Oh, Osaka – Joel’s Journeys & Jaunts

Osaka is close to Kyoto, which I left this morning. The express train took less than 30 minutes to travel to Osaka’s central station, even though the train I took was not one on Japan’s extensive Shinkansen (high-speed rail) network and, thus, was somewhat slower. (There’s a separate Osaka Shinkansen station, called Shin-Osaka, a little outside of the centre. I could have taken a Shinkansen train from Kyoto to that station if I wanted to.)

One thing that becomes apparent immediately upon arriving in Osaka after spending time in Kyoto is that Osaka is a newer, taller, and shinier city. As the train approached the city, and around the central station, several modern high-rises loomed.

That being said, my hotel is a contemporary mid-rise building, but it’s in a neighbourhood where older, relatively low-rise, middle-class (at best) buildings predominate.

At least, that was my impression of the neighbourhood when walking from the subway station on the line I took from the train station.

Jumping ahead a bit, getting to my first sightseeing destination of the afternoon required two subway lines, riding each for two stops, and transferring in the middle.

(By the way, one thing I noticed here and in Tokyo is that, I think, at most of the subway stations in the city centre, multiple lines pass through each station.

I know this because announcements on the subway are in both Japanese and English. It might have been my imagination, but I think that when approaching the majority of stations, in addition to the station name, the announcement said, “Change here for the Such-and-Such Line.” Sometimes, particularly in Tokyo, there were multiple Such-and-Such Lines passengers could change to at a single station.)

On the way back to my hotel at the end of the afternoon, because I’d walked a bit from my first sight, Google Maps gave me a different route to my hotel. This one required only one subway line and put me out at a different station exit. That dumped me on a high-end shopping street, Mido suji. Stores the likes of Prada, Louis Vuitton, Dolce & Gabbana, Burberry, Cartier, and others in that snack bracket lined both sides of the street. It also housed a local temple of the cult to which I’m a member. Yes, there was a fancy-schmancy Apple Store there.

Google Maps directed me to the hotel entrance I had arrived at. However, as I walked along Mido suji, I passed a sign for my hotel. It turns out that it has a back entrance from Midosuji, which is a night-and-day difference from the vibe on the other side.

I experienced a different city vibe walking to dinner. I crossed a bridge over a river, the Dotombori River, which Google AI tells me is, despite the name, really a canal. At the point, the Dotombori River is lined closely on both sides with buildings sporting blazing commercial signage. Just beyond that, there was an exceptionally busy shopping street with more bright, dazzling signs.

Oh, Osaka.

Osaka Castle

But enough about Osaka generalities. Osaka has a castle. I went there after settling into my hotel.

The tower of Osaka Castle looks like a majestic, tall, old, stereotypical Japanese castle tower protected by a moat outside the heavy, thick, tall stone walls surrounding the castle compound. The castle tower appears to be a historical structure. It’s not. However, there was one there once. What’s there now is a reasonable facsimile.

Construction of the original Osaka Castle started in 1583. It was completed in 1597.

The castle did not have a lot of luck. It was consumed by fire in 1620.

But you can’t keep a good castle down. It was rebuilt. The original castle walls of that reconstruction are still standing, but only the castle walls. In 1660, lightning struck a gunpowder warehouse. That set the castle on fire, but didn’t finish it off. In 1665, another lightning strike hit the castle tower. The resulting fire burned it down.

They weren’t as quick to restore it this time. They didn’t finish repairing it until 1843. That lasted for just 25 years. Then it burned down again.

Remind me. What is it that Einstein said about repeating the same action, expecting a different result?

The government of the day turned it into an army arsenal. During World War II. It was a huge arsenal until American bombs destroyed 90 percent of the military equipment.

The Osaka Castle was restored between 1993 and 1997. They built it to resemble the original castle exterior as closely as possible. That’s what stands today. I’m just happy it didn’t burn down again while I was there.

