Japan tour 2025: Day 3 Osaka Castle and beyond

By the numbers

24447 steps

19.38 kms

Level of Chaos: Stairs, there is no stairway to heaven, they lied, feel the burn

 

Two burgers and Fried Horse Mackerel 

Its funny when you wake before your alarm goes off even though you were late to bed as the night before I was writing a blog  and seeing the time at home, I was a little shocked and wanting to head to bed as I wanted to be up early. The plan was two things especially when it was another hot day. The Osaka castle and the Osaka museum. They were the things on my list for the day. My plans don’t always work that way especially for this trip away.

 

Castle stamp

Getting the Metro to Osaka castle was pretty easy and I was wondering if I would need maps to find the castle once I reached topside even though the exit directed me to Osaka castle. Turns out I could see said castle from when I walked out and that it was simple to head towards it. The funny thing was I passed through the museum grounds and I thought I would end up coming back. The moat around the castle looked like it was smokey, although that was likely how the rocks looked to me. It was beginning to get hot at it hadn’t hit 9am just yet. I think many people were feeling it too as there were a few who were already walking around the castle grounds. I didn’t explore nearby as I thought to get up before the crowds. Luckily I scanned my code and could walk straight in until there was a line. One long line for the elevator that goes to the top floor, and another disappearing one as people walked up the stairs. There were 5 floors that gave information about the castle. In the Feudal days if I can call them that the castle had been rebuilt after being destroyed, and it was also rebuilt in the 1930s so it was now fairly modern. The first time it was destroyed was during what was called the Summer Wars and there is a tapestry of it. I found a stamp for my book along the way. Two floors had documents, artifacts like guns that couldn’t have photos taken. The documents included letters about the area, the Americans arriving in the area on their ships. I wasn’t actually sure if some were reproductions or the real deal. Another floor had about the Summer wars and the main characters from both sides, and the top floor was the view of the area. The top two floors were the most crowded, and I had thought that it couldn’t have gotten worse later in the day. I took the stairs down. I should explain, there was one set you follow up and another set that are for going down so everyone was going in the right direction.

 

Part of Osaka Station

Once I was outside, I found a shady spot on some stairs to sit as they seem to be for that purpose. A rest and a drink later, I decided my plan was to walk back to the island of Nakanoshima to see the rose garden that I had missed. Making my way there was actually pretty easy although it was getting hotter. Part of the walk took me past the back of the castle as I got to see another section and there were always photos. Before I turned off to head towards a bridge that went over Nakanoshima, I stopped in a random supermarket to get some lunch. I didn’t know what I wanted so grabbed two hand burgers and what I thought was battered fried chicken. I was helped to sort out the self serve machine by a nice sales assistant and I thanked her. I think I was starting to feel the heat, but I had a drink too. I walked for another 5 mind before heading down some stairs to the base of the bridge, where I found a shady spot for lunch. Turns out my chicken was actually fried Horse Mackerel. It didn’t actually make me sick, but It was nice. There were not really any roses in the garden as there were some other flowers, but I did notice that my phone was heating up and I think it was the usage and also the hot weather, so I decided that I needed to shut it down and I then sat outside the Osaka City central public hall. It was a nice red brick building. While sitting there I thought I should head back, but wanted to see Shin Osaka as I was going to be there early tomorrow morning to catch a Shinkansen. I also found two buildings that I had been wondering what they were was the Bank of Japan Osaka branch and the Town Hall. My phone did cool down a little bit, but I think it became better later as I wasn’t outside.

Matcha roll. Was interesting

 

I jumped on the metro as I tend to do and found my way at the end of the line at Shin Osaka. The metro was separate from the Shinkansen line. This was one busy station and I went for a wander around to see what I could find and then ended up with another train stamp. I thought I could collect my bullet train tickets and soon found it wouldn’t let me as I needed something else. I was only worried as I had for some reason lost internet service. There was free wifi where I was so that did help and I have taken a screen shot of my tickets incase. After browsing some of the shops for the train lunches, I headed back to the metro, where I thought I could see a shopping centre called Hep 5 as it has a ferris wheel. Stopping at Umeda station, I soon found the JR station was all part of it and I was actually at Osaka station, where I explored further. Another train stamp later, I ended going up to the top floor with a few rests along the way as it was still hot, but I was at least under cover. The top floors did include a little zen type garden and views of Osaka from the station. Deciding I should make my way back, I got distracted by a shopping centre that was part of Osaka station with around 15 floors and on floor 13 was the Nintendo store, Pokemon store and the Capcom store for the video games. Up I went and I found pop up stores along the way and I bought a couple of little things like Godzilla underwear. I was amazed at some of the things that were on all of the floors. I could have bought more, but decided not to.

 

I wanted to return before rush hour was in full swing and I did make it back to Namba, where I wanted a shower and do a load of washing. I found I could use my IC card to pay for my laundry, different. It was a wash and dry, I had seen someone waiting for theirs to finish so I ran and got mine and the lady was taking hers out when I got back. Someone else had come along when I was loading the machine. It took around 2 hours, so I ended up having dinner next door at the Italian place and a walk around one of the shopping centres looking at the books. I couldn’t find them at first as I wandered the food area and looking at all the people wandering through. I had returned with only 15 mins left on the machine so was really lucky with that. I did watch a group from a bus company clean the area of rubbish as they all had the high viz shirts on.

 

Tomorrow the plan is to visit Himeji for the castle as I have tickets, hopefully not too busy or too hot. Its going to be a long day so we shall see what happens.