Ah Blossoms!

Osaka Castle- the Umehana are out, That means plum blossoms! (just imagine that if these haiku were translated then they would actually be haiku)

Twittering of birds
First Umehana
Moves the spirit.

Sweet smells in the air
hana glow with silver skys!
Living art

Takoyaki (octopus balls), 3 man stand up comedy at the castle, then getting lost as I wander to the south in search of window shopping.

At Tennoji:
Furuimachi is apparently the term for the homeless encampment at Tennoji.
And by the way, these Ronin of today, are ordinary people who scrape together and existence quite well here in Japan, not just crazies as some might imagine. I only saw one obviously crazy guy in Japan, and that was at Hirakata station and I doubt he was homeless... I actually did not see many homeless at Tennoji, nothing compared with the Bay Area , yeah!

Tennoji park is a complex of walls and gates it seems. Many are see through, but always there is someplace impossible to get to, that is not necessarily very interesting anyway. I realized that I had been trying to get somewhere all day long... walking fast around streets trying to find something, and not knowing what it is. I had nowhere to go, in fact, everything seems to close exactly when I arrive...
finally I realized that this is where I was going, in fact, that I was there, just a little spot in the park, a road really, nobody stopped there. So I did, and I pulled out my hamtaro (a little girls cartoon theme, really it is all I could find) sketchbook, and decided that this was it, this section of road, gate and wall. It might be all I ever get to, the path itself, so I better see that it is golden and filled with evening light.

Then I wandered away and saw a 560 dollar jacket at Mio "early spring," an ultra-chic department store.