Maishima Incineration Plant

As I mentioned in my other post, there are two building or facility that has some weird design in Maishma, this one is the Incineration plant.

It burns garbage from Osaka City, Yao City and Matsuhara City. Tour here is more famous than the Sludge Center and the facility are more tour-friendly too.

Again the tour itself is in Japanese but you can request English and I think Chinese audio when you make your reservations.

Let’s start the tour.

The red color represents fire.

With the tower. Inside the tower are 4 big exhaust pipes.

Unloading area for the garbage.

A miniature version of the inner part of the facility.

A miniature version of whole facility.

The “garbage picker”. The facility have 2 incinerator which can burn up to 450 tons of garbage in day so that would 900 tons/day.

The office and monitoring area.

Our guide explaining to us how the garbage are being incinerated.

It is an amazing facility. People asked why would you go there? Why not? I think it is vital how our rubbish are being disposed and how our tax money are being used. The facility operates 24 hours but other than the smell of the incoming garbage trucks, there is no smell at all. The air filtering system is amazing.

Also the facility does not use any gas, oil to burn the garbage. It uses a sort of air combustion technique . They also use Thermal recycling meaning no energy is going to waste. The heat from the boiler rooms are utilized for floor heating, water, gas reheating and for preventing explosion in the hammer crusher. The same energy is also used for power up the plants operation on a daily basis and the remaining power is transmitted back to the local power company.

Details on how to make reservations are here(sorry only Japanese).

Maishima Sludge Center

If you have been to Kansai International Airport in Japan, you might have noticed two very distinct towers along the way.

One is color blue and that is what I’m going to blog about.

This building was designed by the late Friedensreich Hundertwasser.

So what is this building?

This is actually Osaka’s water recycling facility for underground water. Thus the color blue, it is suppose to represent water.

Touring the facility is free but requires a reservation. Tour is mostly done in Japanese but you can ask an English audio guide during the reservation

Let’s take a tour of the facility.

A wall painting of the facility

The staff working so hard :p.

The tour was only within the building but the weather was really nice and we had a really nice tour guide that he decided to take us all the way to the rooftop and show us around there too.

A view from the rooftop.

This tower actually contains 4 or was it 6 exhaust pipe.

After walking around the rooftop we went down on the base of the tower and continued our tour there. I’m not sure if this is still part of the official tour but hey I’m not complaining.

A storage area for the Sludge.

The base of the blue tower.

The back area of the facility.

This facility only recycles Underground water for Osaka City not Osaka Prefecture.

The by product are now being research to be used for pot making but some are actually used as construction material so nothing is thrown away.

It was really a very educational tour around this facility.

If you live in Osaka City, this is where your monthly payment goes for underground water treatment and of course your tax.

Retro Osaka Buildings : Arai Building

新井(Arai) Building was original a bank back in 1922. It then became a restaurant in 1976 but unfortunately due to some safety issues the restaurant closed.

In 2005, a patry shop , Gokan opened in the first floor.

The building has 4 floors and 1 basement floor. Currently the upper floors are now office space for rent.

After we left Ikoma Building, we walked about 5 minutes passing by Nomura Building and met the building manager of Arai Building.

Walked up to the second floor and check some of the offices there. No getting inside though, just a peek. Then we walked all the way to the top floor and got a short history and overview of the building.
Going up!

The hallway!
A cat design in one of the offices

A short description of the window (?)

I found yelp !

Here too!

It was a fun day. I got to see another side of Osaka’s Historical Buildings and get to checkout how it looks inside.

Retro Osaka Buildings : Ikoma Building

Hello hello , long time no hear or write. Had a few adventures lately and hopefully I would be able to share them with you.

Let’s start with the latest one.

Had the oppurtunity to join an event organized by Yelp Osaka to visit two of the historical buildings in Osaka.

Out first stop is Ikoma Building. Ikoma Building was built in 1930, so now it’s about 85 years old. It has fortunately WW II. Ikoma Building is a watch store. It has 5 stories and 1 basement.
Currently, the 2nd floor all the way to the top is now office space for rent. The basement holds some of its historical artifacts. One of which is the very first signboard. Some old clocks and even the thing that is used for fixing clocks. The building is not open to the public so I felt really fortunate to be able to see inside and walked along the corridors , stairs of this building and felt walking back into 1930 Japan. Very thankful for Yelp Osaka for giving me the opportunity to join this amazing event. Let’s take a short tour.  
Looking up.

When I got to there, I saw Yelp Osaka Community Manager in 1930’s Fashion, could not help myself and took a picture of him
First stop is the basement, where we met the building managers and listen to short history of the building. I got curious about this thing and found out later that this is used to repair watches.

Some old pictures of long ago:
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Then we continued to the rooftop where we could see the old clock tower. It has undergone repair and the inside has been modernized but it has retained it’s original form.

Old and new.
Osaka Yelp Community Manager and Ikoma Building Managers.

From there we slowly made our way down and found this really beautiful stained glass. This was used to be in the front but to preserve it, they move it here
Down we go..

Yelp Members

Almost there.

From Ikoma Building we moved to the next one and will be on the next post 🙂

Oyamazaki Villa

One good thing about working far from home is the free train pass and unlimited train ride between home and work.

So one fine spring day, I took the train to Yamazaki and check out the much talked about Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Arts.

The main building was built by a wealthy businessman, Shotaro Kaga, and was considered for demolition decades after his death. Fortunately, with the help of local people, the Kyoto government and Asahi Breweries, the Villa was preserved and was opened to the public as Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum in 1996.

Let’s start the tour.

The tunnel going to the Villa.

I thought I’ve already reached the Villa, but this turn out to a small resting place and locker to store big backpacks or big luggage since it’s not allowed inside the Museum.

Beautiful, Sakura tree.

I’m finally here.

Entrance.

The Museum houses Monet’s Waterlily collection. Just like any other museum taking pictures inside is prohibited but taking pictures of the outside garden from the inside is not and thus:

Japanese garden , from one of the glass doors.

On the top floor of the museum is a cafe with a veranda and a view of Yawata city

I wanted to stay here , relax and enjoy the view unfortunately a group old folks where occupying the whole place and chatting their hearts away.
So on I go with my tour.
I decided to enjoy the view of the garden, and it was a better decision.

The garden and the pond from another angle.

A rabbit sculpture. I think its really out of place in a very zen garden and it’s huge too.

The view of the Villa’s veranda cafe from the garden.

The green Sakura and the Museum.

You can reach the museum by taking JR or Hankyu Line and stop at Yamazak Station or Oyamazaki station respectively. Free shuttle bus is also available for guest from both station, check the schedule here.

I hope you enjoy the tour and please give it a quick visit when you visit Kyoto.