Day 54: Osaka

Today's itinerary:

- Kuromon-Ichiba Market

- Osaka Castle

My main destination for today was Osaka Castle. However, there is a market close to where I am staying that I had passed on my walk to Dotonbori a few times (it had been closed when I passed it) that I wanted to check out on the way to the castle. I slept in nice and late (a little past noon) and then made my way to the market. I was going to stop by a zoo and garden on the way, but then realized I really was not in the mood to walk around and see animals in cages so I just went straight to the market.

Random note: one thing I find very interesting about Japan is how many CD and DVD stores there are here. I think it's almost impossible to find a DVD store in Ontario but there are tons of stores that are solely for CDs and DVDs here.

The market was awesome! There were lots of different foods including octopus, urchin, and salmon skewers. I also found several fruit stalls and was amazed at how expensive the fruit was. At one place it cost 300 yen (just under $4) for 2 strawberries!

I wandered around for a bit and bought some strawberry juice and grilled melon before I face-timed one of my roommates, Claire. She was able to convince me that I should try eel so I walked back to a stand that was selling eel and bought some. They wrapped it in foil, cooked it briefly, and then covered it in this dark sauce.

The taste was interesting. I really liked the sauce but the eel was kind of slimy and the texture threw me off. I was able to eat about half of it before I had to take a break. The four small pieces of eel had been really expensive (800 yen) and it wasn't gross enough that I was going to waste it. Claire was lucky enough to witness my taste testing of this haha.

After face-timing Claire and finishing my eel I set off for Osaka Castle. I found some really cool stairs along the way and took way too many photos of them.

I also passed a fire truck and taxi. The cars here look much different from ones in Canada.

It took an hour to walk to Osaka Castle. Here's some information about the castle from Japan-Guide.com: The construction of Osaka Castle started in 1582 and was intended to become the centre of a new, unified Japan under Toyotomi rule. It was the largest castle at the time. However, a few years after Hideyoshi's death, Tokugawa troops attacked and destroyed the castle and terminated the Toyotomi lineage in 1615. Osaka Castle was rebuilt in the 1620s, but its main castle tower was struck by lightning in 1665 and burnt down (really not a lucky castle). It was not until 1931 that the present reconstruction of the castle tower was built. During the war it miraculously survived the city wide air raids. Major repair works gave the castle new glamor in 1997. The castle tower is now entirely modern on the inside and even features an elevator for easier accessibility. It houses an informative museum about the castle's history and Toyotomi Hideyoshi (a warrior, general, samurai, and politician of the Sengoku period who is regarded as Japan's second "great unifier").

The castle is surrounded by a moat and walls. At each corner of the wall there is a different turret. Before heading to the castle I walked around the land area and found a pretty monument. I also took lots of pictures of the castle from across the water.

I crossed a bridge to the castle and decided to purchase the full pass to explore the castle and a few of the turrets. It cost 1100 yen ($12.50) and it was definitely worth it. The first thing I got access to was a turret along one of the castle walls called Tamon-yagura Turret. Everyone had to take their shoes off and wear slippers when they entered. We were all given plastic bags to put our outdoor shoes in so we could carry them with us because the entrance and exit were far away from each other.

I walked in through the main hall and one of the castle guides immediately stopped me and starting telling me all this super cool information about the turret. The area I was in was where guards would sleep. There were also large holes near the floor where they could shoot from. The turret itself was built around a square courtyard that was meant to trap the enemies in and create an easy area for the guards to kill them. After he talked about the castle for a few minutes he asked where I was from. I told him I was from Canada and he got super excited and started talking about how everyone in Japan thinks Justin Trudeau is really handsome (oh goodness). The guide was super kind and spoke great English so I felt very comfortable! He also seemed really passionate about what he was doing, which was awesome.

After I walked through the turret, I explored the garden area behind it and found another turret called Inui-yagura Turret. It wasn't possible to enter this turret but it looked pretty from the outside. I walked up to the walls and found a nice view of the bridge I had taken to get to the castle.

The next place that the ticket gave me access to was the weapons storehouse. It was a small stone building that was not long and not really anything amazing but I walked through it because I had the ticket.

I walked through more of the garden and then up a hill towards the main castle. I passed a small shrine on the way where it looked like they were doing a wedding photo shoot.

I had to walk through a big gate/archway to get to the main courtyard area and castle. The castle was really pretty! My ticket included access to the castle, which has been converted into a museum. I walked up a few flights of stairs to get to the entrance of the castle and saw a huge line up. Fortunately the line up was for people waiting to take the elevator so I just passed by them.

