Andrew + Japan = Awesome

When we last left our hero he had just emerged victorious from the Osaka Aquarium, after an encounter with a genuine whale shark, a manta ray, and a legion of spider crabs. Now, the continuation…

After visiting the aquarium, I stopped in the bright midday sun and took a long look around while I considered my options. For some strange reason my thoughts and gaze always ended up on one particular landmark in the immediate vicinity, as such I decided that I should go and investigate.

This is the Tempozan Giant Wheel, which was at one time the largest of it’s kind in the world. Not anymore though, now it’s tiny. Regardless, the wheel itself has a diameter of 100 meters, and at the very peak is 112.5 meters tall. I paid the 700 yen or so to go on it, and wandered up to the entry. There was only one other person on the wheel the whole time I was there, maybe it gets busier in the evening or peak season, it was a Wednesday, but I couldn’t help feel that the “observation wheel” industry has had it’s time.

A complete rotation on the wheel took around 15 minutes, and I could see a lot from the top. I couldn’t really work out what anything was, since I wasn’t entirely sure where exactly I was, but it was still a very nice view.

Wow, that’s a lot of photos. There’s more, click on photos at the top to see them all. After getting off the giant wheel I headed back to the train station and boarded a train, but I wasn’t going back towards Osaka, I was exploring.

Stay tuned.