The Global Grandma: The Ferris Wheel, or Fifteen Minutes Saying Goodbye to Osaka.

The Ferris Wheel,

Fifteen Minutes Saying Goodbye to Osaka.

From the series

"Japan, or The Extreme Vacation of an American Retiree."

Whenever I travel, I always try to climb the stairs of a bell tower or ascend the highest mountain... I have this irresistible urge to see the city, the valley, the river, or the ocean "from a bird's-eye view," as they say. With every passing year, it becomes harder and harder to do this. But I don't want to give up. The desires, no matter how much the body ages, remain the same: to feel, to climb, to see, to taste... But now I have to choose how to do it.

We were returning from...

No, I need to start at the beginning.

Just in case someone new is reading this series of stories (or old friends are jumping in mid-stream).

Celebrity Millennium, a massive cruise ship, was sailing around Japan in August 2025. On that ship, among two and a half thousand passengers, there were three of us: Meire, Rosalie, and me.

Third stop: Osaka. The ship was docked for two days, which gave us the opportunity on the first day to visit the former capital of Japan – Kyoto. (You remember Sannenzaka and Ninenzaka, those two ancient streets in Kyoto, right? And the color of Kiyomizu-dera Temple? No? – Vermillion! This is for our memory exercise. Just kidding, just kidding...)

We were returning late in the evening, tired, hurrying "home"—back to the ship. (What an injustice! Even the girls' shadows are skinny! If you didn't get it, I’m trying to joke again.)

And we walked right past the Ferris wheel, glowing with different colors in the night. I wish we could ride it!

Despite the late hour, everything was working: the wheel was moving slowly, and it was lit up with bright backlighting. Sometimes bright red, quickly switching to multi-colored, then suddenly glowing a rich blue, slowly transitioning to purple. Beautiful!

A childish desire to ride!

And strong, just like in childhood...

But we were tired. It was that feeling of "wanting to, but holding back" ("and you want to, and it pricks," as the Russian saying goes). We had been on our feet all day, it was late evening, the sun wasn't beating down, but the heat hadn't completely disappeared yet, maybe...

No, we were too tired.

On the second day in Osaka, we went to the Castle – perhaps the most beautiful castle I have ever seen in my life.

From the Castle's observation deck, the wheel was clearly visible: red, it stood out brightly against the gray-steel skyscrapers (although those shots were taken with zoom, of course).

We returned well ahead of departure time, so as not to worry. We had plenty of time left (the ship was sailing at five in the evening)...

And again, the wheel was on our path, three minutes from the liner... And the childish desire to ride returned! What a temptation – to look at the city one last time before sailing away.

How wisely those who planned the city development placed the tourist "lures"! Tons of cruises come into Osaka port, and thousands of passengers disembark. Not everyone, like us, goes to see castles: some are afraid of getting lost in an unfamiliar country, and cruise excursions are expensive; some simply don't want to visit museums and temples; others are more interested in shopping.

That’s why so many attractions are located right in the port area. It’s a win-win: great for the locals (tourists aren’t cluttering up their daily lives as much), and the tourists love it too (no headaches trying to figure out the commute).

Even when we were just sailing into Osaka, many of these "lures" were visible.

And sailing in—we were docking for several hours.

From a distance, I noticed an interesting building, tiled in the style of Gaudí.

That, by the way, is a unique waste processing plant. (I would absolutely go there on a tour! I am completely serious.)

Of course, as we sailed in, the famous Akashi Kaikyō Bridge — the longest suspension bridge in the world — impressed me.

Our liner docked right next to it! And barges were sailing beneath the bridge past us in the morning.

And from under the bridge, the towers of Hogwarts Castle were visible.

That is Universal Studios Japan (USJ) – one of the most popular and visited theme parks in Japan (the first outside the States; sigh, I should really go to mine, in Los Angeles!).

How hard it is to always choose! It’s good in its own way when the cheese on the store shelf is just called "cheese," but what if there's a whole section, and your eyes dart everywhere, and you stand there for half an hour, unable to choose?! (A poor comparison. Very poor. I lived in a time when the only choice of cheese was "cheese." But it perfectly conveys the complexity of the situation: here you have two incomplete days in a big city with so many temptations, so many places you’d like to visit. You know this is your only chance in life. And you start thinking about where to go, what to choose, how to spend this day...).

