Adventures in Japan

Happy birthday mom!

Tyler already said that we took the guys to Osaka Castle and waited outside while they looked around. What he failed to mention was that we waited in the rain. Serves us right for being too cheap to pay to see the museum again. But rainy days are well suited to museums, so once Tyler caught his train to work, the rest of us went to the Osaka Museum of History. We didn't actually spend much time there, but I thought it was pretty cool. Spiffy dioramas & displays going about the illustrating the history of the Osaka area. My favourites were the scale model reconstructions of old style towns with all the little people going about their mercantile business among all the 16th century buildings & canals. I think I probably dug it all because I actually live here and I read a bit of Japanese. Maybe Tyler would like it too. I'll drag him there one of these days. Maybe then we'll have some pictures.

The history museum is attached to the Osaka offices of NHK, Japan's national broadcaster. It's kinda like CBC, except more like the BBC. Most importantly, it's the home of Domo-kun, a brown, cube-like thing with a huge, toothy mouth. He's kinda like their mascot. I think Nate & Trev were more excited by the NHK gift shop than they were by the museum. They took a lot of pictures and bought a lot of stuff.


By the time the museum closed, it was just about time for me to go to work, so I took the guys as far as Umeda and set them loose. I'm not sure what they did, exactly, but they managed to find and buy more Domo-kun merchandise. And I guess more importantly, they found their way home again before the trains stopped running. Good job!!