Central Japan Day 2 - Osaka - Shinsaibashi & Shinkansen Ride

View the previous/first post in this series here.

01 July 2008

After dropping by Universal Studios and visitng Osaka Castle, the tour bus took us Shinsaibashi (心斎橋) -- one of the biggest shopping areas in Osaka. Technically the name of the place is the name of a bridge but it is refers to the entire shopping district.

Entering the shopping district. Bicycles are parked in a neat row in the center of the pedestrian street.


The many eating places here have interesting decorations. Here's a large crab.


The local lottery


One of those reasonably common ¥100 shops


Looks like they serve pufferfish here


What the hell!


A place where we will be having buffet lunch on the roof



According to my tour guide, Osaka is famous for Tako (octopus) balls and this is the best shop in Shinsaibashi.


Baskets of chopped octopus, yum!



The balls are basically grilled dough with a piece of octopus in them, to be served with some garnishing and sauce. They even folded a leaf boat.


This is actually some sort of oval ferris wheel


Capsules of the ``ferris wheel"


The river, I think that is the bridge this place is named after


Some nice flowers nearby


Now this... tastes very good!


A local theatre


This should be an old style ramen house


Mcdonald's! Not that I was impressed but my friend wanted to try some pork burger from there.


It reeeeally looks normal to me, and it is not even the McRib


Shinsaibashi-suji, a large sheltered shopping area


It is not even noon yet but look at the crowd. That's the weekend for you.


The man-holes are decorated and painted. Here's a depiction of Osaka Castle



More interesting restaurant decorations

Getting tired, we returned to the have lunch at the prior arranged restaurant where our guide told us that we will be getting a taste of the Osaka subway. We will be traveling to the Shin-Osaka Shinkansen Station (bullet train) via the local subway.

Walking towards the subway station, a peacock decoration above Daimaru


Subway time


Looks pretty complicated but all the stations have romanized names. Today we are spared the hassle of buying the tickets as they have been pre-purchased by our guide.


A ticket, it is paper on one side and what looks like magnetic material on the other


Down we go the narrow stairs


The trains here have separate carriages


They have high ceilings too


Finally we arrived at the Shinkansen station. Here is where one buys tickets.


The gantry


The Shinkansen tickets. It says, ``Shin-Osaka <-> Kyoto"




Various bullet train versions. The last being the newest I believe.


The seats inside are spacious and comfortable


Off we go!



Osaka to Kyoto is mainly sub-urban sprawl without much of a countryside


The ticket warden comes round to check our tickets


Reaching Kyoto station at about just 15 minutes later. The train probably didn't even reach optimal speed.


A cake shop with delicious looking cakes at Kyoto station

After leaving the train station, we found our bus waiting for us, ready to take us to our next stop -- Kiyomizu Temple (音羽山清水寺, Otowa-san Kiyomizu-dera), one of the most famous temples in Kyoto and a UNESCO World Heritage site.

View the next related post here.

Return to the trip index here.

Central Japan Day 1 & 2 - Tokyo to Osaka, Osaka Castle

Central Japan Trip Index

Day 1 to 2: Tokyo to Osaka, Osaka Castle
Day 2: Osaka - Shinsaibashi & Shinkansen Ride
Day 2: Kyoto - Kiyomizu Temple & Awara - Onsen Resort
Day 3: Tōjinbō
Day 3: Kanazawa - Kenroku-en
Day 3: Shirakawa-gō
Day 3: Takayama - Kokunbunji Temple
Day 3: Takayama by night
Day 4: Takayama - Higashiyama Temples
Day 4: Takayama - Sanmachi
Day 4: Hirayu Otaki
Day 4: Daiō Wasabi Farm
Day 4 & 5: Lake Kawaguchi
Day 5: Tokyo - Odaiba
Day 5: Tokyo - Sensō-ji, Shinjuku, Harajuku
Day 6 & 7: Tokyo Disney Resort & Home

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This is the first post in a series of posts about a 7 Day Central Japan trip.

31 June 2008

Finally, the time has come for a vacation. This time, unlike the previous organized tour, I was going with a group of friends. Woke up at 5am in the morning and by 6:20am I was at the airport. In the blink of an eye, it was 8:30am and we were on board an All Nippon Airways (ANA) flight to Narita before transferring to Haneda for a domestic flight to Osaka. I must say the flight was really enjoyable, ANA has the best economy class I have experienced so far, except for one bit -- they only switched on the entertainment system once cruising altitude is reached, leaving you a good 1 hour starring into space.

