Hey Hive/Steemit!
So if you didn't catch the last couple of posts, we're currently on a brand new journey in Osaka! It was quite a spontaneous trip since there was a super promotion on Philippine Airlines and we decided to just go for it during our mid-semester break back in Feb 2017! This was also the first Valentines' trip we took together!
Last week, we had a nice big lunch at our favourite places - Sushi Zanmai and Lotteria before heading to Osaka Castle! It was quite a walk, but the view was worth it in the end! We even got to enjoy a nice sunset view on the way up to the castle!
Unfortunately, we didn't get to go inside since it was already closed. But it was still really spectacular to see it up close irl. Then we ended the post with us in front of the time capsule!
Apologies for the abrupt end last week but the post was getting long. Anyway, here's the end of that day!
21 Feb 2017. Sunday.
We passed the cool, regal-looking building just beside the castle again, which I still have no idea what it's for. I thought it was the Osaka Geihinkan Former Guest House which was built as a State Guest House to welcome foreign dignitaries from countries all over the world during "APEC 1995", but apparently that's a different building.
It does look very European though, so I imagine this is probably a parliament hall or somewhere they hold important political meetings and stuff. Idk, if you know what this building is please comment below!
As always, no sightseeing trip is complete without visiting the gift shop!
They had all sorts of souvenirs here! From assorted snacks and sweets to apparel, stationery, bags, accessories, you name it.
They even had all sorts of shogun-related memorabilia, including shogun hats! And you know what that means - goofy photos!
They even had a stand of personal name stamps! Just like the ones the shoguns would use as a personal signature to approve documents and such. But of course, these were English names translated into Kanji.
I couldn't take all the names, but can you find ours here?
After a brief look around at all the overpriced souvenirs, we left the shop without buying anything. It didn't seem worth it. The name stamps were interesting but I wouldn't know when I would ever use it, so I decided against it.
We went back out and took one last look at the castle before heading back down towards the station.
Here's a clearer view of the very modern lift attached to the castle. I guess it's good for handicapped people who came on tour buses, or people with prams.
And finally, one last shot of the castle from the bridge below! It would've been nicer with the sunset I think, but this is nice too.
I was waiting for the people to clear off but there were more behind me so just had to take it as is. Oh well.
An hour later, we found ourselves back near Dotonbori, and since it was still early, we decided to head to Daimaru and see if the Snoopy Carnival was still open and it was! And as expected on a Sunday, there were more people around this time.
Sorry for the blurriness, I got too excited.
I already posted quite a few photos from when we came here the first time but because they were closing soon at the time I didn't get to really see all the merch they had available! So now I finally had the time to check them all out at my leisure.
There were some nice prints and frames:
A human-size Snoopy doghouse with Japanese Snoopy books, and a huuuge Snoopy pillow!
Another angle on the moving carousel:
Various types of stationery:
All sorts of figurines!
More frames and shadow boxes:
They even had these cool looking mirror canvases in front of the carousel! I don't know if they were for sale though.
I don't remember if we actually bought anything tbh, because everything is really expensive. There were a couple of gachapon machines outside and we did get a small coin purse tho. And we did get a ticket for one of the carnival games!
I think we could choose whichever game we wanted to play with our ticket but we only had one go at it. So we decided to choose the game which was the easiest (and maybe least rigged). And we chose the basketball game!
I think I had 3 shots and I got 2 out of 3! Yay! I thought that was pretty good considering the only basketball I play is on the Wii.
After that we went around the photo booths and took more photos!
You can probably tell I had a lot of fun!
If you didn't figure out already, I've been a longtime fan of the Peanuts comics. And we didn't know Daimaru was gonna have this carnival so this was a completely happy coincidence! Or maybe it was fate.? 🤔
Anyway, we were getting hungry for dinner so we decided to head back out onto the street to find some food.
There was a whole mass of people crowding around a section of the Dotonbori canal and we were curious so we went to check it out.
Turns out there was a girl band performing on one side of the canal! I'm not sure what band it was though, but they were in typical Japanese school girl outfits:
It was pretty cool to watch a performance along the canal but it was getting crowded and we were hungry so we left soon after that.
We passed by this Kobe beef shop that looked pretty good, so we decided to go in and take a look.
They had a glass case showing the different cuts of beef you could buy raw and bring it home to cook:
But they also had a restaurant in the back where you could sit down and grill your own meat.
We didn't buy too much because it's really expensive, but we wanted to try and see if this kobe beef was different from the one that we bought back in Kobe's Chinatown.
As you can tell from the price, this beef is definitely legit. Which also means we couldn't afford to buy too much.
Our grill looked pretty pathetic with only those small pieces on such a large plate.
There was also this but I have no idea what it was.
And tbh I think it tasted alright, but I would definitely not pay that amount for meat. I mean I love meat, but there's just so many better affordable options out there that this does not seem worth it at all. So I'm glad we only bought a few pieces just to try.
I guess we ate at some cheap place after that but unfortunately I don't have any photos. I must've been really hungry that I forgot. Oh well. After that, we took a nice walk around the canal again and I managed to capture glico man with a nice reflection on the water.
Anyway, that's all for now! Tune in next week for our final day where we visit a very special place - here's a teaser!
Bonus points if you can guess where this is!
Thanks so much for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Check out my previous post in this series!
TacoCat’s Travels #91 (Japan 3.0): Stormin' up to Osaka Castle 🏯
