Out of Town: Osaka Area Day 1 Part I

Glenn and I decided to get out of town for the weekend last weekend. Our time together is limited so we wanted to take advantage of this "down time" to do some sightseeing. I had been to Osaka last summer, but hadn't had the chance to do much sightseeing. Since Glenn was able to get Friday off, we decided to go at the last minute.

I found a great deal on a hotel on agoda.com. For those of you in Asia, I highly recommend it. It has last minute deals and we got a hotel in a pretty decent area for only 5000 yen an night- for both of us! Most hotels charge per person in Japan!

We arrived late on Thursday night, eventually found our hotel and grabbed some dinner. We contacted VAW-115's 'superfan' to tell him we were in his home town. He had the next day off and agreed to show us around. What better way to see a new city?

The next day, he picked us up in his van after we had gotten some breakfast at a coffee shop. Three cups of coffee and relaxing for a couple hours at the coffee shop? Yes please. I love vacation.
Bane picked us up in his van and asked us if we wanted to see a Ninja house near Osaka?
"Ok, sounds good to us!"
"On the way, we can see the city where they make the Racoon dogs."
"Ok, sounds great. Thanks."
Well, little did we realize, but near Osaka is a relative term and an hour later, we arrived at a rest stop to see the largest lake in Japan...
And another 45 minutes after that, we arrived in Shigaraki.
In Japanese, the raccoon like animal is known as tanuki. In the Osaka area and all over Japan, they are in front of houses and stores for good luck. He is often carrying different items representing different ideas. For example, most of them are carrying a sake jug which is Tanuki's secret virtue. According to the English translation, "Eat, drink and be merry, but always remember to maintain decorum. The Tanuki actsin a bold, decisive manner, but always maintains a calm, quiet attitude. In Japan, the spirit resides not in the heart, but in the stomach. Hence, the big-souled Tanuki is represented with a large belly."

You can see why it has become a mascot of Japan in some areas. All of those concepts sound like Japan to me.

After buying a few ceramic souvenirs (no Tanukis, they are pretty ugly to me :) ) we pressed on to Iga City to the Ninja residence. This place was a little cheesy, but I still thoroughly enjoyed it! We saw a ninja show where they threw ninja stars and used other weapons and then we toured the ninja house and museum.

In the Ninja House, they showed us trap doors, secret hiding places and escape routes that the Ninjas would use!
In the museum we saw more Ninja weapons and disguise techniques.After Iga City, we drove back to Osaka, but the day wasn't over yet!