day 4. tuesday: downtown Osaka

Now it's Kate writing here, and whew! We think today everyone is normalized to the time difference. After a good night's sleep, and with nothing pressing on the day's schedule, we decided to venture downtown to the Kita neighborhood. This is a bustling, crowded area in the north of central Osaka. So, first we had to board the train to take us there. We needed to walk about 15 minutes to get there and then Joe and I had to figure out the ticket machines. Hmmmm. Like many automated things here, the ticket machine was talking to us in a high-pitched woman's voice. But what was she saying? Well, we must have pushed the correct combination of buttons, because we procured two train cards and boarded the train.

Mass transit in other countries is always so nice! Green velvet seats and faux wood walls. Well-ventilated and quiet. The passengers were just like those in other countries, however. We saw sleeping businessmen and a young lady applying her mascara. No one had any food or drinks, though.

they just throw ferris wheels in wherever they can find room--there are 2 of them downtown!

Once we got to Kita, we wandered around the maze of skyscrapers. Joe was able to get online at an internet cafe, but I couldn't bring the boys in because there was an age restriction (only 3 and older allowed !? What does a 3 year old do in an internet cafe that a 2 year old cannot?) So the three of us walked through some winding alleyways of restaurants and noisy Pachinko parlors. Again, choruses of "Kawaii!" echoed around us. Almost everyone we passed was smiling and friendly.

Viking cat arcade prizes.

At lunchtime, we headed to the basement of the train station. In Japan, department stores and train stations are known for having large food courts and restaurants that cater to the person on the go. Almost all of these restaurants have plastic displays of their food out front, so you can stop at a place that looks good to you. We picked a small spot that had a variety of udon dishes, knowing that both boys would like the noodles. Joe had a cold udon dish with egg, cucumber, and a giant tempura prawn. I had udon soup with "mountain vegetables" -- some salty herbs and bean type greens. Malcolm loved the noodles, and Archer had fun slurping them up with the large soup spoon. Yum!

Archer searches for more food.