After conquering the central aspects of Osaka yesterday, today is the day we hit the north. Our first stop is Osaka Castle! We headed out and quickly felt how hot it was out today! The sun couldn’t make up its mind between showing itself in full or hiding behind the clouds, so we had our UV umbrellas at the ready to prevent any sunburn. The only problem is that the umbrella we purchased on the last night in Kyoto for David was defective – one of the metal support rods was busted. It still worked alright to block the sun in low wind conditions, but we were nervous that in any rain it would be a goner.
We found the subway station easily, and wandered around, looking for a place to get breakfast and exploring the underground malls. We found a few potential restaurant spots, but all were either too expensive or didn’t quite have what we wanted. Nothing jumping out at us, we hopped on the subway to get a little closer to the north.
Walking the streets, we found a highly rated ramen spot, but decided to skip it as we spotted the line of people waiting for entrance before we even saw the restaurant. Defeated and wanting to get on with our day, we stopped in a Lawsons (like family Mart or 711) and David grabbed a pineapple mixed fruit juice for a liquid breakfast, and caitlyn grabbed a curry bun. We sat at the counter and ate/drank our breakfast – the curry bun was very tasty with a light breaded exterior that seemed to be lightly fried, and a tasty curried center with a perfect stuffing to bread ratio. The fruit juice was standard, but did have a salty taste to it, almost like it had some Liquid IV in it. We also took this time to try and fix David’s umbrella, attempting to use the bear fan as a clamp to bend the nail that came out of the metal support rod. This was obviously completely unsuccessful, so we went on anyways, knowing that real rain was a few hours away and future David and Caitlyn’s problem.
After getting a quick breakfast in, we made the walk towards Osaka Castle. We noticed a large crowd of people gathered near the entrance around a large structure, with an announcer speaking to the crowd. We hung around for a minute or two, but as we couldn’t understand what they were saying, decided to move on. Shortly after, we noted that people dressed up in traditional clothing were performing some kind of dance. As the sun was too strong, we kept moving.
We made our way towards the outer moat and was greeted by a beautiful sight. The water had a green-sun coloring to it, which we noticed has been the trend at some of the other castles as well. The castle wall and moat were very reminiscent of Nijo castle, which we had just seen recently in Kyoto, but on a much larger scale. The wall was probably 5 times as large as Nijo, but all used similar architecture.
We continued our way along the exterior, coming across other beautiful sights and cool things to check out. For example, shown below is an early radio that was used to broadcast a variety of things to the public.
Finally, we reached the bridge that took you across to the interior of the castle walls!
We found the interior to be MASSIVE, with multiple gardens and shrines. There was even a second moat along the interior, interestingly though, without water in parts of it. We discovered that it was unknown why there is no water in this area of the moat, and for as long as we have known, it has not had water in it.
We crossed over yet another bridge to finally get to the most interior part of the fort which houses the main castle!
The innermost castle grounds were huge, with not only the stunning white, green, and gold castle itself, but additional buildings that housed museums, cafes, rooftop terraces, and more. We opted to forego the other buildings which were modern, and bee-lined it for the castle.
We did the 360 deg outer walk of the castle, taking in the beauty and admiring it from all angles.
In addition to having the beautiful sight of the castle, you were able to climb the steps along the walls to be rewarded with a stunning view of the surrounding skyline, which is very modern as compared to the historical castle.
After taking our time soaking in the views, we considered paying a fee to go into the castle to the observatory at the top. That is, until we rounded the corner and realized that the line to do this snaked around the entire side of the castle, as if it were a line in a theme park during the most crowded weekend. We cut our loss and decided to move on, making our way back across the bridge to the outer section of the fort. On the way, we lucked out and got a great view of the golden boat that takes people around the moat.
Before leaving the grounds entirely, we backtracked some to check out some of the gardens and shrines we had seen along the way. We didn’t stay long at any of them, mostly making sure we weren’t missing anything huge before leaving.
We decided to exit from a different point than where we entered, which turned out to be a great idea, as we were rewarded with a beautiful view of the castle on a hill! A sweet couple from San Francisco who were traveling with their two sons offered to take a photo of us, and we chatted with them for a bit before going on our way.
At the last area before leaving the grounds, we found these beautiful stone statues. We read a plaque that described how these were stolen from China during a war ~400 years prior, and within the recent future (maybe 1970s?), China “gifted them” as a sign of peace between the two countries. We were really impressed with both the design as well as the cool story, and spent some time admiring them.
We then made our walk towards our next destination, Osaka Tenmangu – a Shinto shrine. The skies began to darken in an ominous manner, making David very nervous about the integrity of his already broken umbrella. Along the way we crossed over several pedestrian bridges, which offered more beautiful views of the city.
