On Day 3 of the trip, we went to Osaka Castle.
At first I was apprehensive about using the subway since there is no subway line in my home city. But I was worried about nothing. The subway system in Osaka is pretty easy to use since everything is colour coded and labeled in English. Even the announcer on the subway carriages spoke in both languages.
The walk to the front gates of the castle was long but had nice scenery. There were many people around jogging and such. The gates were massive and there were these stones called "Elephant Stones" not because they resembled the animal, but because it was so huge!
There was a Fuji photo booth and you can take a photograph of yourself and have your face imprinted on either a samurai or a lady in a kimono with the background of cherry blossoms or the castle. It cost me 1000 yen but it was worth it. The picture came out really well, though it was funny to see me looking rather "tall". :)
We went to a souvenir shop and bought some souvenirs for our friends back home, such as postcards and pens. Then we ate at a restaurant which was joined together with the souvenir shop. My travel mates had a bit of an issue with ordering their lunch since no one spoke English, my brother-in-law was pointing at the set meals but they mistaken it for double the set meals ordered! Instead of 1900 yen, it came out to 3800 yen. My order was simple: one curry shrimp dish and one cola. :) I was drinking the Asahi beer my brother-in-law bought and it was really good. I am not a beer drinker but there was no aftertaste and very smooth.
The castle wasn’t as impressive as I have hoped, even given the reviews on the Internet. The surroundings were better, I thought, but the displays inside the castle were nice. There were lots of video reenactments about the lord of the castle and history pointer via big-screen video about the wars at the castle.
There were seven floors to the castle. Floor 1 was just the museum shop. You cannot go to any other floor first other than Floor 5 (the starting floor for our trip) which was via the elevator (coincidentally you cannot use the elevator for any other purpose). There were specific staircases for going up or down from Floor 5. You couldn’t use your camera or recording device on floors 3 and 4 because those two floors housed the artifacts from that time period. Floor 7 is the Observation Deck which gave us great views of around the castle. It was very windy when we were taking in the view on Floor 7.
I got myself a commemorative stamp on Floor 2 and my brother-in-law and I tried on costume vest and warrior hat from that time period. It cost us money to try them on but it was worth it. The hat I chose was so heavy that I could barely lift my head and keep it steady. It was definitely hard to pose in it! The pictures were hilarious! Instead of looking like a serious warrior, I looked the opposite instead. :)
The tour of the castle was finished by quarter to four. We went back to Namba and while I explored the city centre, my travel mates shopped in the underground mall (located in the same area as the subway system called Namba City and Namba Walk). At 7pm we met up for dinner at one of the restaurants in the underground mall. The set meals were pretty well priced and everyone’s dishes seemed delicious. I had pork dumplings (potstickers) and they were fantastic!
After dinner, they went shopping again in the underground mall and I decided to explore some more in other areas around Namba. Personally, it is hard to see in the dark so it was more of an excuse to walk off the late night dinner calories. ;p
It is now quarter past eleven and I got to get some sleep. Tomorrow is another long day. We are planning to go to the Osaka Aquarium. I can’t wait!!
♫ Lollipop ♫
12 years ago