This was a slow, take-it-easy, odds-and-ends kind of morning for me as far as sightseeing in Osaka went. I started at Mittera Temple and then wandered, hitting some of the sights my walking tour app mentioned, mostly within easy walking distance of my hotel.
After Mittera Temple, I walked along a couple of shopping streets that were very different from each other, and visited a shrine and a market.
I know that sounds like a lot, and if you scan the subheadings below, it looks like a lot, but none of them were large or major sights, so I didn’t spend a lot of time at any of them. And they are all, except the last one, located within a compact area. And even the last one, Kuromon Market, wasn’t a long walk away.
Mittera Temple
Mittera Temple is very close to my hotel. I walked past it a few times already while in Osaka, but never noticed it. Even looking for it today, being directed by my walking tour app, and then aided by Google and Apple Maps when I couldn’t find it with my walking tour app, I still didn’t see it at first.
The problem is, Mittera Temple is hidden in plain sight. The temple is right in that high-end shopping street that I mentioned in my opening entry on Osaka, Mido suji.
Aside: This is as good a place as any to go off on a tangent that I’ve been meaning to travel along here in Japan. The English version of Japanese street and place names often has multiple versions.
For example, I’ve seen both “Mittera Temple” and “Mitsutera” for the name of this temple. I assume Mitsutera is the transliteration of the Japanese name, but if you look for that name in the walking tour app I use, you won’t find it. And guidebooks are hit and miss as to which name they use. In both Apple and Google Maps, you can enter either name, and it will find it. However, on the map, Google Maps labels it as “Mitsutera,” while Apple Maps labels it as “mitsudera temple” (the “d” and use of lower case is Apple’s). So, Apple Maps went off in a slightly different direction.
And that high-end shopping street? I copied “Mido suji” off the English portion of a street sign placed there by the city. (The lowercase suji is what was on the sign.) But I’ve also seen it as Mido Suji, Midosuji, Mido-suji, Midōsuji, and Midō suji.
If you search on a mapping application or in an online book or article and the search function is not forgiving in terms of spelling, accents, and capitalization, you might not find what you’re looking for.
How can the Mittera Temple, a temple for goodness’ sake, be hidden in plain sight? It can do so when it’s in the lobby of a modern 15-storey building that also houses a hotel. The building’s next-door neighbour has a stylish Lululemon store on the street level. A couple of doors down, on the other side from the Lululemon, is a Dolce & Gabbana store.
The entrance to the Mittera Temple and the coincidental hotel is through a wide entryway. There are heavy, expensive-looking, wooden open doors on either side of the entrance.
I believe the doors are solely decorative. I don’t think they close. And even if they do, they didn’t look to me as if they’re wide enough to block the entrance if they were shut.
On one door, raised lettering with the hotel’s name and the words “Hotel Entrance” in a stylish font were attached to the door along with the hotel’s logo.
On the other door, there was fancy, raised, large Japanese script. Immediately below that, but still in raised lettering, it identifies the Mitsutera Temple in English lettering.
If you had a laser focus on trying to find an old Japanese temple, would that be something that would catch your eye? If you answer yes, I won’t call you a liar, but I will think it.
A sign in the building lobby in front of the temple told me that, “In order to preserve and pass down the 200-year-old main hall, which survived World War lI, Mitsutera Temple collaborated with Tokyo Tatemono Co., Ltd. to consider how to make use of the temple grounds. Over a complex four-year construction project, the main hall was carefully relocated and preserved, leading to the completion in 2023 of a 15-story complex that integrates the existing main hall, priests’ quarters, a hotel, and commercial tenants.”
So the Mittera Temple survived for two hundred years, including the extensive Allied bombings during World War II, only to end up in the belly of Mammon.
The main shrine hall is small—it would have to be to be reconstructed inside the lobby of a not particularly large building—and has a small vestibule running the width of the hall. The general public can enter that vestibule if they take their shoes off. I did. Between this vestibule and the main prayer area, there is a wall made of glass panes in wooden frames.
The main prayer area was closed when I was there, but easily visible through the glass. However, the sign said that anyone can join the monks in their daily morning service for free between 7:30 and 8:00. If I have to wake up early enough to stir, pee, shower, and get dressed (all mandatory morning activities before going out), in time to get across the street to the temple for 7:30 in the morning, I’m going to be in even less of a praying mood than normal. And I’m never in a praying mood at all. So, that’s not going to happen.
The sign in front of the temple says that the main image of worship in Mittera Temple is an 11-faced Kannon, a wooden sculpture created circa the 12th century, located at the centre of the main hall. I couldn’t see it. There was no sign forbidding the taking of pictures. So, I took one of the three statues at the centre of the main hall. If you can spot the 11 faces, please let me know.
The sign said it’s a merciful Buddha with 11 faces to gaze over the entire world.
