Rainy day in Osaka

The daughter of the couple running this CaminoRo is just standing in the rice cooker sitting on the floor! She keeps saying Nana! Nana!  I know she:s not talking to me as when I look at her, she cries! She`s 13 months and almost ready to walk. So cute! Makes me very lonesome for Sarah but if I try to hug this little one, she`d scream, I know! Anyway, met Shirley last night - traveling from New Zealand for a week here. She talks very fast and it was hard to understand her. I think she`s from Auckland. She left for home today after buying a sweatshirt. We had more oatmeal and nuts for breakfast and headed out with our plastic see-through umbrella`s loaned from our place. It was POURING all day! Made me appreciate what could have happened but didn`t in China! We took the circle route so we could use our JRPass. We were going to purchase a day pass for all the subways and buses here in Osaka but at the information office this lovely woman told us most of the sites we`d get into for free with the pass were free today anyway (it`s a Saturday). And she said using the circle line for free with our pass, it wouldn`t be much of a walk to get to the sites we wanted to see. So we saved 2000Y and headed off. First was Osaka Castle, a drippy 15 minute walk. and up many steps. The outside walls around and between the moats was pretty amazing. It was built in 1500s, then burned down within the first 100 years. A guy named Hidori or something became somewhat of a hero in Japan here and many legends grew up around him. The castle was restored twice and then bombed in 1945 (by us, I`m guessing!) so not much to see inside except large screens showing battles.  We then headed back and really had to do some climbing around walls to avoid rivers of water (by this time our feet were completely soaked!) and then got back on the train. This time headed for the Museum of homestyles of old Osaka. We were wandering lost when this lovely couple ended up walking us down a LONG covered shopping area into a building and pointed us to the 8th floor. We never would have found it!  It turned out to be delightful, with reconstructed village with rooms you could walk through, a worker there who grabbed Betty and I and a guy to do this tricks with stick-like mat that did the neatest things. Made a fishing line, two flags she said were American and Japanese, a water fall. It was fun! Afterwards she gave each of us this little box made out of origami folds with two cranes and a top inside, all made out of the tiniest folded paper. Amazing! It almost seemed like it was a Children`s Museum as lots of families with kids were there. _There was a light show that is hard to describe.  By this time, I was ready to go back to room and get a hot shower. We picked up some food from the vendors out front and had a meal at home of what we thought was like an omelet but wasn`t eggs. and some noodles with a bit of pork, and a bun shaped like a fish with bean paste. The beer we shared was the best part of the meal! Off to Hiroshima tomorrow!