I really like the Juso area. The mix of shops in the shopping streets here is just right, independent and eclectic without being too run-down and on the verge of shutting down. The various covered shopping streets in Japan reminds me of Singapore, with how there are some malls that are full of personality and odd shops, sometimes themed after a certain product or culture, and then there are other malls that are very sterilized and whitewashed. I talked about this back in my Singapore Day 6 post, about a quarter of the way down the page.

Japan seems to have a similar but weaker parallel version of that, with some shopping streets being full of safe, big-name businesses like phone shops and convenience stores and supermarkets and dollar store chains and expensive jewellery and clothing shops, whereas other shopping streets have independent markets and small dollar stores crammed full of weird things and stores dedicated to random things like bicycles or handmade glasses. And then some of those independent malls seem to fail and are nearly dead with every other store seemingly shuttered. It’s really interesting to see.

Or maybe I just like this area because one of the streets plays 80s English music, which I like, over their loudspeakers.

Anyway today was a somewhat quiet day, because it was raining! The first day that it actually rained heavily where I am since I’ve arrived in Japan. This was also the day that I was supposed to meet Ran and her friend, so I had kept this day free, but at around 11 am today she said that she/they couldn’t make it today after all — partly because of the rain in the forecast, which scuttled plans to walk somewhere and take in a nice evening view, and partly due to other personal reasons on her end. I never did get to talk or meet this other person in the end, but that was fine, as Ran was who I was here to meet anyway! That did mean that today was a bit of a lost day though, due to rain and the late cancellation, as was the next day, due to the meeting itself. And as these were my two full days in Osaka, it meant that I didn’t really get to visit a lot of places in Osaka.

That’s not such a bad thing though, this just means that I get to visit the place again someday!

After the cancellation and amidst the falling rain, I had to pick something to do on the day. I had heard that there was a special goshuin that one could get at a particular shrine here in Osaka, specifically when it was raining heavily enough that one had to use an umbrella, so that seemed like a good thing to try. But uh, I didn’t have an umbrella. And although my previous (and next) rented rooms came with umbrellas for the guest, this specific one didn’t for some reason. So what to do?

For starters, my current rental was close enough to the covered shopping street, which itself joined up with the train station, so it wasn’t really an issue getting to the station. The shrine’s main building along the way also had the tiniest bit of cover against the rain due to the direction the rain was falling from, so all in all I spent maybe 45 seconds in the rain getting to the station, cut into two halves of 20-something seconds each. To get to this shrine, I’d have to use several new train lines that I had not touched yet, but they weren’t terribly long ones — one stop east from Juso Station to Awaji Station along the Hankyu-Kyoto Line, and then south from Awaji Station along the Hankyu-Senri Line to Tenjimbashisuji 6-chome Station (which apparently has the longest shopping street in Japan, but I didn’t know that before I left Osaka), and then staying on the train as it turned into the Sakaisuji Line and went three more stops.

Due to confusion about where the train was actually headed though, since there were several options that the train could have branched off into and the names were confusing, I somehow ended up getting off a couple times because I wasn’t sure if I was on the right traine. Eventually made it there okay though. The stops included Awaji Station for the transfer (and with a weird, intriguing staircase at the end of the platform):

and then Ogimachi Station:

and Minami-Morimachi Station:

Two stops and one stop before my destination itself, Kitahama Station. Not that I really minded, I just had to wait for the next train each time, and the longer I waited the more of a chance that the rain would die down, I figured.

I wonder why this sign was needed:

Was falling onto the tracks such a common thing on this particular Sakaisuji Line? I also saw that sign at other train stations too. Kitahama Station was just a bit more curious in particular because there were platform doors that were supposed to come out of that wall above and close off the passage to the tracks when there were no trains there, but they were stuck open.