Outside of the main shrine, to one side in the lobby of the building, there’s a statue with a curmudgeonly, fiercely curmudgeonly, visage. The sign told me that’s Aizen Myo-o, a wooden sculpture created circa the 17th century. It’s worshipped as a Buddha that swiftly grants wishes. I don’t know about that. I haven’t checked the news today. Has a permanent peace broken out throughout the world? If not, Aizen Myo-o must be out of practice.
Mido suji
I hate in-person shopping. I hate everything about shopping. Hunting for what I want. Checking prices. Deciding how much I am willing and can afford to spend on whatever it is. Choosing between options. Telling the sales clerk, “No, I don’t want to give you my email address so the store can spam me.” Paying. And, if the store has its own credit card, telling the clerk five to seven times, “No, I’m not interested in getting the store’s credit card, despite the wonderful benefits it gives me.” I hate it all.
I don’t hate online shopping much less than I hate in-store shopping, but this is about a shopping street, Mido suji. So, you might ask, why did I walk along Mido suji, Osaka’s high-end shopping street?
Even if you hate shopping as much as I do, it’s easy to walk along Mido suji and enjoy the street while you pretty much ignore the stores.
Mido suji is a very wide boulevard. I didn’t count the number of lanes of traffic, but there are probably something like a half a dozen. However, by my hotel, the sidewalks on both sides are very wide. Each contains a double row of trees, a bike lane, and plenty of pedestrian space.
As I walked farther along, after a few blocks, the sidewalks on both sides narrowed a little. The double rows of trees changed to a single row on each side, and the bicycle lanes disappeared. But there was still plenty of pedestrian space.
And the lanes of traffic weren’t oppressive either. There were rows of trees separating some of the lanes.
I said I did my best to ignore the stores. But I did notice some. In addition to high-end and extremely high-end clothing and jewelry stores, there are two car dealer showrooms, Tesla and Ferrari. So, if you haven’t completely emptied your bank account in the other stores, and you didn’t drive there, you can pick up a car to carry your purchases home. As if.
Namba Shrine
The Namba Shrine is a nice, little shrine with clean lines and a demure appearance. There are some lion statues out front serving as protectors.
A serene, standing Buddha statue off to the side fits the demeanour of the shrine.
Namba Shrine is pleasant, but I was there at the wrong time of year to fully appreciate it. My guidebook says that the shrine hosts the Ball of Cord festival in February. Then, worshippers are given a five-coloured ball of string to pray for good health.
I’m sure the Bundle of Elastic Bands, the Chain of Paper Clips, and the Jumble of Unmatched Socks festivals are also very spiritual experiences in which worshippers pray for prosperity, fertility, and a free lunch, respectively.
Shinsaibashi suji
Shinsaibahsi is a covered, fully pedestrianized shopping street. The ceiling is white translucent glass, with three sections to it. The top section is fairly flat, but with a slight peak to it.
On the sides of the street, running the full length of Shinsaibashi suji, there is a slightly lower glass ceiling of the same material that extends out somewhat from the buildings on both sides. These two lower lengths of ceiling don’t have straight edges on the sides pointing to the centre line down the street. A series of adjacent arcs creates a wave pattern. I found it somewhat attractive.
Shinsaibashi suji goes on for blocks and blocks and blocks. Some cross streets run through it. Most of them are narrow and cross underneath the ceiling. A cross street near the middle of Shinsaibashi is a little wider. The ceiling ends on one side of it and begins again on the other side.
Shinsaibashi wasn’t quite what I was expecting. I thought it would be one of those shopping streets that are somewhat grungy, but have all that much more character for it. That’s not Shinsaibashi at all. Most of the stores are middle-class shops, quite clean, and with prim and proper displays. There are clothing, jewelry, convenience, drug, and other dry goods shops there. All of the stores are larger than the stalls that I thought would be there, and some are relatively big.
There’s a blend of international and local brands, along with stores that I think are independent. Essentially, it’s a mall that calls itself a street.
I said they’re middle-class stores, and most of them are, but there’s also a large Tiffany & Co. store on Shinsaibashi suji.
Kuromon Market
I saved Kuromon Market for the end of the morning because my walking tour app said that most of the vendors sell food for eating there. I figured it would be a good place to go for lunch.
In addition to eat-there foods, a few vendors sell some fresh fruits and vegetables. And there is one larger store that is a modern grocery store, with a wide range of neatly stacked fruits and vegetables, and coolers for the products that need to be kept cool.
Except for the modern grocery store, this is more what I had in mind as a market street, albeit a covered market street again. Most of the stores are somewhat on the grungy side, full of character. I wouldn’t so much call it street food, though. I was thinking there would be skewers of meat, fried fish and fish balls on sticks, and other food that you’d eat standing up beside the stall.
Most of the eating establishments aren’t so much stalls as small restaurants. Many of them had a few, and sometimes more than a few, tables squeezed into the back of their establishments. Some vendors clustered together shared tables between them.
There was a lot of cooked meat and seafood on skewers, but there was also sushi, okonomiyaki (a form of pancake with noodles or cabbage among other ingredients), ramen, and dry noodles, among other dishes. I had some tasty yakisoba for lunch to end my morning.
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