Osaka Castle

So a while ago we went to Osaka Castle, which was incredible! We started off by going to Namba, which is a city that borders Osaka city. The first few pictures are of Namba.

A very efficient parking lot.

Most big towers like these ones are apartment buildings (as far as I can tell).

Here we entered the park that surrounds the castle.

I thought this was a cool bench for some reason.

Adorable little boy with matching pink hat and shoes.

I know you can't tell but these crow-things are huge! Makes me think of Hitchcock.


This was a shrine near the castle. Shrines are everywhere in Japan. At first I figured they would be rare since they looked so cool. Turns out Japan just looks cool everywhere.

We're getting closer to the castle. Here's part of the moat!

Here's a little building that's part of the castle complex.

And here's the main keep.

No idea what this building was but it was within the castle walls and it looked cool.

This is a time capsule. I think there are two parts, one is opened once each year and another part is sealed until 2300 or something insane like that. I forget the numbers but you get the idea.

Pictures weren't allowed in very many parts of the inside of the castle, but we could take pictures from the top floor balconies. Incredible city views! Of course, the camera doesn't really do it justice (especially in the hands of an incompetent like me).

The inside of the castle was basically a museum which went through the history of the castle and the warring shoguns that battle for power. And it had cool action figures!




These kids liked talking to us. I heard one of them call me Harry Potter behind my back. I must have been wearing my glasses that day. I guess all white people look the same to Asians.

They asked us to sign their arms. Oh, and the matching yellow hats are part of the uniform for elementary school kids so you see them everywhere and it's adorable.

The rest of these pictures I just snapped on our way back to the train.

Before heading home we went to an amazing restaurant. One of my favorite things about the restaurant was that it smelled like fresh pine!

Japanese restaurants always give you a damp rag to start off the meal.

My host parents both ordered sashimi (raw fish). That's an octopus tentacle in the middle.

I ordered a pile of tenpura which translates as 'random food dipped in a weird batter and deep-fried.