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From Oct. 24 through Nov. 5, 2006, your webmaster will be on vacation in Japan. As time and Internet access permit, blurbs about the trip and photos will be posted here while he is out of the country. All images posted are © copyright 2006 Duane Gordon and may not be reproduced without prior written consent.
 Mt. Fuji from the air. We arrived in Osaka after a very long but uneventful flight which took us over Canada, Alaska and even a little bit of western Russia. We made our way to the hotel and went to sleep.  The cityscape in morning.
 Osaka Castle Rising from bed, we decided to enjoy piece of home before heading out to see the city. In other words, we visited that icon of America: McDonald's. After downing some breakfast, we walked to Osaka Castle, one of the city's focal points. Surrounded by stone walls constructed during the Tokugawa Era, the interior contains a multi-level museum dedicated to the life of one of the nation's early leaders, Hideyoshi Toyotomi, who made the castle his center of power.  The Osaka Aquarium penguins. "Snow" is falling in the middle of the group. We then visited an exhibit at the Suntory Museum and viewed all of the menagerie at the Osaka Aquarium, including the world's only captive whale shark, its collection of penguins, playful otters and thousands of fish.  The Osaka Aquarium whale shark. This evening, we will head to the Floating Garden Observatory for dinner and to see a panorama of the city at night. More to come! |