There are 7 floors inside the castle. Each of the floors has different information about the castle with lots of models and examples of clothing worn by warriors. There were several floors where people aren't allowed to take photos. I got a stamp on my museum map that was celebrating 100 million visitors to the castle. Once I made it to the third floor I had to sit down for a bit in a rest area. My legs were so shaky from all the walking since I had explored the market this morning and walked all the way from the market to the castle, plus I've walked a lot more than I typically do over the last few days. Once I felt a little less tired I continued up to the top floor and went outside to look out over the castle. There is a viewing area that wraps around the top floor of the castle that visitors can walk out onto to take pictures and see everything from a higher point.

I walked back down to the main courtyard and stopped inside one of the tourist buildings to grab a snack. I go a green tea bun and waffle from a green tea gift shop that was selling lots of green tea food. The waffle wasn't anything special but the bun tasted cool. It was really squishy and fluffy and I think there was red bean inside of it.

It was 5 pm by this point and it was beginning to get much darker so I decided to walk back down to the main street. My next stop was a light show that I had found information about online. The site said it started in early November and the main attraction was a huge building completely covered in lights. The pictures looked awesome so I wanted to go check it out. It was a little under an hour to walk there but I decided to bus because my feet hurt.

It was my first time taking a bus in Japan! It was a little more confusing that anticipated especially because I had to think about what side of the road I needed to be on to get the right bus because they drive on the opposite side of the street. I found myself unconsciously waiting on the usual side of the road before I noticed that the traffic on my side was definitely not going in the direction I wanted. When the bus arrived I had another crisis. In Canada and Korea people get on the front of the bus and tap their transportation card. When people get off the bus they leave through the door near the back of the bus and tap their card again. However, everyone was entering this bus through the door near the back and there was no place to tap my card. I realized that I had to leave through the front and tap my card when I got off the bus (there is a flat fee for using the bus here so it doesn't matter where you get on I guess). Very opposite from what I am used to! All the stops were in Japanese with absolutely no Korean or English so I had to count how many stops we were making instead of being able to listen to the announcer person. The map on my phone showed me the stop names in Japanese writing and since I definitely cannot read Japanese I couldn't connect what the person on the bus was saying to what was on my map. Ooh also, the bus driver sat on the opposite side of the bus! Everything was so different.

People also walk in the opposite direction on the sidewalks here. People tend to walk on the same side of the street that they would drive on, so in Canada and Korea people walk on the right hand side of the street and those walking in the opposite direction walk on the left hand side. However, people here walk on the left side of the street because they would drive on the left side of the street. It was easy to pick out foreigners because they were the ones causing human traffic jams by walking in the direction they were used to rather than the one everyone else from Japan was walking in. I started walking on the left side and did so for the rest of my time in Japan. When I got back to Korea I forgot to change back for the first few days and found myself occasionally walking on the wrong side of the street. While I'm talking about Korea, here are some things I am already missing: Yuja tea (this amazing tea with fruit in the bottom of it that I drink far too often), kimchi (omygosh I miss kimchi), kimbap (super cheap and easy lunch, dinner, or snack food), and rice cakes. I am so screwed when I go back to Canada, I'm going to go through rice cake and yuja tea withdrawal.

Ok so I finally made it to the place where the light show should be... but there was nothing. No Christmas lights anywhere and no crowds of people. I double-checked the name and location and I was definitely in the right place. I walked a little further to the big building that should be covered in lights and found a small crew of people beginning to set up some lights. I guess the start time has changed since the website published their post? I walked a little further down the street and found a few trees covered in lights as well as a pretty bridge, but I was still disappointed that I didn't get to see the light show.

I hopped on a short train back to Dotonbori and came out near a corner of the market that I didn't recognize. I was still craving Korean food so I wandered around for awhile until I found a Korean restaurant. I walked inside and the walls were covered in pictures of K-pop idols, there was Korean music playing, and I recognized the bbq set up! I went upstairs and ordered some bibimbap and enjoyed watching k-pop music videos on TV for the rest of my meal. I walked back through Dotonbori and also ended up buying a nutella and banana crepe.

I walked back through Shinsekai market on the way home and saw a little boy pulling a unicorn toy that was beyond adorable.

I spent so much money on food today. I just kept eating! The food here is really yummy though and I want to try so much.

Hope everyone is doing well,

Emily

P.S for those wondering, Osaka and Seoul are in the same time zone so there was no time change when I travelled between the two places. Also there are squatter toilets here which I find super weird. Fortunately they have normal toilets too but they have the fancy bidet thing and each one seems to have a different kind of button you need to press to flush.

Here is a picture of the transportation card I use. It's really shiny and kind of feels like a credit card which is cool.

The path I took to get from the market to the castle:

(November 18, 2018)

Distance Walked: 17.1 km