Right as we got to the other side of the bridge, the skies opened. We were lucky to find a building with some coverage under it to escape the rain for 10 minutes while the worst of the downpour occurred. We were in an area with very few restaurants and shops, so this was a lucky find!
As the rain lightened, we decided to continue onward with our trek! The shrine was only a couple more blocks away, and we figured we could seek shelter there should the rain worsen.
Lucky for us, it seemed that the rain was over by the time we reached the shrine, which allowed us to take in its beauty without umbrellas or the looming fear of a down pour.
This shrine was larger than some of the other ones we have stumbled upon throughout Japan, and we took our time soaking in the history and symbolism of it. As we were leaving, more dark clouds began to roll in, and we decided it would be best to duck in to one of the famous covered shopping arcades in the area.
It was at this point that we realized it was already after 2, and we hadn’t eaten any lunch. We passed by a yakiniku restaurant, and the high rating and alluring smell drew us in. Lucky for us, Wi-Fi was also available, so we popped out our iPad to work on our blog. Additionally, we happened to be there during happy hour! David grabbed a “mega pint” while Caitlyn ordered a sour (her new favorite in Japan! We think it is soju and soda, but tastes like a carbonated lemonade with some alcohol in it. Lemon is by far the most popular flavor, but many places have dozens of flavor options). We decided to share the short rib combo, which came with thinly sliced beef simmered in a soy-based sauce, rice, miso soup, and kimchi. The short rib was amazing, with such an addicting flavorful sauce along with tasty cabbage and bean sprouts. The miso soup was also very good, and the kimchi was tasty. We ate slowly, taking our time to get our blog published from two days prior.
We continued along the walking mall, enjoying some of the quirks that it has to offer.
As we progressed along the walking mall, we tried stopping into another izakaya, but as soon as we walked through the door the woman took one look at us and made a cross with her hands stating “no room”. We thanked her and turned to walk out right as 3 younger Japanese guys walked in. We couldn’t help but notice that they put up 3 fingers indicating the number of people in their party, and were directed to a table. This was the first time we experienced something other than extreme kindness and hospitality from the Japanese people. We tried to shake it off, and found another local watering hole to hit instead. As we entered here, we were met with frustrated looks from the waitress who reluctantly showed us to a counter seat. When we asked for a menu or how to order, she was quick to say “no no” and move on. Attempting google translate with her was out of the question, as she was unwilling to attempt the transaction. We decided it would be best to just leave. Having two poor experiences in a row in this part of Osaka left a bad taste in our mouth, and we decided that it would be best to head back towards our hotel region. Along the way, David found a woman selling umbrellas and picked up a new one! She was quite the saleswoman, and showed off all of the features of the umbrella, including how to open it and close it in a way that would rival Vanna White. Funny enough, it was the most basic umbrella, and an explanation was not exactly needed (but we were glad to confirm that this umbrella didn’t come broken). We made our way back to the start of the mall and hopped on the rail to head home.
As we made our way back to central Osaka, we were already hitting 7pm. On the train we talked about what we were in the mood t0 have for dinner, and thought Gyukatsu sounded amazing! Lucky for us, an incredibly higher rated restaurant was just 3 blocks from the rail stop. We descended down the steps to the restaurant, and were seated immediately. We each ordered 1 cutlet, and anxiously waited for the delicious food to arrive. Lucky for us, the wait was not long! It seems that all Gyukatsu comes with the same sides and sauces, which was perfectly okay with us. We dug in, and mutually agreed that we enjoyed this meal better than our first one we tried in Tokyo (although David liked the sauce better from the other restaurant). With bellies full and happy, we left to make the short walk home.
Along the way we stumbled across a huge building that offered beautiful light displays in its inner hour-glass shaped design. We stuck around to walk it through a couple cycles before continuing on our way.
As we passed the start of Dontonbori we decided to take a stroll down it, and see if anything interesting was happening.
Sadly, the rain returned and dampened our parade. By this time we were pretty wiped from a long day with a lot of sun, and decided to head back to the hotel.
We were greeted with more beautiful views from our bedroom window before falling into a deep sleep.
David’s thoughts of the day: I’ve been noticing that all of the logos and words on hats, backpacks, shirts, and everything are all in English. Lots of NY Yankees hats and clothes as well as other U.S. cities like LA. We even saw a small child the other day wearing a Colorado shirt. There seems to be almost no Japanese writing, and almost all American references (though some do not make sense and some make us laugh).
Caitlyn’s thoughts of the day: since traveling in Japan for the last 12 days, western cutlery is no longer a consideration in my mind. Chopsticks can handle ALL food.
Steps walked: 17,669
Miles walked: 8.4
Bluming Travelers 