{"id":36076,"date":"2024-11-02T11:52:33","date_gmt":"2024-11-02T00:52:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=36076"},"modified":"2025-10-29T10:32:26","modified_gmt":"2025-10-28T23:32:26","slug":"osaka-1-japan-%f0%9f%87%af%f0%9f%87%b5-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/?p=36076","title":{"rendered":"Osaka (1), Japan \ud83c\uddef\ud83c\uddf5 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Date: 29-31th October 2024 <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Travelled: Osaka  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Visited: Nara Park and Osaka  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stayed: Dotonbori Crystal III, Osaka  <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Budget: 21 days @ $XX per day<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We arrive at the Port of Osaka exactly on time. All public transport systems in Japan appear to run exactly on time, the road system not so. The general speed limit here is 80 kph even on the motorways and everyone is very polite when it comes to giving way and merging. Cars stop at pedestrian crossings and you never hear a horn blow. The traffic lights are ridiculously slow, you can feel old age creeping up on you as you wait. Haven\u2019t seen an accident only a couple of brake-downs causing traffic delays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Pictured above is your average Japanese car, a small box with wheels. There are no old cars in Japan, Serena tells us the government incentive and emission rules make older cars unaffordable. Most larger cars are either delivering something, taxis or hire cars. Small parking spaces are cheap, larger ones expensive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are no electric cars in Japan and no plug-in hybrids, lots of conventional hybrids. The government doesn\u2019t believe the power grid can sustain the change. There\u2019s little street parking so where would you charge them ? No Chinese or Korean cars are allowed. Public transport here is so efficient and reasonably priced, why have a car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All that aside, Serena has us on the bus and on our way to Nara Park<\/a>. On the outskirts of Nara City, some 90 minutes east of Osaka. The park is 1200+ acres and the home of twice that many deer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s a very grey morning and the weather app tells us rain is on the way. Serena warns us the white silks deer can be very demanding and aggressive if you feed them. Wherever people congregate so do the deer. We give them a wide birth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Park has numerous temples and shrines scattered throughout the park but we follow the signs to Todai-ji Temple<\/a>, or the Eastern Great Temple which is located on one side of the park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Great Southern Gate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Todai-ji Temple<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The Great Bronze Buddha of Nara<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Almost 3 weeks in Japan and we\u2019ve seen a few temples but the scale of Todai-ji and the great Buddha are immense, not to mention the other statues of various deities pictures below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Leaving the temple we take a detour to a Starbucks we spotted on a corner as we entered the park. Walking in we find half a bus load of lemmings sitting around drinking coffee. Later we walk back through the park as the drizzle becomes more consistent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back on the bus we make our way through the traffic to central Osaka. On the way Serena explains Osaka is a very different city to Tokyo and the other major cities in Japan. We soon work that out ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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An hour or so walking the Dotombori which is crowded, noisy and vibrant even in the late afternoon drizzle is nothing like we have seen elsewhere in Japan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Michael + Pam<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Date: 29-31th October 2024  Travelled: Osaka   Visited: Nara Park and Osaka   Stayed: Dotonbori Crystal III, Osaka   Budget: 21 days @ $XX per day We arrive at the Port of Osaka exactly on time. All public transport systems in Japan appear to run exactly on time, the road system not so. The general […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":36089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[121],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-36076","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-japan-","8":"czr-hentry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36076","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36076"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36076\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36105,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36076\/revisions\/36105"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/36089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36076"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36076"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/michaelandpamstravels.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36076"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}