We wanted to try a river cruise in Osaka but, on finding the relevant ticket office (cleverly disguised as a boat), we gathered that the 90 minute cruise wasn’t running. Our command of the Japanese language didn’t run to establishing whether it was because of the time of year (March) or time of day (3.30pm).
However, an English language leaflet promised a 20 minute cruise on the Tombori River. Roy was a little reluctant but I insisted an evening cruise would be the perfect opportunity to see the neon lights the city is famous for. I won!
Boats were said to leave every 30 minutes and we hoped to catch the 6.30pm trip but on arrival, found it was already booked with the first available tickets at 7pm.
We killed time by walking along the river path and saw all the bright neon lights.
There were 15 on board and a young girl with megaphone provided a commentary in Japanese so we just concentrated on the views. It was all a bit over the top as she tried getting people clapping and cheering at various times and in particular at a huge neon sign of a runner (it was obviously iconic but we’re not sure what it was all about).
The 20 minute trip was quickly over and having paid ¥900 (£6) we felt we’d not really had value for money as everything we saw, we’d seen whilst killing time along the river path. Roy kindly resisted saying ‘I told you so’.