Here's what one of their lunches look like.


Here's the other menu, yeah that's right, that's Champagne on economy class.


After about 7 hours we arrived at Narita International Airport (Narita Kokusai Kūkō)


En-route to the other airport, some stadium?


After about an hour we arrived at Haneda Airport that is actually known as Tokyo International Airport (Tōkyō Kokusai Kūkō).


The interior of the airport

Check-in counters, the check in system here is different from Narita and most other international airports. Your baggage is checked in at a separate counter after collecting your tickets here. Then upon check-in of baggage, a special ticket is given that must be retained to claim your baggage later.

We have two more hours to go so it is to be dinner at the airport. After looking at some not so appetising bentos (boxed meal sets) at the mini-mart, we decided to settle for ramen here.


A piping hot bowl of ramen for a pricey ¥1350. Didn't taste that nice. At this point in time, ¥100 is about USD 1.


This confirms that the QBHouse in my country is not some pseudo Japanese express salon, it's real!


After one and a half hours we arrived at Kansai International Airport (Kansai Kokusai Kūkō) that serves the region around Osaka. Some large porcelain piece here.


Apparently this airport was opened in 1994 and rests on an artificially created island!


In about 20mins, we checked into our hotel for the night, Ramada Hotel Osaka.


The sophisticated Japanese toilet seat.


The spray is for your bum, and you have to press stop or it will continue. Somehow, confusingly, the bidet is for ladies although a bidet by definition covers your bum as well.


After a short rest we decided to go take a walk to check out the surroundings. Here's what looks like a Buddhist temple.


Ah... Yoshinoya is real too.


Inside, it is mainly counter seats, you seat and you order, unlike most western fast foods where you queue to order before you seat. A separate counter is used for take outs.


A ¥380 bowl of beef with rice. Tastes much better than the version we get back home. Green Tea is complimentary.


It looks like we are in the outskirts of the city.

Having traveled the whole day, it was already past midnight. Time for a good night's rest. We walked back to our hotel, passing by another gate of the temple en-route. The next morning it is breakfast at 7am with both international and Japanese fare. Then, we will proceed to Universal Studios which other guests in the tour group opted for to drop them off before moving on to our highlight -- Osaka Castle. First version completed in 1598CE, it was reconstructed twice and improved over the successive years. The last damage to the castle was in 1945CE due to allied bombing in WWII. Since then, it was restored in 1997CE.

What most hotels' Japanese-style breakfasts look like


This is called Nattō (納豆) -- fermented Soybeans. It has a peculiar smell and I personally find it unappetising.


This so reminds me of Razor Ramon Hard Gay (レイザーラモンＨＧ, Reizā Ramon HG). Guess what? He is based in Osaka. HOO!



The entrance to Universal Studios for vehicles


Beyond this archway is where you queue to get in


What a busy day!


This rotating globe makes for nice pictures


Back to our bus an onwards to Osaka Castle (大阪城, Ōsaka-jō)


Scenic reflection of the outermost walls of Osaka Castle compound on the moat. The castle is in the middle of a large park



These metal railings have little birds on them. Scarebirds?


The map of Osaka Castle Park


Gateway to inner compound with the castle in the background. The walls of the inner compound is surrounded by a dry moat.


A person in what I think is a Japanese Buddhist monk attire (based on the alms bowl). I am not sure if he is really a monk since they are only allowed to beg for alms.


Probably the reason why Osaka Castle area was hit by allied bombing in 1945. This building is where Imperial Japan planned the invasion of Asia.


A time capsule lies in front of the castle, filled with present day stuff to be opened 5000 years later.




Osaka Castle. Entry tickets need to be bought to visit the museum inside.


The top deck seems to be for viewing the surrounding park.


A cute looking well groomed squirrel


It is actually his pet!


Tako (octopus) balls seem to be the in thing to eat in Osaka


A last look at the castle with the time capsule in front of it


Walking out of the castle park


A little pseudo train brings people around the park for a fee

That ends half a morning in Osaka. Next up, we will be headed to Shinsaibashi, a major shopping district in Osaka, for lunch. Then, we will catch the Shinkansen (Bullet train) for a short ride to Kyoto.

View the next related post here.

Catching a monopoly

K: You there, I'm a monopoly watchdog and I believe you are a monopoly. It is my duty to see you stop being one, see you in court!

T: No I'm not, yeah see you there.

awhile later

District Judge: T, you have violated monopoly laws. You should divest your interest and not lump them in the same sector.

