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Published: April 2nd 2008
The 20th of March was the first day of spring and a national holiday in Japan. I was already going to be in Osaka on the 19th for a business meeting so I decided I would stay over for a night. When my meeting ended I headed for the hostel I booked on the other side of town. Of course it was rainy, dark and cold outside. The directions that I was given said that the building was down the street from the Mr. Donuts outside Fukushima station. I only got lost 3 times, which was lucky since there are 3 Fukushima Stations near each other and the road next to Mr. Donuts splits in two. The hostel made up for the confusing directions by being the nicest and cleanest hostel I’ve ever seen. After I tucked myself in for the night in my comfortable western style bed I found out the girl in the bunk below was the loudest snorer I’ve ever heard. I tried so hard not to laugh when she started making all that racket. It was a good thing I brought my MP3 player with me. When I got up on the 20th it was still raining
and someone had stolen my umbrella during the night. Not the best way to start the day. I picked up a new umbrella and some green tea donuts on my way to the station. My first destination for the day was Osaka Castle. I took a toy train through the park to get there. It was a good choice. The ground was swampy and there wasn’t anything interesting in the woods. (Unless you find the bright blue canvases among the trees that the homeless people live in interesting.) Near the gate to the castle I caught sight of another plum grove. ^_^ It was nice even in the rain to walk around them. After that I headed to the castle. When I stopped under the shelter of the castle’s gate to take pictures my watch broke off my wrist and landed in mud. =(
Osaka Castle is not as big as the castle in Himeji, but it is a very impressive structure. The inside of the castle is a museum with an observatory on the 8th floor. The museum has a very indepth history of Osaka Castle, but because my level of Japanese is low I only caught parts of
it.
The abridged version goes like this: The current structure was built in 1931, but was burned out during the WWII air raids and repaired in 1949. The original castle was built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1583 and was burned down during a war in 1615. The second castle, built in 1629, was partially destroyed by lightening in 1665 and completely destroyed during the Meiji Restoration in 1868.
Overall, the was beautiful and the museum was fun and educational. It had finished raining when I left the building, but the temperature had dropped. I wrapped my coat around me tightly and stopped outside the castle at the food stalls to grab a plate of Takoyaki for lunch. Takoyaki rocks! It is made up of bits of octopus inside dough covered in a yummy sauce. It is definitely one of my favorite Japanese dishes. When I was leaving the castle grounds I ran into a small rally. I stopped and gawked for a while trying to figure out what was going on. While I was standing there the rally turned into a protest march. It was an anti-Iraqi war protest. I watched form the other side of the street for awhile
appreciating the movement. However, when one guy started flashing a “Get out of Japan” sign at me I figured I was probably not who they wanted to see and I headed for the other side of town for some shopping. Osaka doesn’t really have too many interesting things to see and do. Basically there is the castle, Universal Studios, an aquarium and tons of shopping. There are malls and stores everywhere, even underground. However, I thought the shopping was unvaried and overpriced so I ended up catching an earlier train home. Osaka is a massive city, but in my opinion it doesn’t really have much to offer.
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Sherise
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I just watched an episode of Anthony Bourdains No reservations last night where he went to Osaka and some other town out there. He tried the octopus things (I cant think of the name at the moment) that you ate too. How funny is that! Im saving my pennies to go visit you while you are there. Hopefully soon!!!