Spring 2011 Osaka & Kyoto Trip Day 5: A Bridge That Wasn't Too Far

The longest suspension bridge in the world, the Akashi Kaikyo, is less than an hour's travel from Osaka.  I'd been interested in seeing it since we moved to Japan - I originally read about it in middle school and have always thought the project was cool as a serious work of engineering but sketchy in terms of ever paying back the billions of dollars it cost to build.  That aside, this trip was our chance to go see it and thankfully we're both nerds and I didn't have to spend the whole time with my wife wondering what the hell I was thinking when I said I wanted to go see a bridge.  So, we bought train tickets and headed out there.

I'm just going to say that this is a very large bridge.

If you're not ready for pictures of a bridge, you are in the wrong blog today.

This bridge is so big, it has two lobbies and and an elevator that goes up eight floors before you can get to the observation deck...which is well below the roadway deck of the bridge.

The observation areas were mostly covered completely on all sides... but they put glass in the floor.

The girders basically come to a point on the horizon before they even reach the first piling.

The observation deck also features an enclosed viewing area with a small cafe and gift store...literally inside the bridge itself, suspended over the water.

The gift shop has a cornucopia of bridge-themed goods.

Including their very own special bottling of beer

 

They did warn you about bridge pictures, yes?

The bridge: not small

After seeing as much of the bridge as we were going to that day, we got back on the trains and headed for Kyoto.  We got rather less lost in Kyoto Station than in Osaka Station and our hotel was literally right in front of our subway stop, so the transit went quickly and smoothly and we were surprised at how upscale the hotel was.  We'd gotten another $50/night deal and hadn't been expecting the army of uniformed bellhops and so forth.  The room was appropriately small, though, about the same size as the last place we'd stayed.

After settling in, we decided we wanted actual Japanese food tonight after eating our fill of Western cuisine on previous nights, and got the location of a rotating sushi bar from the internet.  We walked over to where it was supposed to be...but it wasn't there.  Other restaurants were, but not the one we were looking for.  We walked around for maybe half an hour, because, dammit, you know there is a rotating sushi place around there somewhere, downtown in a major city, but we didn't find any.  We later determined that we'd walked by at least two, but we didn't get close enough to identify them for what they were at the time.  We (horror of horrors) just went to a regular sushi place instead which worked out fine as a replacement.  I did eat one thing that I'm still not sure of the identity of.  I'd recognize it if I saw it, but I'm still not sure if it was fish or seaweed or something else or what.  Couldn't recommend it.  Hazards of the trade over here, I'm afraid.

The following day we found we have mixed levels of appreciation for some of the most iconic, famous, and revered shrines in Japan.