#face face

i took it off :/

1. Umeda Sky Building/Kuchu Teien Observatory

The boys went up about 40 stories for some scenes from Face Face. The trip up the first 37 or so are free, if you can hold your nerve during your ride on the glass elevator and then the trip Gu Jiacheng takes on their escalator. Then you pay to step onto the roof, which isn’t as bad as it looks from inside. 

Around the lens-shaped interior observatory, there’s a fancy restaurant, a cafe with its own special waffles, and a nice gift shop with capsule toy machines like the boys were sampling in the BTS. 

(After this, I had to change hotels, so the day passes quickly.)

2. Tempozan Hep Five Ferris Wheel 😂

My second stop was a mistake, though maybe a mistake a person can only make in Osaka: THE WRONG FERRIS WHEEL. You see, Osaka likes its ferris wheels, so it has two major ones. My photo is of the Tempozan one by our next location, but in Signal, Zhao Lei rides the Umeda one not far from the previous location. 🤦🏼‍♀️They’re even both red at night - here’s Tempozan later:

See? Pretty close! But the Umeda one is on top of the Hep Five Mall in a busier area, so that would explain Zhao Lei walking through those crowds. (Though he was also by the harbour where Tempozan is! Grr! 😁) Aaaanyway, it gets better. 

3. Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan

This was the location I knew going into Osaka because Wu Jiacheng is my bias. (As your Tumblr mistress, though, members are equal - that’s why I have a personal Tumblr. 👍🏻) There were many, many, many pictures taken here, in part because much of the route through goes around the multiple levels of the massive main Pacific Ocean tank (in the second photos), which is 9 metres deep. The first set of photos goes under recreations of ice floes in Antarctica, while the last set is from the largest of various sizes of jellyfish tanks. 

5. Nakazakicho

I didn’t have a lot of hope finding the landmarks I wanted here when the only directions I had were to leave a subway station via a certain exit (4) and turn right into a maze of dark wood hipster places at night. I had almost given up when I re-traced my steps and found the odd corner in the first set of photos, and even then I kept comparing it against the Face Face MV photo on my phone to be sure. 😂Then I found a location in the BTS I’d used earlier to help me determine the neighbourhood. Clearly I wasn’t the first to do that, because across the way, there was a sign on a residential window for No Pictures. (Summimasen...) This is the place I wish I’d spent more time in during the day, because it has so many tiny shops and restaurants down its little alleys. 

6. Shinsekai and the Tsutenkaku Tower

I made this my grand finale because I knew it would be open because of its 24-hour food spots and because of its hard-to-miss landmark smack in the middle. The question was whether I’d pick one of the spokes leading to it that Peng Chuyue wandered down for Signal (and ate in during the BTS 😊). Then I turned around and BOOM - look at those signs on either side! Barely a change since it was filmed! 🏆It was the perfect end to my odyssey... well, at least it was once I ducked into one of those 24-hour places for some kushikatsu and a giant mug of whiskey & Coke. PCY would’ve approved. 😁

Thank you for coming with me on my XNINE Tour of Osaka. If you want to make your own pilgrimage, don’t do it last-minute like me, so you’ll have a chance to get to Katsuoji Temple. You may also want to check for cherry blossom season to get the full effect at Osaka Castle Park. Check those links above, including the ones leading to the Weibo guides from Dimples who helped me.