Day 10: Saturday 23rd May
Osaka
📍 Osaka
Hotel Breakfast & Osaka Castle
In the morning, we decided to have a quick breakfast in the hotel room, taking advantage of the 7-11 on the corner outside from the hotel. Some orange juice, grapes, and a Matcha flavoured equivalent of a 'Tunnock's teacake'! Only in Japan would you find that particularly weird fusion.
We grabbed a free coffee each in the hotel lobby and then stepped out into the street, which felt 'hangover quiet'. Some cleaners were sweeping and gathering up rubbish. Many of the loud restaurants had their shutters down, quietly waiting for the evening to come. This felt like quite a different place. Both of us were quite tired, so we decided that we would head to Osaka Castle but would probably take a very slow meander around the gardens and then take it easy and maybe do a little shopping or roaming. We headed for the metro and took two lines to get to the castle. It took about 25 minutes of journey time.
We stepped out of the metro and were on the corner of the castle gardens. We couldn't see the castle yet, but we were in no hurry. We enjoyed the flowers in the gardens and the surrounding woodlands. As we came up the one side of the park we could hear a Japanese rock band playing in the bandstand. For some reason, we thought of our Spanish friend, Fernando, again. He would totally rock out to this stuff.
At one point, the footpath had a barrier, I guess to prevent wheeled traffic from heading down the path, or maybe just to chain up a bicycle or something, but I really liked that there were these little bird sculptures welded onto the barrier. It looked really good.
As we approached the castle, which we still couldn't really see, we came upon the massive moat that surrounds the castle. The steep walls and deep water make this castle pretty impenetrable.
Unfortunately not impenetrable enough. We came across a signboard that gave a bit of history of the castle. It seems a large part of the castle buildings were burned down in 1868, and then even more destroyed in 1945 during the war. It is a wonder that any of it is still standing.
A little bit of history about Osaka Castle, from one of the signboards:
Osaka Castle and the castle grounds were recognized as a Historic Site by the national government on March 31, 1953. This was based on the rationale that the existence of Osaka Castle is very important in history and that the existing remains, including beautiful high stone walls and large deep water-filled moats, are highly appraised as typical castle structures in our country.
Osaka Castle and the castle grounds were upgraded to the status of a "Special Historic Site" in 1955.
During the Tokugawa Period, Tamon-yagura Turrets and a number of turrets, which were connected with walls, stood in a dignified manner in Osaka Castle. A greater part of them were burned down by a major fire during the battle between the New Government Army and Tokugawa Shogunate Army [the Battle of Boshin] in 1868 and they underwent further destruction in 1945 due to the air raids during World War II.
However, the thirteen old structures remaining inside the castle precincts, which escaped destruction, were recognized as Important Cultural Properties by the national government on June 13, 1953.
As I said, so glad some of it is still standing. We went through the Sakuramon Gate (Cherry Gate) built in 1626, destroyed in 1868, and rebuilt in 1887. It was pretty massive and solid. Once through, we could see the castle, and it really is picturesque.
In the plaza in front of Osaka Castle is the Time Capsule Expo'70. This cool structure has the following writeup outside.
TIME CAPSULE EXPO'70
In commemoration of EXPO'70, with its theme "Progress and Harmony for Mankind", The Mainichi Newspapers and Matsushita Electric Industrial Co.,Ltd. have completed two identical capsules and buried them 15 meters beneath this monument. Two thousand ninety-eight (2,098) cultural assets of the 20th century, selected with the cooperation of the people of Japan and those from all over the world, are stored in the special metal container, constructed with latest technology. Hoping for never-ending world peace and prosperity, we hereby bequeath these two capsules to the people living 5000 years from now.
It is hereby requested that the upper capsule be opened at the beginning of every century, and that the lower one remain unopened until the year 6970
March 15,1971
Shape: Globular Inside diameter: 1 meter
Inside capacity: 500,000cm³ Weight: 2.12 tons
We didn't have any intention of going into the castle. I think both of us were exhausted and pretty happy to just enjoy the scenery. So we roamed around the gardens and enjoyed the wonderful displays afforded by all the blooming azaleas and the garden pond.
I mentioned that we were both pretty exhausted, so we found a bench under the cool breezes of the trees, right on the site of the underground bunker from WW2. Maria had a proper nap there. Ro sat listening to some music and just taking in the people walking the paths below the castle grounds.
After a while we decided we could do with an iced coffee and something to nibble on, so we walked back down towards the metro entrance where we entered the park. We had noticed some cafes and even a Lawson convenience store within the park grounds. The queues into the cafes looked long and we didn't feel up to spending a lot of money, so we grabbed a couple of onigiris (rice cakes) and an egg sandwich and some iced coffee and sat on the benches in the shade of some cherry trees.
We noticed this weird bench/sculpture thing in the shape of two foxes covered in flowers. Ro tried to find a comfortable position on it, but there really wasn't one. 😂
We were near the metro, so we figured it was a good time to head back, we wanted to find some time to roam around and look at some shops. Despite the fact that we were travelling with only hand luggage, Maria was keen to see whether she could find some small gifts that we might be able to fit into our bags to bring home.
