It's been over a year and my memory is failing me. Below is a brief description of the places we went to:
1st Stop: Shitenoji Temple. We'd never have gone here if it weren't for the Osaka Unlimited Pass - It's just a typical Japanese temple, but with a huuugge cemetery right beside it, making the whole place quite eerie. We spent some time loitering around a nice garden inside, and browsed through the artifacts at the Treasure House, and then promptly left for Hitachi Tower.
2nd Stop: Hitachi Tower is the oldest observatory in Osaka, having opened some 30 years back. It us in a pretty dilapidated state now though, and the lift going up was really old and creepy, akin to the one in Dark Waters. Once on top, the view is nothing compared to what we saw at Umeda Sky Garden, and the glass panels were very, very dirty. A total waste of time in our opinion. And of course I wouldn't pay admission for this - Sky Garden is 10x better.
3rd Stop: Some museum dedicated to the development of Osaka city over time. Think it's the urban development museum or something. It's amazing how many museums there are in Japan, and again we wouldn't have bothered with this one if it weren't for the pass. Surprisingly, this one's pretty cool - it had one floor built in pre-war Japan style, and even had free Yukata to try on. Grace donned one and we went out to the "street" to watch a "hanabi", or fireworks - fake of course, but sounds quite real. And then there's the contemporary floor which had very cool exhibits that showcased the changing environment in Japanese families over time. There'd be, say, a typical house layout in 1900s; then as the audio commentary progressed, parts of the house would be removed, and automatically replaced by new components that reflected the new environment of a new era. So you can really see the evolving Japanese community over time, quite interesting.
4th Stop: WTC. We rushed down in the hope of catching the Sky Buffet - affordable at barely 1380 or 1580 yen per pax, and with a view to boot. Alas, we reached too late - buffet closes in 15 minutes or something. And it was too early to see the night view of the harbour area on the observatory. So we had to move on to the next stop, Maritime museum. Grace was starving and turned quite sulky, so we sat down in front of a shop named Starvations and laughed as Grace drank Oolong tea to help curb the hunger - nothing around the area then was appetizing or cheap. Of course that was a year ago, now the area is filled with nice restaurants and eateries.
5th Stop: Martime museum. A loooong walk along the pier from the train station. It's a dome-shaped building that seems to "float" in the sea, without any visible physical connection to land. In fact, there was a undersea tunnel that links land and the "floating" museum, and there were portholes on the roof of the tunnel so you can see the fishes, algae and random floating organisms through them. The museum featured a huge ship that really sailed some years back, and many little interesting exhibits, multi-media stations and things that you can try your hands on. Alas, we didn't linger for long as we had to rush to catch our Santa Maria cruise at Kaiyukan.
6th Stop: Santa Maria Cruise. This ship was a 15th-century replica of Christopher Columbus' ship, and it had a museum on board dedicated to him. The cruise is about 45 minutes and took us around the Osaka harbour and ventured a bit into the open sea, though not for long. The wind was very strong, and we had to wear double layer to prevent ourselves from freezing. Once again, we'd never have thought of doing a cruise for 800 yen if it weren't for the pass.
7th Stop: Final Destination - WTC observatory. Enroute to the observatory, we spotted a chapel (or at least a wedding venue), and Grace became very interested as it's quite a interesting notion to have your wedding some 200+m up in the air. Then it was the observatory. We stayed there for quite some time, and waited till sunset and caught a glimpse of the night view. Alas, we both felt that the WTC tower is a tad too far away from the city area, hence the view paled in contrast with that at Umeda Sky Garden even though the latter is much shorter in height. We left soon after sunset, both famished. I think we had Yoshinoya near Juso station, before heading back to My Dear II.
