This year Osaka has been having a tourist promotion 'Aqua Metropolis Osaka 2009' and one of the attractions is Duck Tour Osaka.
This is newly built Hachikenya pier in Temmabashi for duck tours.
During a tour, a guide tells you a history of the duck tour in Osaka, about a bus (or a ship) and where to look at... in Japanese.
From Hachikenya pier to a launching point, we had a short on-land tour of Osaka.
This is OAP (Osaka Amenity Park) consists of Imperial Hotel, residential towers and an office building.
Five minutes later, we had the most exciting moment in this tour.. Launching!! But sorry, it happened so quickly that I couldn't get a photo. =(
(And I'm afraid photos couldn't explain how exciting it was...)
Now a bus became a ship!
And we are watching OBP = Osaka Business Park.
This area used to have an armaments factory and the whole area was in ruins following the concentric bombing in 1945.
Here you see Osaka castle with lots of railway cables.
If you wanna climb it up, you can walk from Hachikenya pier to the castle. (20 minutes on foot.)
This is the back side of Hachikenya pier.
It has a French restaurant where you can have a wedding party. ;D
The view of OAP from the ship.
After a ship returns from the river & becomes a bus again, it has to have 10 minutes break at the pier under the regulation.
This is where it launched & landed in.
Wet tires tell us it was a ship 2 minutes ago. :D
The car number '808' is the symbolic number for this tour. As I said Osaka is now promoting itself as an aqua city. It is known for having lots of bridges. During Edo period 808 was the number meaning 'a lot' and people said Osaka had 808 bridges. (In fact, there were about 200 bridges though...)
On the way back to Hachikenya, we had another on-land tour.
This is the famous scenery of Osaka in Dotonbori area.
In my opinion, this 3,600-yen tour (on season price) was worth trying! You can see Osaka city which you cannot see if you travel by subway.
