Living in Osaka Blog

By far the biggest bargain to travel on Osaka’s subway is the No-My-Car-Day Ticket (ノーマイカーフリーチケット).  Available every Friday and the 20th of the month, it is an initiative to help reduce cars on the road and increase usage of public transport.
For 600 Yen you can travel all day on the subway and bus system.  But [...]

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I’m sure that a quick search will find you this link but just in case, here is the English site of Osaka’s Public Transportation Bureau. Also available in Korean and Chinese too.
Lot’s of useful information including a pdf map of the subway system [UPDATE: I don't know since when but the pdf now does have [...]

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Before the Spring cherry blossom season there is the less famous plum blossoms. They are attractive in their own right and one of the best places to see them is at Osaka Castle. From now until the next couple of weeks is the best time to see them so if you have time, [...]

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Most of the attractions around the Osakako area like the Kaiyukan and the Ferris Wheel will be closed tomorrow and the day after (21st & 22nd February).  The Suntory Museum will remain open.

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This morning at Honmachi Station a commuter fell from the platform onto the tracks after bumping into another commuter. Luckily she wasn’t badly hurt, as the train that was approaching stopped in time.
Two things come to mind:

always stand behind the yellow line
if something similiar happens to you and you don’t have time to [...]

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The Ajigawa Tunnel is an unique tunnel connecting Nishi-Kujo with Kujo.  It runs underneath the Aji river and is for pedestrians and bicycles, though once it also provided service for cars.
The tunnel’s elevators are currently under maintenance so you have to use the lung-busting stairs.  The maintenance should be completed by the end of February [...]

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A black and white photo I took a few years back of Honmachi subway station.

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As promised some photos taken last weekend of the Penguin March. Everyone enjoyed it so much, especially the kids. Let’s hope that after the bird flu scare they will have the event again next year. More photos on my flickr account.

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Bad news on the penguin front, there’s been a bird flu scare here in Japan. In an effort to protect the penguins, the kaiyukan has cancelled the rest of the parades this year
We were lucky enough to see them last weekend so I’ll post some photos for those that wanted to go [...]

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Following on from the Design Matters post, Garr also gives some of the best presentations on giving presentations. If you give any presentations as part of your work you owe it to ourself and your company to go to one of his information and advice packed presentations where he teaches by showing and not [...]

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