T: Awww damn, I'm appealing!

K: Go ahead! *sniggers*

another awhile later

T: We've got a good deal so we are selling away about half our stake, hurray!

K: That's not fair, you made an appeal so you should keep the status quo as being a monopoly so that the appeal judgement on whether you are a monopoly in the first place will be fair.

T: But I no longer hold a substantial stake in that sector!

K: Who cares? Hmmm.. What was the case for again? Hmmm... nevermind, as long as I win the appeal.

Desktop Sharing Securely with VNC from WinXP to Ubuntu

I decided to setup two old computers lying around my office today. One already had Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) installed while the other was running WinXP. So I wiped the WinXP off one, and distro upgraded the other to Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron). Now I have two Hardys sitting on an office bench. I primarily work with a dual-screen WinXP machine with remote desktop to another WinXP machine somewhere else. Then it dawned on me that instead of using ssh to issue text commands to the two Hardys, it will be great if I could do remote desktop to them and control all 4 machines.

It turns out that the simplest way was not a proper remote desktop like how WinXP does its remote desktop but rather, desktop sharing using VNC that comes with Ubuntu. What happens in desktop sharing is you send inputs to the remote computer which sends you back the output. The input is taken to occur on-site, i.e. moving the mouse on the remote side actually moves the pointer on the actual machine. Unlike a proper remote desktop, desktop sharing with VNC is inherently insecure. This is primarily why I refer to it as remote sharing instead of remote desktop (note that in the System menu it is under "Remote Desktop").

Firstly, for remote sharing, after enabling it, a remote user can only connect to the desktop if a user is logged in on site. This means that a computer in an insecure physical location will never be secure as someone can sit down in front of it, stop the remote sharing, and start using the system in place of you. Contrast this with remote desktop in WinXP where the computer will be locked by the remote user on-site. Hence only someone with your user account can hijack the computer physically. Fortunately for me, both computers are in a secure physical location so this is not a problem.

Secondly, the password that one sets for remote sharing is only 8 characters long and there is no prompt for a user account. This means that the security of a user account is now only 8 characters since someone can log in remotely as well and change the on-site logged in user's password.

Lastly, for the free version of VNC, data exchange after logging in is not encrypted. That means any password sent can be sniffed over the network directly.

The solution to the last two problems is to use ssh tunneling and a firewall (or host denying). Indeed there are quite a few a articles online on how to achieve this, one of it being here. The gist of it is, one creates a secure ssh connection to the remote machine, use ssh tunneling to tell the remote machine to forward a connection to itself (on the VNC port), then, connect to desktop sharing through this secure tunnel. For example when connecting from A to B, an encrypted tunnel is set up from A to B and a unencrypted one from B to itself. The latter is fine since no data actually leaves the network interface. Then, to stop others from making a remote sharing connection, either only allow the local host (i.e. B) to remote share to itself or use a firewall to block incoming connections to the remote share port. I used a firewall since the GUI option to ``allow local connections only" for remote sharing did not work for me and I was too lazy to manually edit the configuration files.

The net effect, now connecting to a remote computer requires logging in to it using ssh which makes the connecting password of 8 characters immaterial -- it is now as strong as your normal user account. Furthermore, no one can easily snoop on data you send over the network as it is encrypted, plus no one can access remote sharing directly without using ssh tunneling.

Tada! Controlling 2 WinXP machines and 2 Ubuntu boxes with one computer! But VNC is quite sluggish even when the machines use the same network switch and this still does not solve the physical insecurity problem. To do that we probably need real remote desktop. In Linux I think this means having an X-server on the WinXP machine via cygwin and logging in to the linux box using XDMCP. This gives the remote user a dedicated desktop, i.e. all actions are private to the user, instead of being shared on-site. The remote computer can be left at the normal log-in screen so no one without the proper privileges can hijack someone's user account on-site.

Alternatively some online HOWTOs seem to advocate FreeNX to do this which I believe is distributed from here. However, it might not be the best solution if the goal is to minimize computation on the remote client (i.e. the machine you are at) since the GUI computation is now done on it. ``SO why not just use normal ssh?", you ask. Well sometimes I forget the names of packages that I want to install and Synaptic helps me find them better than apt-get.

* * * * * Update * * * * *
Decided to give NoMachine NX a spin. It is easier to configure than VNC, handles all security problems and creates a separate X-session for each remote login. It does this, I believe, by having an x-server and using ssh for the connection. Get it from their website.