Land of the Rising Sun

Asia » Japan » Osaka » Osaka
June 18th 2009

Published: November 4th 2009

Japans efficiency was impressed upon me even before our MD-11 had touched down in the country. Flying into Kansai airport you can easily see its perfect rectangle shape of reclaimed land sitting as an island just off Osaka, but it can be slightly unnerving for some as the plane drops lower and lower while viewing from your window seat nothing but the blue sea, which gives for the briefest moment ... Read Full Entry

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Undescribable

Does it make you hungry or what?

Street Food

Serving delicious bowls of noodles...........

Dotonburi

Zubora-ya: A fugu restaurant with a huge blowfish lantern hanging out front. The fish contains lethal amounts of the poison tetrodotoxin in the organs, especially the liver and ovaries, and also the skin.

Enter the Dragon

Restaurant

Asahi ("Morning Sun")

Asahi Breweries, Ltd is the 2nd largest beer brewery in Japan based in Tokyo. The company originally led the Japanese craze for dry beer, leading to its dramatic turnaround in business performance, surpassing former second ranker Sapporo Brewery in sales and profits.

Okonimiyaki

Loved this stuff, its a Japanese savoury pancake containing a variety of ingredients. The name is derived from the word okonomi, meaning "what you like" or "what you want", and yaki meaning "grilled" or "cooked".

Kani Doraku in the Dotonburi

A crab restaurant, easily identified by its giant moving crab billboard. See photo.

Dotonburi

A former pleasure district, Dōtonbori is famous for its historic theaters (all gone now), its shops and restaurants, and its many neon and mechanized signs.

Bright lights of Osaka

Dōtonbori traces its history back to 1612, when a local entrepreneur, Dōton Yasui, began expanding the tiny Umezu River, which ran east to west, hoping to increase commerce.

Dotonburi Canal

Dōton’s project was interrupted when he died defending Toyotomi Hideyori in the ill-fated Siege of Osaka, but his cousins finished the canal in 1615.

Shin Sekai neighborhood

Weird Hut

On the way to Osaka Castle, didnt stop to investigate.

Toyokuni Shrine

Toyokuni was a daimyo who unified Japan. He is noted for a number of cultural legacies, including the restriction that only members of the samurai class could bear arms.

Osaka Castle Moat

The Castle grounds cover approximately 60,000 square meters and contain thirteen structures have been designated as Important Cultural Assets by the Japanese government.

Guard House

I assume, at Osaka castle.

Gateway to Osaka Castle

Osaka Castle

Originally called Ozakajō, it is one of Japan's most famous castles, and played a major role in the unification of Japan during the sixteenth century of the Azuchi-Momoyama period. Osaka Castle is situated on a plot of land roughly one kilometer square.

Osaka Castle

The central castle building is five stories on the outside and eight stories on the inside, and built atop a tall stone foundation to protect its occupants from sword-bearing attackers.

Osaka Castle

Lightning struck and burnt down one in 1665.

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