Hot Spots Around Osaka

What a great day we had exploring a new part of the city. We started the day off at church. After the service, the pastor asked us all to sit down and prepare for the "engagement ceremony"! The future bride and groom came forward (dressed in beautiful kimonos) and rec'd a blessing from the pastor and exchanged vows promising their lives to each other, to remain faithful and to be married in the near future. What an honoring tradition. After they presented gifts to each other (they were wrapped so am not sure what they were- not sure if a ring was included? We'll have to ask some of our Japanese friends about this tradition), friends came forward with flowers and presents for the new engaged couple!

We then headed to the train station and went to the Umeda Sky Building- surrounded by really fun fountains and waterways. We ate a quick picnic style lunch and headed to the top to see the Floating Garden
(Kuchu Teien Tenbodai).



















A highlight of the day was a trip to SpaWorld. You really have to check out the website (http://www.spaworld.co.jp/) It was amazing. There are two floors devoted to spas from around the world. These were incredibly wonderful (if you enjoy hot tubs and can deal with walking around naked!). The real fun, however, is up on the 8th floor. It's co-ed and bathing suits are thankfully required! There are several wonderful hot baths on this top floor along with a fun lazy river. The best part, though are the waterslides. What a blast- our favorite one was was like a huge toilet bowl where the water spins around and around and eventually you get flushed through a hole and into a large pool of water. We watched a few Japanese kids do this and they went around the bowl maybe one time before getting flushed to the pool. When we did this, we whipped around the bowl several times before being sucked down to the pool. It was a riot and if anyone comes to visit us, this is a must do! One of the other cool slides was similar to a skateboard 1/2 pipe- we would shoot out of the gate and fly down this really steep drop and then fly up the side of the wall before sliding back into a larger pool area. Really fun!

We hopped back on the subway and went to the Tsutenkaku Tower. The tower was built in 1912 (rebuilt in 1956)and was modeled after the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triumphe. The Billiken, the god of good luck is a popular figure at the tower and people come from near and far to rub the soles of his feet. He is actually quite cute- his smile, upturned eyes and pointy head makes him a god of the common people. Folks were celebrating his 100th birthday so there were lots of celebratory items for sale all around the tower. We ended the day at a fun little Japanese bar/restaurant in the Shinsekai neighborhood before heading for home.