The HEP Five ...

I really don't like ferris wheels. They always sound like such a good idea & then as soon as the latch is locked & I'm trapped inside a metal cart of some sort, which never has enough oxygen & is always incredibly hot, the idea of being suspended & then dangled however many feet (or meters) in the air seems unbelievably insane. An old friend asked, "Since when are you so cautious?" Granted, he wasn't referencing amusement rides, but I started thinking about how I went from my favorite ride at the carnival being the double ferris wheel, to having close to a nervous breakdown every time I get in one now (ok, maybe a slight exaggeration). Whatever the reason, they creep me out.

This ferris wheel is on top of the HEP Five building in Osaka, which is considered to be an amusement complex with 11 floors of shopping, arcades, food & maybe some karaoke. We headed straight for the death trap.

I think that I read that there are 50 gondolas on this thing.

50 cars full of crazy people if you ask me.

For not being a fan of the thing, we sure did take a lot of pictures. I'll blame it on habit.

All smiles in the beginning, where we were still at somewhat close to the ground and able to make an escape if there was some sort of malfunction.

The tracks of one of the many, many train stations in Osaka.

Slowly but surely we climbed to the top and the view

was great when I stopped being a spazz.

The Umeda Sky Building, where we were an hour previous.

As we were approaching the tip top, I was less than impressed. :)

Once we were back on the ground I could breathe again. I had about had it for the day. When we first got on the train to head to Osaka that morning there weren't any available seats. So we got cozy on the floor of the train & I was leaned up against the door & didn't think anything of it. The train kept stopping but the opposite doors were always the ones to open so I wasn't worried. I'm half dozed off using the door as my support when all of a sudden we stopped & the door that I was leaning on flew open. My head & half my body went flying out the door & my heart jumped out of my chest, landed on the train platform & before I could pick it up again the train was pulling out. It took my a good three minutes to catch my breath and calm down & I never could fall asleep after that. Needless to say, I moved away from the door but that was how my morning started, with a little jolt to the heart. The running joke was that I left my heart in Himeji on platform 4.

Then after that we went to the Umeda Sky Building & if you watched those videos (that I finally got to work, without tech support :) ) you saw me, better yet heard me, about having heart attack number two for the day. And then this ferris wheel about did me in. All before about noon. I was thankful our evening plans consisted of an Absinthe Bar (pronounced Abusinsu if you are Japanese) and nothing that required going above ten stories.

Here's the video from the ferris wheel. I tried to find a mute option so you don't have to listen to the sound, but I was unsuccessful. So just mute your computer, unless of course you're a fan of my exaggerated, drawn out, often high pitched, piss poor commentary.


much love,
tara
xx