And in Osaka, the choice was huge. We could have not traveled far from the port at all. Right nearby (for the centenary of the port's founding) they built a whole "village." Well, of course, it's not a village at all, although it bears the name Tempozan Harbor Village, but a whole entertainment complex.

The main center of attraction here for all tourists, not just those from cruises, seems to be the Osaka Aquarium Kaiyukan, in whose main pool swim whale sharks.

It would be nice to go, but we didn't have to sail to Japan for that. In my native Los Angeles, in Long Beach, there is the Aquarium of the Pacific, which we have visited more than once. And also the aquarium in San Diego (SeaWorld San Diego), in Monterey (Monterey Bay Aquarium)... We went ourselves, took the kids, we should visit again.

So, we are skipping the Aquarium in Japan. Besides, visiting the aquarium, like Universal Studios, takes a whole day.

How great that we chose the Castle! But now we're back, we have an hour or two before departure...

In the Tempozan "village," there is a large shopping and entertainment center where you can find souvenirs, shops, and many restaurants. On its territory is Naniwa Kuishinbo Yokocho ("Gourmand Alley") – a themed area styled after 1960s Osaka, featuring popular local dishes such as takoyaki and okonomiyaki.

It would be wonderful to stop by, but we're on a cruise where food, prepared for any taste, is available anytime—just choose...

The bottom line is, that wasn't for us either.

In short, we decided to ride the Ferris wheel before sailing.

It was built, if you remember, for the port's centenary (in 1997), and at the time of construction, with a height of 112.5 meters, it was the tallest Ferris wheel in the world.

I read "at the time of construction" it was the tallest for practically every wheel, and for all of them, it was only two or three years. This Osaka wheel held the top spot for only two years, until 1999.

Tickets are cheap, about five or six US dollars.

There are two queues, one is shorter and moves faster. It depends on which cabin you want to ride in. If you want to ride in a cabin with a transparent floor—there are fewer of them, and many people want to ride—the queue is longer. But it's worth it. (By the way, there are special cabins for people in wheelchairs, without seats, where the wheelchair can simply be rolled in. They go without waiting, we saw it ourselves.)

Pleasant young people, a girl and a young man, open the cabins. Before the next people get on, they check the ventilation and cooling in each, then invite you to sit, close the cabin – and off you go.

Everything is calm, not fast, but somehow reliable, well-organized, without stops.

Only the color of the cabins changes.

Ours is gray. But our cabin has a transparent floor!

There is a wonderful rule there: you will be the only occupants in the cabin, even if you are alone; they will not put strangers together. This is very pleasant, not to mention safer.

I forgot to say that I went on the wheel with Meire; Rosely decided to return to the ship.

Now we look around, saying goodbye to Osaka.

And, of course, we take photos, photos, photos! On two phones, no less!

While I was fussing, trying to photograph everything possible, left and right (and even what was visible through the transparent floor)...

While I was taking traditional "memory photos" for Mary, and she was taking them for me...

Suddenly, Mary had a brilliant idea! She told me, "Stop! While we're up here..."

And we only have fifteen minutes for the whole rotation! The wheel moves slowly, but it moves constantly. You see a shot—and that shot you saw has already moved on by the time you press the button. Fortunately, having worked together for sixteen years, we are used to understanding each other without words and trusting each other.

Here is what came out of it!

The two best shots!

That's how we felt up there in those transparent cabins!

Floating in the air...

I wish I could see the city from the wheel at night too! (Oh, as always, I want something more; the good thing is already here, that "bird is already in hand", but dreams keep scattering—I want the "crane in the sky" too!)

They say that locals predict tomorrow's weather by the color of the night wheel: orange means sunny weather, green means cloudy, and if you saw the wheel blue the night before, take your umbrellas—it will rain. And if the wheel shimmers with all the colors of the rainbow? – Then ask the weathermen!

There it is, the Aquarium, a modern building at the end of the street, gray-burgundy... To the left is the huge shopping center, behind which our ship is barely visible.