(Just a quick update for those of you who have asked: I haven’t had another new overnight bug bite since we did the whole trek to the laundromat with all our bedding! My feet are finally starting to heal, and I am no longer in pain. YAY!)
Friday today, and because we did all this week’s school work already, we have today completely off! We head downtown to meet Kristian at the Osaka Science Museum.
On our walk this morning, Maylin points up to the building on the left and says “That’s a cool building, mom, you should take a picture of it”, not even noticing that the building right next door has practically 25% of the usable area dedicated to a two storey paper lantern and a funky black and white wall paper!
We reach the train station, and it’s the perfect example of the “no wall and no gates” situation I was trying to tell you about the other day. Walking along these platforms are a lot more nerve wrecking than ones with walls and gates!
From the train, we transferred to the subway and headed north. When we emerged from under ground, I saw a building I recognized! My mom and I marvelled at the ingenuity, this is a prime example of what one does when one wants to build a building, but does not have enough land. Make the ground floor narrow, and then simply… spread out above?
Kristian had taken the train to reach here, so we were approaching from different angles. I took a picture of the entrance to the National Art Museum, as the two share a plaza between them. Thank goodness for distinctive buildings!
The Science Museum had us enthralled for a few hours, because how can you not be, when your youth is right there, on display!
I think I got my first cell phone in 1997, and it was a Japanese Sony phone! Ugh… Am I really museum worthy type old?
We had so much fun at the Science Museum, there were so many things to play with! Water, air, electricity, magnets (so many magnets), pulley systems, sound, soundwaves, stars, solar systems, elements… If I had planned it better, this visit could have covered so many of our science class topics!
The planets and the outer space section was especially fascinating to me, and I wish I could have captured the many layers of star dots on the glass plates in the below picture. Unfortunately, extreme glare and reflection made good photos impossible.
The periodic table had two sides to it, one showing what the most common form of each element looks like, and this side, which shows you the most common product for each element.
There was also a machine that could count how many atoms of each element you were made up of! The girls had a great time finding each letter on the table and seeing exactly what they are made from.
We took a quick ice cream break in the basement museum café, and our desserts were sprinkled with little silver planets and stars – cute but jaw breaking!
We had one floor left to explore upstairs, so we went back up to finish the exhibits. By now, it was after 2pm, and all the school kids were sitting neatly in the front plaza with their lunch boxes. Made for a much calmer museum experience! The last picture I took in the museum was of the Crude Drug Wall, which frankly, each decent home should have one.
Next we walked over towards the bustling hub of Umeda, I wanted to show Kristian what the Osaka downtown magic is to me, the 2nd floor outdoor walkways that connect at least 4 malls, with the enormous station in the background. We took Kristian to the 13th floor just because that’s where the fun stuff is!
We went one more floor up to the 14th, the restaurant floor, and Kristian craved sushi. Joe and I did not object, we’re always up for delicious sushi! We each ordered a chef curated set of sushi, and the girls had a kids set each.
On our way out, we just caught a beautiful sunset, where lots of people were lined up to get the perfect shot. We got there just in time, and Maylin hopped up on this “seat” just in time for the sun to actually set.
We headed home for 7Eleven ice creams and a family movie night, while Kristian walked over to see Osaka Castle by night.
Good to see that you are doing so fine – interesting stuff you are “absorbing” and a lot of architecture. Keep on the good travel and take good care of each other!
Thanks uncle Bård! Sending hugs to you and yours!