry blossom season (which I missed). Osaka’s skyscrapers can be seen in the distance.

I’ll post more photos from Osaka soon. For now, the rest of my Osaka Castle photos are in my Gallery.