Day 02 –
Today, we’re going to visit Osaka Castle and its gardens. This time though, we’re bringing Dino with us. He was a bit upset we forgot to bring him to Universal Studios yesterday. So Côme makes sure to pack him in his new super shark bag today. On the way to the station, we walk by a clinic for small dinosaurs. Côme reckons it could be a good thing to bring Dino there for a quick check-up, but Dino does not agree at all. He’s afraid of the doctor and says he feels fine anyway…
After a quick subway ride, we arrive at the castle. Its walls and moats are immense and impressive. And the castle itself is magnificent! Its architecture, its green and golden Japanese roofs… We are really looking forward to going in. We start our visit by looking for the castle stamp. There has to be one there… And indeed, after a few minutes of searching, we finally find it. It is superb! But it’s not the only one on site, there’s a sign saying there are others around so of course we will look for them and find them all.
The visit of the castle is disappointing, to say the least. The seven floors of the castle have been transformed into a museum but the historic interior has not been preserved. So even though the museum is rather interesting, we find it feels out of place. On the eighth floor however, there’s a magnificent 360° view!
As we return to the metro station, we meet a super nice Australian family who has been living in Japan for decades. They walk with us for a while through the park and we chat about Japanese culture and the expat life in Japan while listening to music. Just before taking the metro, we notice a giant toboggan in the kid’s playground. It is so long and huge that it feels like a rollercoaster ride. We can’t resist a few slides.
We then head to another neighborhood, making sure at the station to look for another stamp. It’s a shame we haven’t started the hunt back in Tokyo… We reach a very lively district (particularly in the evening). There’s a small tower at its center (that reminds us of the Eiffel Tower), activities (fishing, traditional archery or rifle shooting…) but most of all, lots of restaurants with very colorful and bright storefronts. We even find our favorite sushi restaurant (Kura) with an incredibly decorated facade and, right across, Côme’s dream restaurant. A fish restaurant with a huge wooden boat around which you have to fish the fish you want to eat. Julia and Doo aren’t too excited about the concept, but Côme is obviously just starry-eyed and he is begging us to go. Since we’ve just eaten skewers a few streets ago, we tell him we’ll go tomorrow…
Today, Côme:
Did not understand: why there are two sets of moats around the castle.
Learnt: that there are no niches nor donjons in Japanese castles.
Loved: the stamp hunt and the fish restaurant.
Julia:
Did not understand: why they did not conserve the historic interior of the castle.
Learnt: that she loved tempura.
Loved: the encounter with the Australian family.
Doo:
Did not understand: why there are golden fishes on the rooftop of the castle.
Learnt: about the history of the castle.
Loved: the architecture of the castle.