Osaka Renaissance of Light

At Nakanoshima, many famous places are decolated and we can enjoy illumination. Nakanoshima is a hoothold where sends culture of Kansai, and a impressive waterside location. Also, there are a central public hall of Osaka city, an art museum of the East, an international museum, a festival hall, and so on. There buildings are decolated.
This illumination has concept, which is "Osaka Renaissance of Light" and this is held because people have hope that it can be good chance of new movement of Osaka as a international city.

Last year, 1,150,000 people came to Nakanoshima to see the illumination, and the area is magnified a little in this year. The period is from December 1st to 25th and the time is from 17:00 to 22:00. If you have time, you shoud go there. Maybe it's very beautiful and fantastic!!

http://allabout.co.jp/gs/travelosaka

Germany X'mas Market

At sky-building in Umeda, "Germany X'mas Market" is held now. In there, Germany and Japanese sellvarious Germany things. Forexample, sausage, beer, hot wine, pizza, German-potato, soup, tin toys, and so on. Of course, these are not Japanese things but also Germany things!!

I went to there in this month and I was excited because these things were rare for me and there were many foreigners. But at the same time, I thought these were expensive a little. For instance, a small pizza was 600 yen, a cup of soup was 700 yen, a piece of Baumkuchen was 700 yen. It's horrible!! I spent a lot of money...

There was a merry-go-round which is wooden and has history of more than 110 years. To my surprise, it is precious because there is only 4 the merry-go-round in the world.

In addition to shops and merry-go-round, there was a big X'mas tree which is about 27 meter high and decorated by a hundred thousand illumination. I was very impressed and enjoyed it!!

ttp://www.skybldg.co.jp

Osaka Aquarium KAIYUKAN

Osaka Aquarium KAIYUKAN is an aquarium which is located in Osaka city, Tenpozan, and was opened in 1990. The concepts are “the Pacific rim fire zone” and “the Pacific rim life zone”. Kaiyukan has huge water tank and it changed impression of traditional aquarium.
The characteristic of the outward appearance of the building is three kinds of color-code, and it stands for combination of the earth, the water and the fire.
I was surprised, but who decided the name of Kaiyukan is Emiko Kaminuma.

Around Kaiyukan, there are many places. There are Tenpozan market place, very big Ferris wheel, tourism ship Santa Maria, and Suntry Museum. The entrance fee is 2000 yen.
From October 24th to December 25th, Kaiyukan has X’mas decoration. I went to there and looked very beautiful spectacle last year. I recommend you that go to there with confidence.

http://odekake.jalan.net
http://www.kaiyukan.com

Halloween in USJ

The last time, I talked about USJ, and this time, I’ll talk about USJ again especially about Halloween. In USJ, there are many decorations or events of Halloween.
There are many special sweets of Halloween. For example, cream puff of pumpkin, or special desert set. It is a rather high price. I have never eaten it because of the price, but I want to eat it someday!!

cream puff of pumpkin

special desert set

There are also many kinds of souvenir of Halloween. For example, mascot, handtowel, clear file, mug, and so on. It is very cute, and I feel like buying everything!!
There is Halloween parade at night, 18:30 to 19:00. We can participate in the parade, not only as a spectator, but also as a performer. If you wear costume and enter in the parade, you can walk the parade course with USJ staff. The chance to join the parade is 9 times on October, but 7 times of that was over, so you can join it on October 25th and 26th. But there is restriction which is 1000 people can join it at one time, so you want to participate it, I recommend you that enter in it quickly. It will be your good memory and if you join it, you can get snack, Koara no March, free of charge.
Actually, I went to USJ on October 18th, and I watched many people wore costume and joined the parade. I didn’t know about this system, so I enjoyed it as one of spectators. Many girls wear mantle, or headband, and many people imitated various characters. For example, there were Dorothy, Pikacyu, Jack Sparrow, and so on. It's very fun. Let's enjoy Halloween!!

http://www.usj2.com/info/halloween/index.html

USJ

USJ was opened in Konohana area in Osaka on March 31 in 2001. The size is 14 times as large as Koushien. At first, USJ had planed to build in Sakai city in Osaka, but transportation to USJ was bad, so it was changed.
USJ is a theme park which is based on many Hollywood movies and is combined magnificent ride attraction, show, restaurant, and shopping. We can enjoy USJ all the year round. In USJ, we can enjoy fantastic experiences and meet many characters of USJ. For example, snoopy, Hello Kitty, companion of Sesame Street. Now, in USJ, there is Halloween event, and it will be changed to Christmas event in November 6th.
Business hours depends on the day or season, so I suggest you that you should go there after checking it. An entrance fee is 5800 yen a once, and an annual pass is 11500 yen.
According to survey of Internet, the most popular attraction is Universal Monster Live Rock and Roll show. Second is Water World, third is Back to The Future. And Spider-Man, Jurassic Park, Terminator, Jews, E.T., Hollywood Dream The Ride, and Back Draft in order of the rank.

All of picures are from... http://www.asahi-net.or.jp

JEWS

E.T.