(Disclosure and warning: I got most of the above information about the Osaka Castle from my walking tour app, GPSmyCity, and even more so from Wikipedia. I’m not willing to entirely guarantee the veracity of the information from either of those sources.)

You can walk through the gate in the castle walls and into the grounds containing the castle tower for free. There’s some green space, and a lovely little pond (no fish) with, from one end, the castle tower as a backdrop. I had to line up a bit in a disorderly fashion amongst a small crowd to get a moment at a spot where I could take a good picture of that scene.

The rule about taking only a moment was purely in my head, not written. A lot of people spent considerable time preening and posing in the small area that provided enough space for only three or four good photo positions. People, people, people. Mirrors exist. You don’t need to take a precisely posed shot of yourself at every photogenic spot in the world.

Going into the tower involves paying a fee. I lined up for more than 15 minutes for that honour. On the top floor, the eighth, there’s an observation deck that, if you walk around its perimeter, offers 360-degree views of Osaka. It provides some impressive panoramas.

The sixth floor of the tower is marked as a “corridor” and is inaccessible other than to pass by it on the stairs. The third, fourth, fifth, and seventh floors contain a museum. There was a special exhibition on the third and fourth floors. Photography wasn’t allowed on those floors.

Those floors contained several historical artifacts, including ancient Japanese armour, intricately decorated folding screens, documents, decorated wall hangings, and more.

The other museum floors don’t prohibit photography, but there was nothing worth taking a picture of, in my opinion. The exhibits are mostly on the history of Osaka Castle, presented as bilingual text and some illustrations and pictures, some short videos with English subtitles, and some holograms. There is also a model of the whole original castle compound and another of just the castle tower. I suppose I could have taken pictures of the models, but I didn’t.

The second floor contains a few more information panels and washrooms.

In addition to the up-and-down staircases (they are separate) and an elevator that goes only to the fifth floor, the first floor housed a gift shop. I can’t begin to tell you how thankful I was for that. Because of the universal “exit through the gift shop” rule, I would have been stuck in the tower for the rest of my life if they didn’t have a gift shop.

Nishinomaru Garden

Close to the main entrance of Osaka Castle, there’s an area that’s labelled on signs as Nishinomaru Garden. They charge a cash-only fee to go in, ¥200.

I still haven’t gotten used to Japanese currency. Every time I see a Japanese price, I’m shocked at how high it is. Then I have to remind myself of the exchange rate. As of today, ¥1 equals $0.0091 CDN. After I get over my initial sticker shock, I remember to divide the number of yen by 100 to get an approximation of the price in Canadian dollars. That overestimates the Canadian dollar equivalent, but it’s close enough for my purposes.

I paid the money and went inside. For the most part, Nishinomaru Garden is some trees surrounding large lawns. There is a small, ancient warehouse there, but not much else in the way of buildings other than a washroom.

Currently, much of the lawn is filled with metal frame shapes with lights outlining them. The lights weren’t lit in the daylight, i.e., when I was there. There were also some fake small trees lining a path. Lights, again not lit, were where the leaves would be. Just outside the entrance to Nishinomaru Garden, there was a closed booth with a sign that said, in English, that it was the illumination show ticket booth. There wasn’t much other English, so I don’t know if it’s a coming attraction, a past attraction, or a current attraction, but they open the booth only closer to and during the illumination times.

To my mind, Nishinomaru Garden is pleasant, but it isn’t especially attractive. However, it delivers some good views of the moat around Osaka Castle and the castle tower behind it.

Osaka Castle Park

On the other side of Osaka Castle from Nishinomaru Garden is Osaka Castle Park. It’s a large green space with lots of trees and a couple of areas for playing sports.

Scenes from Osaka Castle Park:

I wandered through and did a little sitting. It’s a beautiful, relaxing park. After spending some time there, I went back to my hotel, typed up a few of these words while enjoying my hotel’s welcoming drink, and then I headed out for dinner.