Tack, beauty and havens

For our second day in Osaka (and last full day in Japan) we set out for the Namba area, a little north from our hostel. We began by walking up a street full of electrical stores, therefore lots of bright lights which I thought made it look a little tacky. We then walked further, up through a ridiculously long shopping street, checking out the Japanese shops. They have whole shops just for socks. I really wanted some cool socks but thought they would just be impractical. Further west there were also vintage shops full of clothes and records but they looked a bit try hard and too americanised. 

In the centre of Namba there was Namba parks which was again a shopping centre but outside the building there were gardens on each level, the shopping centre consisting of eight levels. The gardens were quite beautiful with little hideaways where you'd find an old man reading a book or someone in a suit doing some work on their phone. It was rather peaceful considering it was above a bustling area. 

By this time it was nearing our lunch hour so we went through an indoor market, full of fresh foods, to a curry place that had been recommended. It was similar to last nights curry but instead of beef we had pork. It was a delicious sauce with quite a bit of spice, which was surprising since I'm pretty sure the Japanese aren't massively into spice. 

We spent most of the afternoon in the rose gardens which lay on an island between two rivers. The variety of roses was crazy. The colours were wonderful and against the backdrop of the city it looked like a haven. It was somewhere I know my mother would have enjoyed. 

For tea, we stayed close to the hostel and went for a restaurant that was really busy, even boasting a queue outside. Thinking it would be excellent we were a tad disappointed. Everything was deep fried. The Japanese seem to love deep fried things. The onion was good as that has quite a strong flavour but I felt most of the food was overpowered by the batter. We did order something that we were clueless about; it was a weird fish with little eggs as some of the flesh. It tasted a little like mackerel but we got a little worried when the woman next to us gave it a funny look. 

So that concludes the end of Japan. Tomorrow I will be posting a round up of the trip so far and my opinions of Japan. Next stop, Seoul.