Jurassic Park

Spider-Man

Tsutenkaku

Wikipedia

Tsutenkaku is one of the symbols of Osaka, and it is a tower which has 103 meter height. This tower was built in 1912, which was modeled on the Eiffel tower and the Arch of Triumph. However, it was removed during the Second World War, and rebuilt in 1956.
In this tower, there are an event hall, a tearoom, a stand, and an observation deck. At the fifth floor, the floor of an observation deck, there is Billiken. Billiken is a statue of god of good luck. Billiken has a tradition that if you stroke the sole of the foot of Billiken, you can have good luck.
The top of this tower, there is a neon light which turns on a light which depends on the weather. There are four colors. Sunny is white, cloudy is orange, rainy is blue, and snowy is pink. So, this is also a light equipment of the weather forecast which tells us the tomorrow weather.

Fireworks of PL

http://www.walkerplus.com/hanabi/kansai/detail/fw0793.html

It’s July and it’s summer!! Fireworks bring us the real feeling of summer!!
I’ll talk you about the fireworks of PL.
PL is held in Tondabayashi City in Osaka and it is held in August first every year. It was started in 1953 to pray the World Peace.
The scale and contents of the fireworks of PL is said as the biggest fireworks in Japan. This is very grand and luxurious. The number of people who went to see PL last year was 250,000.
The time of fireworks is from 19:40 to 20:50. The number of skyrocket is about 120,000 and it is 1714 shots every minute!!
The most beautiful fireworks I can recommend you with confidence is the finale. The finale is said as Niagara and a set piece of fireworks which reaches 1 kilometer and gets light all around with a rumbling of the ground. In the finale, 8000 shots of the fireworks are launched at once.
I like PL very much, but I have never seen it so close up, so I want to see it at close range this year!!

Kyocera Dome

Wikipedia

This is Kyocera Dome in Osaka. This was built in September 20, 1997, and opened March 1. At first, this dome was called “Osaka Dome” but the name was changed from it to “Kyocera Dome” in July 1, 2006 because the right of naming was sold.
The structure is a Dome with ninth stories above ground level and one beneath. The height is about 83 meter, and 55,000 people can come into it.
We can use this Dome with a lot of purposes. For example, you know, we can go to there to watch baseball game not only professional baseball but also high-school baseball. And, many musicians held live concerts. Grobe, Kanjyani∞, Arashi, B’z are the examples. Recently, Celine Dion held a live concert in there.
In addition to these events, we can use it to hold an athletic meet, a sports day, an exhibition. Moreover, we can also hold a wedding ceremony if you pay expensive charge.

Banpaku Park

This picture is the tower of the sun in Banpaku Park.

This is a park where put the vacant lot where Osaka Bankoku Hakuranakai used to be in good condition. There are an open space, cultural facilities, and so on. This park is about 65 times as wide as Koushien baseball stadium!! At the time when Osaka Banpaku was hold, there were three towers in all. Its are the tower of the sun, the tower of mother, and the tower of youthfulness.

Osaka Castle

http://www.osaka-tankentai.com/castle.html

This is Osaka castle. This was built by Hideyoshi Toyotomi in 1583, Azuchi Momoyama periods. Now, we can enter it and look around. An entrance fee of people twelve and above is 600 yen. In it, we can take a picture with a warrior's helmet or jyunihitoe which was restored. Around this castle, there is a big park, Osaka castle park, and many people enjoy.

A garden of the sky

This is in Umeda. We can look around a magnificent view at 360°. The height of the rooftop is about 173 meter, an entrance fee is 700 yen, and the business hours is from 10:00a.m. to 10:30p.m. We can overlook the town of Osaka which is shining brightly in the night. I don't know how to express the beauty. In any case, it is a moving sight!! This is worth going.

DOUTONBORI

This is DOUTONBORI, in Namba. This is a bridge between Ebisubashi and Shinsaibashisuji. When Hanshin Tigers, a baseball team, win, some of lovers of Hanshin Tigers dived off the bridge into the river. Of course, it is very dangerous, so this bridge was put in good condition recently.

A billboard of GURIKO is also famous and many people take pictures. GURIKO's costume is changed depending on event.

The Feature Of Osaka, KUIDAORE

"Osaka meibutsu KUIDAORE" is one of the famous places in Namba, Osaka. This is a restaurant, and a building with one story below and nine above the ground.
It was founded in 1949, but it will be closed down the business in July 8 2008. The reason why the feature of Osaka is closed down the business are the building and facilities became too old for use and the environment around the restaurant or the time changed...
There is an object which is a symbol of Osaka in front of the restaurant. The name is Kuidaore Taro and it is said as "Face of Osaka". He shakes his head and beats a drum. He is more famous than the restaurant itself. He is popular and liked by everyone, especially Osakaite.
Everyone doesn't know what will become of Kuidaore Taro, but I hope to he has been a symbol of Osaka all the time.
Let's go to Dotonbori to meet Kuidaore Taro!!

The Purpose of This Blog

I have lived in Osaka since I was born, and I love Osaka!! Osaka is also called Naniwa. There are a lot of good places where you should visit. I want you to know about Osaka more and love it. Let's enjoy humorous town,Osaka!!