Postcards from Japan

Wednesday started off cold and rainy, so we decided to head over to Tenjinbashi to check out the Osaka Museum of Housing and Living. The name might not inspire much interest, but the exhibit hall was incredibly unique and immersive. It’s basically a recreation of an Edo-era Osaka city street that visitors can wander through and explore. You can even rent kimono to really get into the spirit.

The houses are all machiya-style, with shops on the first floor facing the street, kitchens in the back, and living quarters on the second floor. Since homes of the time were largely made of wood and paper, every street had a fire watch-tower to help alert the residents and help prevent fires from spreading. The exhibit rounds out with detailed dioramas of Osaka from the Edo era to the present. We had a great time investigating all the little details, and at only ¥500 it’s an amazing bargain.

After the museum, we stayed in the area to check out Japan’s longest covered shopping arcade, Tenjinbashi-suji. There’s a little bit of everything on offer—clothing, housewares, groceries, books, restaurants, salons—you get the idea. We ambled our way along its roughly 2.5km until we arrived at Osaka Tenmangu shrine. Founded in 949CE, the shrine hosts a festival every year for students hoping to do well on their exams.

We rounded out the night with a visit to a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant, then made our way back to the apartment to call it a night. Laying on the futon with heat radiating off of me from a nice long soak, I think reality finally set in that I’m here, in Japan, doing what I’ve always wanted to do.