Getting lost, admiring toilets and visiting the castle

This morning we decided to visit the scooter rental shop to make sure we can find it easily on Thursday morning, as well as to check the size of the top-boxes to make sure they are going to hold our baggage. Although John had spent a lot of time examining the location on Google Earth, we still managed to have trouble finding it, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. We roamed through some back streets of Osaka, seeing many interesting buildings, shops and people along the way. Near the scooter shop was a man cutting large blocks of ice with a chainsaw. We will never know why, as my language skills don't stretch to “Why are you cutting that large block of ice with a chainsaw?” and it doesn't appear in the Lonely Planet Phrase Book for some reason.
Mr Tanaka, the scooter rental guy, was out when we arrived, so we attempted to have a conversation with his underling. He could not speak English and my Japanese was a bit too poor to explain that we just wanted to check the size of the top-box. Eventually he got Mr Tanaka on the phone and we had a part English, part Japanese conversation. I think that we understood each other, but we'll find out for sure on Thursday.
Wherever we've been, we've shared the footpath with people racing around on bicycles. We didn't see any accidents as they do seem to have great control over their bikes, but we've quickly developed the skill of walking predictably without any sudden changes of direction.
After our visit to the scooter rental shop, we found our way to the Panasonic Centre near Osaka Castle. We spent an interesting hour browsing through the showroom of modern high-tech household items, including a toilet automatically raised its lid when we approached and presumably closed it again when it had been idle for some time. This product alone could turn around the world's divorce rate!
A note about toilets: Most of the toilets that we've used since we've been here have had heated seats, and buttons to press to produce a nice little cleansing squirt of water after using them. Some also have a button to press to play 'flushing' noises to mask any other noises that might be occurring at the time. Many also have a hand basin on top, and after the loo is flushed, the refill water comes out of a tap above the cistern, so the water that refills the loo is used for hand-washing along the way. A good option for our dry old continent, I think!
Anyway, I digress. The Panasonic Centre also had some fantastic bathrooms with TV screens mounted above the end of the bath (can you imagine trying to get the kids out of the bath and off to bed??) and power saving lights that become brighter during the evening and fade to a low glow during the day. By the time we'd finished there, our legs had done a full day's work, but we needed them to keep up with us as there was a castle to be visited.

Wow, what a sight!! Osaka Castle is a reconstructed version of the original which was destroyed by fire. The building is beautiful and the park around it is filled with cherry trees, currently in bloom just for us!

I bought a can of hot coffee from the vending machine – not because I really wanted a can of hot coffee, but because I can't do it at home.

Before tackling the castle, we had some scrumptious noodles for lunch. We've found the food to be really nice and much cheaper than we expected.

We then had some touristy fun taking photos of each other pretending to be kimono-clad Japanese people and then it was off to the castle.

One feature that wasn't in the original design of the castle is the elevator that conveys visitors to the eighth floor which includes an observation deck. Once at the top, even those with tired legs have to make their way back down by stairs, doing a lap of each floor to view the exhibits along the way. The view from the deck was really amazing. I knew in my mind that we were visiting an enormous city but I just couldn't have imagined so many buildings in view all at once. The mix of old and new is so interesting and quite a photographer's paradise. For a price of 300 yen, visitors can get dressed up in Japanese outfits for photo shoots.

These adorable little folk enjoyed their dress-up fun, as did all the camera-wielding adults in the vicinity.

Then with severely aching legs, we plodded our way back to the subway and travelled back to Tennoji Station. Walking back to hotel, we saw some more interesting sights. We've seen some very strange/interesting slogans and phrases written on T-shirts. It appears that someone takes an English dictionary, randomly selects a few words and then has them printed on T-shirts. The best one today was 'Monkey Bomber'. Soon after passing the monkey bomber, we passed a lady with a dog who gave us a new and unexpected experience. The dog had deposited a poop on the footpath, and the lady bent down with a tissue in her hand. I assumed it was to pick up the offending item – but she actually, truly, I kid you not, wiped the dog's bottom with the tissue! Well I never!! We found a small family-run noodle shop where we had another great value meal – a big bowl of noodles each, some fried chicken, spring rolls, rice and pickles – all for about $13.00! I'd been told several times that Japan was very expensive. I'm sure it could be if we wanted it to be, but we've had no trouble finding great food at a great price. I had pictured John living on hamburgers for a month, but he's loving the food so far. (I'll provide an update on this situation once we've left the big cities). The visit to the noodle shop provided an opportunity for me to speak a little Japanese and for the noodle shop lady to speak a little English. A very friendly and enjoyable meal.
While I was writing all this, John went downstairs to have his first traditional communal Japanese bath then he flopped into bed and started snoring. I hope that a good night's sleep will prepare our legs for another day of Osaka. Mata ashita ne!!