Osaka

With my time in Japan running short, Hiroshima was as far south as I could go, so I started heading back in the direction of Tokyo. One city I hadn't seen along the way was Osaka a sprawling industrial city, known for it's lively night life and one of the best aquariums in the world; well I would have to sample both then wouldn't I.

For the only time on this trip I had a travel companion - Alex from Germany now living in Switzerland - whom I originally met in a Kyoto hostel and then again in a branch of the same hostel chain it Hiroshima, that being K's House Hostel. Alex informed me that he had made a reservation in a "Capsule Hotel", a convenience hotel in which guests sleep in 1.80 x 1.0 x 1.0 meter boxes. This I had to try, so I agreed to join him.


After a struggle to find our orientation when we eventually exited the labyrinthian Osaka train station, we found our Capsule Hotel in the middle of one of the entertainment districts. Initially we mistook the sauna on the ground floor of the building for the hotel. It was a relief when we were informed of our mistake because there were monitors at the sauna entrance showing live feeds of the various rooms in the sauna, including the changing rooms.

When we arrived at hotel reception on the fourth floor we were told to wait 10 minutes as checkin was at 12 noon, and, of course, not a minute before. We first had to put our shoes in a shoe locker, then give the locker key to the receptionist who then noted down the locker number before giving us each a numbered key for our clothes lockers and capsule. Our luggage had to be left in a storage room as these hotels are not really meant for tourists, so beforehand we had to remove the clothes we needed, which was really a drag, before storing our luggage and getting a numbered tag for each. We started to think we made a mistake coming here. As we checked the place out a bit, it seemed that everyone was wondering around in dressing gowns, which were provided in the lockers. Obviously the clientel were not used to seeing non-Japanese in a place like this, as we got many strange looks. We sought out our capsules which were located in a darkened area on a lower floor - long rows of square openings stretching along the corridoors; the place looked, smelt and felt strange. We briefly climbed in our capsules and played with the panel of buttons which controlled a tv, radio and alarm clock. We were both glad we were not staying there alone. We showered and headed for Osaka aquarium.

Osaka's aquarium was definately the best one i had ever been to and helped me to temporarily forget our abnormal accomodation. The multi-storey aquarium with it's deep tanks allowed viewers to observe the impressive array of sea-life at many levels from all sides. We saw whale sharks, tiger sharks, an enormous manta-ray, giant turtles, penguins and sea otters amongst other impressive creatures. I felt it was yet another highlight of my trip.



We returned briefly to the hotel, before heading out to sample Osaka's famous night-life. The entertainment area was centered around a pedestrian street called "Rotembori", packed with neon-lit bars, restaurants and Pachinko halls. After having a beer while watching Alex eat, because we entered a restaurant with only pork on the menu, we went for a game of Pachinko, some sort of Japanese pinball game I heard. An assistant in the Pachinko hall helped us start up the game, and a load of pinballs poured out of the machine. Turning a dial on the side causes the balls to be fired to the top of the vertically standing board and they run down through the gaps in lots of pins sticking out. In the middle of the board there was a screen with all sorts of cartoony graphics. We had no idea how to play until another assistant proceeded to explain to us after berrating us for taking pictures. It turns out that Pachinko is the stupidest game ever. It's just like a fruit machine with balls. When the balls go into a single hole on the board you have to opportunity to play a fruit machine game on the screen and if you get three shapes of the same kind you win more balls. Then at the end you can exchange your pinballs for money. We promptly left when we discovered what it really was, a pimped up fruit machine.

When we returned to the capsule hotel the place was full of drunk japanese in their dressing gowns, many of them falling asleep in front of the TV. We wondered about these men's home life whether they have a normal one or if their working life consumes them. A pair of drunken young guys were overjoyed to see a couple of foreigners, asked us where we were from and proceeded to name as many football players as they knew from our countries of origin. My attempt to name Japanese footballers ended at one, at which point I mentioned "Noriyuki Haga" a famous Japanese motor-cyclist, but they had no idea who i was talking about. That was the end of that.

Sleeping in a capsule is the closest i've ever got to being buried alive, except if i was dead I wouldn't have any use for an alarm clock and a TV. In the end we both slept very comfortably; probably the closest we got to returning to the womb. It was a fun experience to share with a fellow traveller. We parted ways over a train station breakfast that morning.