YouTube Famous
We headed back to the hotel to avail of the free ice-cream. It was afternoon and the ice-cream was open for self-serve. We had a few helpings, but nothing like a family next to us, that seemed to revisit the ice-cream stand every few minutes and come back with more. They should have just grabbed a tub...
Refreshed, we headed back out onto the streets of Dotonbori. Things were picking up now and restaurants were opening, bars were filling, people were roaming. We crossed the river heading to another part of town. We hadn't gotten far before we were intercepted by a young Japanese man, who came over and started talking to us. He told us that he was building a Youtube channel and that he was just starting to interview visitors to the city to build his skills. He asked if he could interview us. Maria dodged out of the interview, but Ro, being his enthusiastic self, had already committed. So we pulled over to one side.
Ro was interviewed on the street by YouTuber Sugano Eikichi! We're basically celebrities now. 😂
Ro espousing his wisdom about relationships on Youtube! Caught completely unawares, without any preparation whatsoever... Apparently everything is AMAZING and also time is the secret to all things. Because that seems to be where I am at now. I wasn't high or even drunk for this interview. 😂
Shopping Adventures
Maria was hoping to find some children's clothes shops, to buy something for her nephew who is coming up to his first birthday. While that mission failed, we did end up in the Shinsaibashi-suji district which is famous for its vintage clothing shops, and particularly vintage American. This felt way more interesting than some of the areas that had been pointed out to us for youth culture in Tokyo. Much more edgy and so many young people. So much fashion. Also, lots of band posters and events. A burned out building. Some very cool lampposts. And just a very good area to visit for what feels like a Japanese Camden Town vibe.
We headed back to the hotel empty-handed. It was starting to get busy and evening was coming quickly. We needed a bit of time off our feet and the bar had opened. Ro wasn't keen to go face the chaos of Dotonbori evening time without taking some of the edge off, so he sampled the Shochu, which needed to be washed down with a beer, and improved with a small sake. The hotels are really generous in Japan, and it really is quite special feeling like you can save a few pennies and have some downtime without feeling trapped in your room.
Evening Entertainment
Dotonbori was just as we expected. Mental busy and just as crazy. Fortunately we had a plan and were heading directly to a vegan ramen place called Pivot Base Vegan Restaurant, that looked like it had some good Happy Cow reviews. This place was in the heart of the busiest part of Dotonbori... we wondered how wise we were being.
We took a back-road just to avoid the carnage on the way to the restaurant and noticed a pet shop. I am not sure what stopped us both, but we went into the shop and saw this cute little thing doing its best to try to convince us to take it home with us. Heart breaking. The Alice-kami was with us.
We found the restaurant and had no trouble getting a table. We were lucky though, not midway into our dinner and the place was packed and there was a queue outside the door. Just lucky timing, I guess. The good news is that the food was fantastic. Really enjoyable.
Just opposite Pivot Base Vegan restaurant, is another restaurant with one of those famous 3d signs - the 'Angry chef'. Ro had noticed this place the day before and had snapped a picture, but really this is the picture he was waiting for... and this picture is why these two people are together!
Bird/56 Jazz Bar
Well fed and cheerful, we headed down the road to find the Bird/56 Jazz Bar that we had noticed the night before. We walked up the spiral stairway, passing the closed doors that were entrances to the other jazz bars in the building. We got to the door into the Bird/56 bar and went in. The bar seemed pretty full with an almost entirely Japanese clientele. We wondered how welcome we would be. But we were invited to sit at the bar after several people were asked to move around to make a little space.
We checked out the menu. This place wasn't cheap! But then again, this was our epic holiday... may as well make the most of it.
Ro went with a Nikka Yoichi single malt, which has all the brine and peat, that Ro likes in his whiskies. This one was lovely. Despite the pricing, the measures are somewhat different to the UK and the glass was poured by hand, and the measure definitely felt on the side of a generous double.
We got chatting to a Japanese man at the bar, called Takashima who although from Osaka, lives in Hong Kong now and was just visiting a bar that he frequented for many years. We told the barman and Takashima that we had come to the bar because we liked jazz, but also because we were amused by a cat that was looking at the bar, the previous evening. We showed them the photograph and they laughed. The cat is known as Hacha and is a bar regular that they look after. Takashima carried on chatting to Maria, while Ro started chatting to a young Australian guy called Max, from Brisbane, who works with mining explosives in PNG. He was a pretty cool guy, just getting into jazz, but a frequent visitor to Japan, with a love of hiking and snow-boarding.
While we chatted, the bar kept bringing complimentary plates:
- Fresh fruits - pineapple, cantaloupe, strawberry, cherry
- Parcels of mini chocolate leaves from Mon Loire Chocolate House
- Cheese straws & crisps
- Mixed dried fruits & nuts
With all that generous hospitality, great music, and good conversation... we had to have another round.
We had a great night out and really enjoyed ourselves.