2 November 2017
Umeda me a hamburg steak
Exploring the colorful streets and shops of Umeda
Tonight I walked all the way to Umeda and back, which was quite interesting.
Umeda itself is massive, especially when you consider all the stations, and there are a lot. Most of which are owned by department stores who have their own private railroads.
I think the nicest one is probably Hankyu, and thats where I had my hamburger steak potato and egg meal as you will see.
Around Umeda there is also the terrifying earthquake baiting ferris wheel on top of a building, a lot of bars and karaoke bars and a whole heap of everything underground.
The layout is really confusing with all the train lines crossing over everywhere, I got lost multiple times, at one point I came back down the same street in the opposite direction when I thought I had been walking in the same direction away from that spot for ages.
On my way to Umeda I went past a very flash modern supermarket that includes a seating area with microwaves and boiling water where you can eat what you just bought - a great idea generally.
However on this occasion, a team of people were trying to recover from a situation where a huge bowl of some sort of red liquid food had tipped over whilst inside the microwave. This involved opening the door a little, letting some liquid run out, being ready with paper towels, making panicked noises and slamming the door.
I recalled fondly when my pumpkin soup tipped over in the same manner in a hotel microwave in Karratha.
And now the saga of the keys. I worked out that the way to get the breakfast voucher is to hand over your key, and get it back later in the day with the voucher.
I handed my key over again this evening, they know me now, so I dont get the passport police routine.
So I came back this evening, ask for room key 709, get the nod and Japanese thank you greeting, and get handed a key. I go in the lift, go to my door which is at the end of the hallway, it wont open.
These keys have gigantic tags on them with the room number, she gave me 907. So thats what your stupid key system creates, a situation where you give people that look like criminals the key to someone elses room.
Back down I go, hand over the key, explain its 907 and I am 709. Mass confusion, no one seems to accept that this could ever happen. The manager is summoned. Now I am getting the third degree from him in Japanese, I am guessing he suspects I somehow tricked them into giving me the wrong key. He was actually mad at me, of course I stared him down and said nothing at all, very easy to do when you cant understand what hes yelling about.
YOUR SYSTEM IS IDIOTIC. You have reached new levels of failure. And you are blaming the victim (me) for your own stupidity. If I knew how to fax a letter to the dormy inn head office I could get someone fired, but since Japan insists on hand written FAXED letters because its too damn hard to type Japanese characters, I am shit out of luck.
If that happened to me in Australia I would probably keep going back every day and demanding to see the manager to yell at him some more, for sport.
The path to Umeda starts at more covered shopping streets, quieter ones this time.
Along the way I passed a walking stick shop, thats all they sell! It occurred to me, in Japan you see some really old people going along really slowly, hunched over with a walking stick.
You never ever see people on a gopher (motorized old person scooter). I think they are an unknown concept to the Japanese. Maybe I can corner the market?
I really like the huge roof over the JR Osaka station.
That truck is an advertising truck, with music blasting. This one is just video screens, but there are live performance trucks too that have pop stars singing (miming) in traffic.
People moving from one giant station to another giant station using the overpasses. Also note the giant xmas tree, its already peak xmas in Japan, every store is playing annoyingly happy jingles.
Yodobashi here is particularly enormous. I didnt even go in.
Here is the giant ferris wheel, and a store that looks like a computer tower case.
A bit more ferris wheel on a brightly lit corner.
Umeda also has a whole heap of covered shopping streets, but they are more for locals and contain bars, karaoke, strip clubs etc.
Hankyu has a heap of xmas display windows with animated characters. Heres a whole heap of drunken elves.
The Hankyu exhibition hall is celebrating Italy (I think?) featuring the Italian painting thats kept in France.
And finally, my dinner, which is a hamburger steak on top of a couple of vegetables, with Japanese style mystery sauce, an egg, mushrooms and a baked potato. The potato was the best bit actually.