Day 12: 12 April 2009 (Osaka)

LOCATION: OSAKA (SHIN-SEKAI, TENNOUJI PARK, SHITENNOUJI)
MOOD: SATURATED
LISTENING TO: 2PAC – BETTER DAYZ

MORE THAN JUST A PRETTY FACE:

Japan has a reputation overseas for being flashy, futuristic and clean. It's not until you've actually been to Japan that you realise that there's also a lot of really run down infrastructure and urban grit. This is particularly true in the area of town that I'm staying in, which probably explains why my hotel is as cheap as it is.

Welcome to the 'New World'. More 'Back to the Future' in my opinion.

I'm staying near a district known as Shin-Sekai ('New World'), an ironic name given that it is in effect a crusty, run-down entertainment complex. When it was founded it was intended to represent everything new, but since then progress has apparently forgotten this part of town. Shin-Sekai is a conglomeration of small eateries and pubs, pachinko parlors and bargain stores. It's not too bad when you walk around during the day, but at night it gets pretty dodgy. You get large packs of young men roaming the streets and not a few hookers past their prime asking if you want to get something to drink. It's best to keep your head down and keep walking. Pretending you don't speak Japanese also helps, but only with the hookers. Here's a few photos from Shin-Sekai:

Nice and wholesome during the day, not so much at night.

There were quite a lot of young families out during the day as there's a zoo and theme park just nearby.

At the centre of Shin-Sekai lies the crusty old Tsutenkaku tower, proudly brought to you by Hitachi. If that's not smart product placement, I don't know what is.

Also near my place is the Tennouji area, a major hub for the rail network and home to Tennouji Park and Shitennouji temple. Neither of them sounded too flash from what I'd read, but I figured that since they were in my neighbourhood I owed it to myself to take a look around. Tennouji Park is nice for a stroll on a Sunday afternoon, but given the other parks that I had been to in the past week and a half it didn't really impress me. The temple at Shitennouji was similarly underwhelming. The structures in themselves were interesting, but I was starting to develop eye-candy fatigue. That being said however, you probably haven't, so here are some photos:

I can't even get away from anti-war protesters on holiday. This was right next to the public bathrooms, and it was almost impossible to take a whizz when some high pitched woman was ranting about Afghanistan and Iraq. It also didn't help that the public bathrooms were particularly filthy.

Tennouji Park. The sakura were still in bloom and plenty of families were out enjoying the sun. Apparently on Sundays the homeless population of the park cranks out generators and mics and try to make some cash by holding impromptu open air karaoke sessions.

You didn't think I'd go an entire post without a gratuitous headshot, did you?

And the award for the most useless plaque goes to...

Shitennouji Temple. I made the unfortunate decision of touring the outskirts first, and by the time I finally got around to the main complex it was closing time.

One of the sub-temples on the perimeter. There was a priest conducting a ritual inside, but I figured it would be kind of hard to be zen with some random tourist snapping photos.

It's nice to see the LGBT community getting their representation among Japan's commemorative statue population.

Kind of hard to see at this resolution, but this little stone island was inhabited by turtles. I was considering tossing a vial of radioactive material at it and seeing whether I could make an army of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

The big city waits for none, and neither does the grave.

If you want something you've got to work for it. I'm not quite sure whether it was actually a thousand paper cranes, but if it wasn't it sure looked pretty damn close.