Day 7 – Castles, Pokemans and Sunsets

20,116 steps, 14.24km, 13 floors climbed, 2 layers of clothing, 7 french bulldogs, 2 “doge’s” and countless pets in clothes.

Today was going to be a semi quiet day – until Tim suggested that we visit the Osaka Castle before heading to the aquarium… I can’t complain though, we got to see some magical things today!

So the day started at 9.30, where we met in the lobby to start today’s journey. We walked the 2 km to the Castle grounds, where we made it about 10 meters in before stopping at the vending machines. Need energy. Corn soup it is. We followed the general flow of people to a ramp leading into the outer layer of the castle. It was here we stopped for real food. Drew got some noodley dish and I chose some deep fried balls of unknown filling – turns out it was octopus. We didn’t stop for too long as we wanted to get through as quickly as possible, without missing anything either. With food finished, we then moved into the inner layer of the castle, over an empty moat, into a garden-like area. It was now that we were able to see the Castle properly for the first time. Up high on another layer of huge rock bricks, stood the white, teal and gold Castle.

We tried to make our way closer, but we were distracted by a couple of old men posing with visitors in traditional warrior dress. And of course Drew joins the line to get photos taken. But the men weren’t happy at just that. They told all of us to get in, put traditional hats on our heads and forced photos on the lot of us! When Drew tried to sneak out of one, he was quickly told to jump back in. Quite funny actually. And since there is 6 of us, it took a little while, so we managed to gain a small crowd to watch us get yelled at by two old men. 

With that little distraction out of the way, we were able to get up to the viewing platforms and take plenty of photos. Such a beautiful castle as well! You can’t see anything like this back home in Australia. The Japanese are a nation of no half measures. Everything is precise and beautiful – perfect example would be any of the temples we’ve visited – biggest example would probably be the Tenyru-ji Temple and Buddha! We went through and explored the last few bits of the gardens before leaving to head to the Aquarium, but in one of the last areas Drew stumbled across another photo opportunity. Of course it was originally designed for children, but that means it’s perfect for Drew! There was a guy dressed in more traditional dress, doing street performance-like things (eg throwing a ball around with an umbrella). Here they also offer the opportunity to dress up in the traditional warrior wear that we have seen around the temple. So Drew tried his best to squeeze in so I could take the photo, which ended in him having to hold the chest piece so it looked like he was wearing it. Ridiculous photos… It was also here where Alysha was able to participate in a ninja star throwing competition, and won a prize for getting in the first ring of the bullseye! Pretty impressive.

We then started to make our way towards the station. Walking through the castle gardens was really relaxing, a very similar feeling to Kyoto. Much Zen. Following the path we found something that looked like a roundabout with a fountain in the middle, with a running group doing laps of the small circle. Interesting to watch. There were two people in the group with character hoods on, a panda and an Elmo. Not something you see every day.

We got to the station hopped on a train and 7 or so stops later we were at the aquarium! Being the 3rd biggest in the world, and being Japanese, it pretty much goes without saying, this place was pretty impressive. Plus anywhere with otters has a big fat thumbs up from me! I can’t get over the fact that they have whale sharks! So many photos. Not much more to say about it. Very clean, the enclosures were a little smaller than I’d like but the animals seemed very well looked after. While we were there we got some lunch at the little cafe there, where we got a little whale shark shaped pastry, with a little smile and everything. Very very cute. The rest of the aquarium was explored and the gift shop took some money off us and we headed out. Brad and Alysha wanted to go on the massive ferris wheel just above the aquarium. We weren’t feeling up to it so I explored the Osaka docks a bit. A beautiful view from there as well. I mean a very different view than what we’ve had, but beautiful nonetheless. Their ride didn’t take too long, after about 15 minutes they were down and we were ready to move on.

Next destination was the Pokemon Centre in an Osaka shopping complex. A quick train ride and we were there. Not as big as the Tokyo one we’re heading to in our next leg, but we were curious and had a look. And my goodness the chaos in there was amazing. Plushies and merchandise of all kinds everywhere! It did manage to eat a chunk out of our wallet. At this point it was getting into evening and we wanted to make it to the Umeda Sky Building to catch sunset, so off we went! After being easily confused by a map and an ‘underground walkway’ we were headed in the right direction. We took an elevator to the 35th floor, bought tickets and took a long escalator ride to the 39th floor, where the floating garden is. Basically this is a huge round donut shaped viewing platform with views of the entire city of Osaka. We made it just in time to see the sun coming down over the city. A magical sight. 

By now it was about 5.30 and we were starting to get hungry (I don’t know how, we’ve been eating so much since we’ve got here). So we dragged ourselves away from the view and headed down again to find some food. After a long walk and a long search for a place that didn’t have a 40 minute wait, we found an American style restaurant. I’m sure Lobada (our American) was happy about that. The deco of this place was awesome! Lights and flags and little nick knacks all over the walls. It was awesome to just look at it all as we were waiting for food. Food was awesome too! A quick eat and we were ready to come home.

Now that I’ve had my weird Japanese snacks and hot chocolate I am ready for some sleep! Tomorrow we meet up with the other group after exploring Himeji Castle in the morning. Looking forward to some new faces and hearing the adventures of the other group in Taiwan! Should be a good day.