Osaka, Japan - What Happens when a 300 pound man chest bumps a 400 pound man...

Mar 9: Off to Osaka
We hadn't originally planned for any time in Osaka, but we were forced to consider it for at least one day for a rare opportunity to see an official Sumo Grand Tournament. Upon reading up on Japan's Second City, we decided to squat there for four days.

Japan is famous for their bullet trains whizzing around the islands, so we decided to drop a small fortune for tickets on the Shinkansen. Once you've overcome your amazement at how fast the outside world zips by, it's really just a nice smooth ride from point a to point b, and admittedly probably not worth the extra expense. But hey, when in Japan...

Unlike most arrivals to a new city, when we disembarked at Osaka Station, we were very disoriented and confused about how to get around. It's as though Osaka hasn't quite figured out how to cater to foreigners. Fortunately, a nice gentleman noticed our confusion and literally walked with us for 10 minutes through underground tunnels to get us going in the right direction. I vowed at this moment to pay it forward to the poor souls visiting San Francisco and trying to navigate our ridiculous BART system.

Mar 10: Taxes and Plum Blossoms
There are only two certainties in life, death and taxes. Ask our kids, and you can add school to that list. Death has eluded us (knock on wood), but since we're still U.S. Citizens, it was time to pay the man. Our WiFi was severely limited, so we spent the morning at the local Starbucks to do taxes (and schoolwork!). That is a burden off my back.

Fortunately most things are online these days. 

Autumn's math work is not getting any easier....

When your device is low on power, and there's only one plug in the house. 

With the morning shot, we headed out to the Osaka Castle. The Castle itself straddles itself between being both reasonably impressive and yet not entirely worth the effort. However, they do have a wonderful hologram exhibit that tells the story of how the castle was built and the history of it's several reincarnations.

 

I'm pretty sure they employed magic to make these displays work. The boys insist it's just a TV screen behind a piece of glass. We'll just have to agree to disagree

Our daily dose of foreign ice cream

View from atop the Castle

Most temples in Japan have these two forms of bringing good fortune

The highlight of the afternoon was just outside the castle walls in the plum garden. While we are about three weeks away from the main event of Cherry Blossoms here in Japan, we were treated to a truly beautiful display of the early bloom of the plum trees. While the cherries are all white, the real advantage to the plums is the variety of colors. [These are all mostly Autumn's Pics - If you want to see more of her "fancy" shots, subscribe to her instagram @autumn__photography]

Zane is infatuated with airplanes and loved the fact that the landing pathway was over this orchard. He insisted I take this picture to capture both.

Loved how four different colors are in this shot.

Well... Autumn didn't take this one.

Throughout our journey in Japan I have been scanning the crowds for an image of someone very special to me, my late Grandma. And there she was sitting on a bench, under a tree, surrounded by blossoms, and keeping watch over her grandson. Stopped me in my tracks. The resemblance was stunning.

The resemblance to my grandmother is really striking. Even the way she is sitting with her handbag is exactly as I remembered.

Our walk back to the subway took us past another great roller slide. We were heading to the top of the Umeda Sky Building to catch the sunset.

Those diagonal bridges up there are actually the highest escalators in the world. 

Mar 11: Aquarium
Osaka is home to one of the largest aquariums in the world. Again, we have mostly sworn off animal containment centers, but figured we had to see how it compares to our beloved Monterey Bay Aquarium. In true Japanese manufacturing practice, they have created a single piece flow where you start at the top and follow a path to the bottom. It's highly effective for making a car, but makes for an odd fish watching experience. Hordes of people are funneled through tight passageways and initially you simply can't stop moving past the exhibits. It's a bit off putting.

Being funneled past the displays through dark and narrow tunnels was not fun.

Fortunately it begins to thin out by the time we hit the main event, a ginormous tank filled with rays, hammerheads, and three massive whale sharks. There were several other cool exhibits, but the most memorable was the King Spider Crab tank. All in all, it was a worthwhile excursion, but our hearts still lie with Monterey Bay.

We weren't quite ready to head home and, to our great fortune, the park next door was purported to be the home of the lowest mountain in Japan. This we had to see (and by we, I mean I). At 4.5 meters tall, this man made mound of Earth was needless to say, underwhelming. But this effort was not a complete loss as we stumbled upon a Pokemon Go battle gym. Apparently this park is famous for finding Pokemon and people congregate there to do battle. Frankly, it is a bit creepy to see a hundred silent people standing motionless and praying to their phones, and occasionally tapping their screens frantically. I might have understood if it was a band of teens, but these were mostly adults.

We found Zane's favorite Ice Cream treat. It's not quite cool, but cool enough. It's coolish.

People fixated on their phones

Here is a video of how weird it was...
https://youtu.be/r7rNv4EBwXA

That night, Autumn, Nicole and I went in to Dotonburi, the time square area of Osaka. Pretty fun night time place to hangout. We had our first dinner in one of the super narrow restaurants.

Mar 12: Sumo!
I have been anticipating this day for nearly six months and it was finally here! There are six official 15-Day Grand Sumo tournaments in a year, and we were fortunate to be in Japan during the March event in Osaka. In fact, we planned our Japanese tour based upon this day. Getting tickets requires registering with a ticket purchasing service two months in advance and you don't actually know if you'll get tickets until a month beforehand. Good fortune was on our side.

To sum it up... It was awesome and totally worth it! Most of the actual battles lasted about 10 seconds, but it was the tradition and pageantry in between the fights that was so entertaining. The vibe in the arena is so chill, but curiously so alive, growing more so as the day wore on and the champions began to do battle.

The fights last all day, from 9am to 6pm, but it's not until 2:30pm that the officially ranked wrestlers take to the stage. Given the slow pace, it gives the ability to wander about the under belly of the arena. The wrestlers enter the arena through the same entry as the spectators giving us the ability to see these massive humans up close and personal. It would be like going to a Warriors game and having Curry, Green, Thompson, Durant, and the rest of the gang casually walk through the turnstiles with their headphones on. But in pure Japanese fashion, the fans respectfully give them space, take pictures from a distance, and wouldn't think to disturb them with an autograph. It's quite endearing.

Pre-match pomp and circumstance

Introduction of the top flight wrestlers

This is the Yokozuna doing his opening ceremony before the top flight matches got going.

The referee outfits got more and more elaborate as the matches grew in importance.

Amazingly nobody got hurt (Autumn took these shots)

Occasionally the matches were too close to call for the lead ref, so the side judges would confer and make the call. In two out of three times this happened, they called for a rematch. YES!

Making it rain.... salt that is.

Behind the scenes

The box seats are just square areas for four people to sit on cushions

This was my new friend. She didn't speak a lick of English and I knew zero Japanese. They were wonderful conversations.

The ultimate winner for the day got to twirl some kind of bow staff.

This is one of the high end battles: Kaisei v Abi:
https://youtu.be/6YOfe3i3pnA

This is the final fight of the night
https://youtu.be/DBD047jGX9U

All for now... Next Stop: Kyoto