Toji flea market located in the courtyard of a Buddhist temple was today’s destination. It has been held the 21st day of every month for over 600 years. They have over a thousand stalls there selling everything from food to clothes to antiques to just plain junk. At first, I didn’t buy a lot of stuff. Dr. Stapp says that in Japan, things speak to you wanting to be bought, and since nothing called out to me, I bided my time. At the end a few things did speak to me. I spent about $90 on presents my biggest spending spree of the trip (until Akihabara). I got a few gifts for some of you who are reading this so, I’m not going to tell you what I bought and spoil the surprise.

After the flea market we were off to Osaka, the second biggest city in Japan. Out attempt to find a sporting event was a no-go, according to the Osaka Information Office, there was no soccer tonight and baseball game was sold out. The helpful lady at the office really helped to overcome our poor planning. She suggested that we go to the Umeda Sky Building which we did and it was a lot of fun. There is an observation deck on top of the 35 story building that lets you see all of Osaka. The gallery has some very spectacular shots and I encourage you to check them out.

Our next stop was to the HEP 5 (Hankyu Entertainment Plaza) a shopping mall. At the doorway, we met Wayne W. from Ohio, who was acting as a type greeter who at very helpful. He encouraged us to pick up the magazine he works for, japanzine. Its in English an covers things happening in all of Japan. Wayne, we forgot to get a picture from you. If you’re reading this send me a picture of you so I can add you to my journal. My grade depends on it!

The HEP5 is basically a 5 story mall with a Ferris Wheel mounted on the top if it. We noticed immediately that we, in our sweat stained travel wear, we were the most underdressed people there. We spent ¥500 on the Ferris Wheel ride but I didn’t get any good pictures because my camera couldn’t compensate for the continuous movement of the wheel. The view was spectacular so I hope Rebecca’s camera did better than mine.

The HEP5 also had a two level arcade as well called Joypolis. Naturally, the arcade had a ton of games all in Japanese. They also had several cool looking rides/games of various sorts with names such as Wild River, Air Car, Terminator 3, and Biozone Contamination 4-D. The last looked pretty cool but it was in all in Japanese and after spending so much money earlier that day, I didn’t feel rich enough to take a chance.

We began our return trip to Kameoka during the Osaka rush hour at 9:30 PM. We were packed in pretty tightly, reminding me of the Dilbert cartoon where Dilbert is sent to another country that has a different take on personal space. The punch line is from one of the natives Dilbert meets, “The pockets in your pants, these are for you, yes?” If it’s this crowded in Osaka, I’m a little worried what we’re going to see in Tokyo.

I retired to my room to do my pre-pre-preparation for tomorrow, storing my loot from today and getting ready to go to our next destination for tomorrow.

Tomorrow, Hiroshima and catching up on my journal.