Hiking the abandoned railway tunnels near Namaze
Today I went to somewhere I have been to before, the formerly secret and unofficial abandoned rail tunnel hike near Namaze station.
I say formerly secret, because since I was last here, and since anyone updated the internet, it has become an official hiking trail, and is now fully signposted, toilets installed, maps, safety barriers, rusty bridges replaced with new pedestrian bridges, car parking areas, vending machines, plum blossom grove, bear warnings, distance markers, shoe cleaning stations, blue vested helper old folks, loud speakers playing santa claus is coming to town, umbrella rental, bus stops either end, wheelchair ramps, ramen stand and phone charging point.
Thankfully they left the tunnels unlit, the main reason for going, which allowed me to use my old friend as you will see.
They do sometimes light the tunnels with temporary lighting and turn them into an art gallery, which might be cool.
So there you go, its no longer the risky climbing over dilapidated bridges where you might plummet to your death mildly risky adventure it once was.
I also remember it as being longer, and one website lists it as 14km, you would be lucky if it were 5km. It is now definitely old person friendly, take note mother.
On my way back I continued to re live my adventure from the last time I came here, and stopped at the same huge mall by the Itami airport for lunch, however this time I just had a little sandwich rather than the huge bi bim bap meal like last time, I must maintain my mildly overweight figure!
The train journey to Namaze and back from the station at the end of the hiking trail built inside a tunnel is quite short, but I still had to move 3 times due to mucus concerns.
There was a new highlight, not as great as the previous snot pump, but one guy lifted his mask, raised the sun shade blind thing and sneezed against the window, which was fully coated. He then lowered the blind, tried to clean the window with the blind, lifted the blind to check the success of his cleaning effort, realised he had just created a huge opaque smear of snot, and re-lowered the blind, then sneezed again on the blind, then got up and moved! I was amazed. People will think I am making all this up, I AM NOT, I cant make this up with such spectacular detail.
Upon returning to my hotel, quite early at about 2:30pm, I was in for some more surprises. All the rooms down my hallway were being cleaned, except mine cause I put up the no cleaning required sign. This meant I could see into peoples rooms, and it was an apocalyptically shameful display of filth.
The first room, which someone was still using as their bags were there, had pots of instant noodles everywhere, all over the floor, their contents both cooked and raw, and trampled into the carpet. The dry ones were now powder in places, the cooked ones were now mush. Then there was toilet paper all over the desk, why?
The second room had at least 20 beer cans on the floor, this person had left from what I could tell. The cans were sometimes upright, a few were tipped over with their foamy contents across the floor suggesting they had only just been tipped over, and some were crushed.
The third room still had people in the room watching the cleaners attempt to clean, and they had a pile of wet clothes heaped up like a small mountain in the middle of the floor, REALLY wet clothes, like they had all been soaking in the bath until this very second, there was a pool of water around their pile, on the carpet. There was also 3 people in a room only supposed to be sold as a single room. They looked Japanese, they had golf clubs.
I was genuinely shocked. I half expect the cleaners to hug me with joy after they clean my room, I make my bed, put everything away and zip up my case every time I leave. I only ever use one towel and use all my own toiletries which go back in a zip up bag. I kind of assumed everyone does.
Another 'blue' sky day in Japan. I use quotes because it has become badly polluted.
And on that note, South Korea recently found out that over 90% of their pollution is domestic, and not blown over from China, NASA did the study, its been big news there for a while.
I therefore expect that the pollution in Japan is all domestic, as its a lot further from China than South Korea, which is a short swim from the very highly industrial parts of northern China where nothing grows.
I changed lines once on my way to my destination, I enjoy shots like this.
Once you get off the train, its about a 20 minute walk to the start of the hiking trail. I like those big buildings on the top of the hill.
Its a shame about the pollution. I also read that the water in this river is very badly polluted, and whatever you do, do not be tempted to go for a swim, people have reported getting acid burns!
There is also a huge quarry just to the left of this shot destroying a mountain from the top down, still its a nice looking area!
And by the way, the red bridge I am standing on, thats not the way to the hiking trail, do not cross the red bridge, keep going. I knew this, I just wandered across to take photos.
And now the real hike begins, with huge spectacular rocks in the raging river, and some nice foliage to admire.
It would be great for white water rafting if the water wasnt sulphuric acid mixed with nerve gas.
A view back the other way. Ordinarily I say mountains look smaller than they really are, in this shot I say they look bigger than they really are.
This is an example of a new pedestrian bridge thats been installed, and also other people. Lots and lots of other people, on a weekday.
The trail must have been added to official Japanese hiking books, there were groups of school kids enjoying an excursion along the trail.
Nice contrast between haze on the left, color on the right.
The first tunnel entrance. The first tunnel is straight, you probably dont need a torch, although you do walk over railway sleepers so might trip.
Bumped exposure and shadows, I like these shots.
Water reflections. Japanese people would FREAK OUT if the water dripped on them, maybe its bad luck or something, but they really get hysterical about it.
Out the other side and you are in a secluded valley now.
And now it was time to get out my trusty old friend, the torch. I bought this torch here last time I visited this tunnel.
I remembered I had bought it years ago just before I left for this trip, so carried it all the way back to Japan.
It has not been used at all between trips, I turned it on for 3 seconds before packing it to make sure it still works, original batteries, and it does.
So its waited years between uses, and both times, in the same tunnel.
The second tunnel is the longer one, about a km long, and it has 2 bends in it, so the middle section is genuinely pitch black. You need a torch. Out the other side, more secluded valley.
And more.
And another for good measure.
Now I am approaching the bridge, it used to require you to climb along a rusty metal gangway down one side....
Now theres a pedestrian wooden bridge right up the middle with the gangways blocked off.
Completely derisked.
Just a couple to go, nearing the end here.
This is all new, none of this was here last time. Its a car park! Before the only way out was to go up a set of stairs into the train station inside a tunnel.
Now there is a bus stop.
I took a knee to protest man-bashing.
And like I said, I got off at Itami for lunch, to complete my day of doing what I did years ago.
The inside of the megamall is very much like you would find in Australia, these do exist in Japan, but not in the middle of cities, only out in the suburbs.
I wrote the same thing here last time I visited the same mall.
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.