8 floors of 'Wow'

On Wednesday morning we caught the subway to Umeda Station and went to visit the Yodabashi Camera shop. This 8 floor shop sells cameras, TVs, clocks and every variety of computer and accessories that we never knew existed. There was a whole aisle of computer mice of every shape, size and colour, and another aisle of earphones, ranging from the ordinary to the amazing, including ones that were shaped like Lego bricks, medicine capsules, jewelled flowers and Smarties, just to name a few! John rather fancied this camera - he could read the small print on something at the other end of the store.



Next stop was Ryokuchi Koen which includes the Museum of Old Japanese Farmhouses. Before visiting the park, we had a lovely 'bento box' lunch from a vendor outside the station. I thought I was going to lose weight on this holiday, but I've had to revise that opinion. The food is just sensational. Going through the park, we saw this class of cute little schoolkids on an excursion, and a group of people enjoying a picnic under the cherry trees - a very common practice in Japan at cherry blossom time.

Last stop for the day was the Food Hall in the basement of the Hanshin Department Store, which I'd heard was worth a look. We were absolutely amazed! The food hall was enormous by anyone's standards and the range and quality of foods on sale were incredible. The presentation is just beautiful, and Japan hasn't yet lost its tradition of real customer service. No self-check out machines for these folk! Although a food hall sounds like a strange recommendation for a tourist attraction, I'd highly recommend adding it to any itinerary for visitors to Osaka. One of the items we spied was this gift box of fresh strawberries. The price tag says 4515 yen, which is about $52.00!

We had dinner at a Korean BBQ place, and all of that was quite enough for one day!