On to Osaka

We made one last trip up the hillside in Onomichi, then boarded the Shinkansen for Osaka.

Upon arrival, we alighted the subway at Temmabashi station. As we looked at our map, trying to decide which station exit was closest to our hotel, a woman asked if we needed help.

She was not the last person to kindly offer assistance while we were in Osaka (something that rarely happens in Tokyo), but her directions were the most striking:

“Go up those stairs there, and turn right. Then another set of stairs and turn left and go into Matsuzakaya. Go up to the seventh floor and the hotel entrance is there. Or maybe it’s the sixth floor…”

Hotel on the 7th floor of a department store? Well, why not. We lived above a shopping mall in Singapore. When we got to the seventh floor, we had to ask a sales girl where to go, but sure enough, back behind the children’s books was the entrance to the hotel.

After checking in and asking the front desk staff to look up a phone number for us (I saw the concierge Googling and felt nostalgic for my computer), we went out wandering. Tod had the brilliant idea to go buy a gourmet guide book at the convenience store. We made very good use of it. We found an Indian restaurant for dinner and searched out lunch the next day with the book. Yeah for Tod! Yeah for Hanako restaurant navi books!

Posted by kuri at October 17, 2003 11:59 PM