A Constant State of Lost

The adventure began when the train that we were on stopped and EVERYONE exited. We waited for a moment then I thought it wise that we get off also. Then people began boarding but from the opposite platform. As expected, the train was local only and headed off but in the opposite direction, from which we had come. We boarded another train shortly thereafter then exited at Nanba and before leaving the station asked someone "Den-den machi doko desuka?" Luckily the girl spoke quite good English (with a British accent!) and helped us out. She seemed somewhat irritated and Ross conjectured that her mother was forcing her to help us so as to use the English lessons they had paid so much money for. Maybe so.

Anyway, we realized that we had not exited at the correct station. Well, this was the station we were told to exit earlier but that was not correct. So we walked in the direction that we thought the Electric Town was but discovered quickly that we were not heading in the right direction.

I stopped and asked a shop girl how to get to Den-den Machi. She only spoke Japanese and I got a little information out of the exchange.


Stopped at a Yoshinoya and ate tori-niku bowls then headed back to the main street to try to walk to Shinsaibashi. On our way up the main street we saw an attractive young woman wearing a nice business suit riding a jitensha. She had her keitei at her left ear and, when stopped at a light, would rifle through papers that she had in the basket at the front of her bike.

Back to our journey; we were not heading in the right direction. So we stopped for a coffee and I had an epiphany the "to-ru" meant a tall coffee. Ross and the girls working at the counter got a kick out of my reaction. After the coffee we walked and eventually asked a young boy how to get to Shinsaibashi. He seemed a bit confused so an older gentleman stepped in and helped us out. Once again the directions were in Japanese but I managed to get enough out of it to set us straight.


We exited the train we had been told to board by the man back at Nanba (full circle!) and walked north to Shinsaibashi. We were turned around a couple of times. Finally I convinced Ross that I did not recognize any of the shops we were passing, so we turned back. And good thing; we were NOT heading in the right direction... once again.

While walking we saw this tiny little building sandwiched between two highrises. Looked funny at the time; an obvious holdout, refusing to sell off their property to developers.