I was tired this morning because it turns out the rail noise on the “view” side of this hotel is really loud. Makes sense, because there’s lots of rail switches right in front of the hotel. I had to get my room changed. Otherwise, I slept OK.

Today was a hot day in Osaka, though not as hot as weather.com was saying. It was hot enough. Oddly, the people here were still dressed for the season, not for the day. I was sweating in shorts and a short-sleeve shirt and there were people wearing sweatshirts and vests.

I really didn’t know what to do, but I did start the day by making some phone calls. Nothing really panned out for today but I do have a tour of the Suntory Yamazaki distillery scheduled for next Monday. My mom’s calendar won’t go on sale until next month.

I figured it was scotch day and went looking for Bar Satoh that Barry Eisler mentions in his John Rain novels. His address isn’t quite right but I figured out where it probably is. The street-view picture is a little odd, so I decided to go walk to it during the day to see if I could find it.

The first new thing I ran into was the new Hankyu Department store. This was all under construction last year and looks great.

I walked right by the HEP Five building that my sister and I have been talking about.

Down some shopping streets that weren’t really on the way. They were open, though, which is a good sign.

This is a picture of an urban temple. I didn’t go to many temples today because, well, I’m pretty temple’d out.

There were some interesting buildings on the way.

And more shopping streets than I was expecting.

The route goes across Okawa River to an area with lots of huge apartment buildings.

Oh, and there was a river boat on the river.

There was a large hospital, and across from the hospital was Miyakojima shrine.

This is looking back down one of the last turns I made.

Onto a street with even more huge apartment buildings.

Down to a quiet neighborhood.

First left turn after the runner.

The light blue fence is the same in the picture before and after.

This is the building that fixing Barry Eisler’s address led me to.

Sure enough, if you look closely, there’s a sign that says Bar Satoh. It’s kind of in the middle of nowhere and I wonder how Barry Eisler found it. He did work for the CIA so I’m not really sure I want to know, but this looks like the kind of bar that’s a secret to everyone but the neighborhood.

I started walking south towards Osaka Castle. It wasn’t all that interesting. Kind of light industrial and residential with not many stores. I also kind of got lost trying to cross the Neyagawa River and what I think is the Daini Neyagawa River.

About the time I had to find a bathroom (for the usual reason and to wash some pigeon poop off my had), I saw a Mickey D’s. I was about resigned to eat at the Mickey D’s when I saw a Mr. Donut! I’ve been meaning to go see if they still had rice flour doughnuts (they didn’t) so I had one of their October pumpkin doughnuts. I even got a refill on my coffee! There were several pudgy white guys in suits there too. They just kind of stood out in an odd sort of way.

The Mr. Donut was in the Osaka Business Park, across from the Osaka Castle.

The park around Osaka Castle is pretty huge.

You go past two moats to the inner area and the area around the castle is pretty big as well, housing a museum and the castle.

Hōkoku Shrine is also on the grounds.

There’s a statue of an important Japanese guy who I don’t know on the grounds of the shrine.

I started heading towards Nipponbashi and the electric shops that were there when I lived in Japan (20 years ago!) The first thing I saw was Osaka Museum connected to NHK Osaka. The main display was gold statues from the Ukraine, so I kept going.

 On the way down Matsuyamachisuji there was a small shrine, Ikutama Jinja, in between buildings.

Then it was down the street, going over some large intersections on pedestrian bridges.

There were odd stores along the way. Nanshin Bussan is supposed to be an importer of jewelry, but it looked like a store full of cloth for suits.

Then the stores got weirder. This store has a guy riding a giant gold koi. It looked like a store of traditional Japanese dolls. I wondered if I should go buy one and have it sent directly to Goodwill since that’s where I’ve been taking all my traditional Japanese dolls.

Then there were lots of stores with toys and, oddly enough, Christmas decorations.

More decorations.

And more decorations.

A sign advertising Christmas decorations.

This store, like many of the others on this street, has a flag advertising fireworks but was mainly selling Christmas decorations. The sign says Japanese dolls, fireworks, and Christmas stuff.

Another thriving shopping street.

This is a view back up the street with all the Christmas decorations after seeing several more stores, one full of the kind of toys you can only get at festivals and two with Gundam models that said, “WHOLESALE ONLY,” I figured out this must be the wholesale toy neighborhood. i was careful to stay on this street because I didn’t want to get sidetracked by the Nakadera area where the map shows 22 temples. Probably more.

Here’s a picture I saw on the pedestrian bridge, right before Ikukunitama Shrine.

Going through this gate, by the way, is not the best way to get to the shrine.

I’ve taken a lot of pictures of gates, and sub shrines, but this shrine was something else. Here’s the main shrine.

This first panorama is the path to a couple of sub shrines but if you follow the path to the left…

You ned up in this park with six more shrines. It confused me.

After that I got really lost looking for what I remembered of Den-Den Town in Nipponbashi. I got really lost. I did go by the National Bunraku Theatre where I have to go get my mom’s calendar, but that’s not for several more weeks. I was wandering around looking for some electronics shops but they were mostly gone and replaced by the same sorts of crap that Akihabara is full of. Ah, well, I headed back towards the hotel, knowing I’d have to eventually take the subway.

I did see the giant mechanical crab on the way.

And some cops in front of a giant dragon.

Or is this the giant crab?

And what the hell is this?

A ferris wheel at Don Quixote, which I think is a discount store.

After that it was braving the crowds (which are not nearly as bad as Tokyo) to get back to the hotel. Dinner was back at Yodobashi Camera where I unsuccessfully searched for some Japan-only North Face stuff for my sister. I saw somewhere advertising REAL Kobe Beef hamburgers, so I had one. I’m not sure it was worth ¥1,370 ($17.17) since it was just OK.

And there you go. I’m not sure what I’m doing tomorrow, since it’s supposed to rain. Maybe explore all the underground some more. I’m sure I’ll figure something out.