Osaka In A Day - Adventures In Kansai P3

Like Tokyo, Osaka is a massive city. Metropolitan Osaka, known as Keihanshin, includes Kyoto & Kobe, but even without those other cities you could easily spend a week visiting all of the different places to go in Osaka. I was able to pack in 4 major tourist spots in 1 day, Osaka Castle, Tsutenkaku Tower, Abeno Harukas Skyscraper and my favorite spot Dotonburi river district. I'll be breaking this up into three posts, this one covering Osaka Castle, the second post will cover Tsutenkaku Tower & Abeno Harukas and the last will cover Dotonburi.

I arrived at Osaka station at about 7am and decided to take a nice, long 4km walk to Osaka Castle. I took my time exploring the city a bit since I was last there 20 years ago.

One of the things I love about the cities in Japan are the rivers that run through them.

Now they are not the cleanest rivers, in fact they are pretty dirty, but they divide up the city and present urban planning problems and opportunities like boat cruises which I'll write about in the 3rd installment Dotonburi.

As I made my way through the city I came across this art exhibit on the sidewalk.

These sculptures were about 2 feet tall standing atop a 3 foot tall stone base.

I believe the sculptures represented famous Japanese men from history in business, science, medicine and politics.

Continuing on, many of the streets I crossed were one way so I could get these cool pictures of the city.

This is one of the reasons I love walking around the city. You catch these interesting little bits of character and oddities.

(No golfing in the park!)

After walking for just over an hour I arrived at Osaka Castle at 8:30am.

Even this early it was already blistering hot & humid. The castle grounds are quite large and impressive. The moat walls are gigantic and the walls & massive gates are equally impressive.

The walk from the street to the castle itself takes about 15 minutes, that's how large the complex is.

As you make your way through the baileys and courtyards you begin to realize this was a small city unto itself.

Inside the actual castle you can see a re-creation of what everything looked like in the feudal days and it was indeed a small city.

Despite it's size and fortifications the castle was taken after the war of 1614-1615 by Tokugawa Ieyasu.

The castle sits atop a hill, the third ground level starting from the street level, the second inner grounds level and finally the third castle level. The only two buildings on the third level are the castle and a large administration building from the 1920's reconstruction which now serves as several restaurants and gift shops.

Here is a walk around the castle before we go inside.

A look at the courtyard.

And a look out to the city.

Now, let's head inside.

The fee to go inside the castle is 600円 about $4.5. It's well worth the fee as you will see.

There are 8 floors with the first 7 being for exhibitions & souvenirs. The 8th floor is an observation deck. There are no public elevators so you must walk up and down the floors. An elevator is available for elderly & handicapped.

Photography of many of the exhibits are forbidden, but that's ok. There is plenty to take pictures of from the observation deck.

Looking West.

Looking South.

Abeno Harukas is the glass skyscraper center-right off in the distance.

Looking East towards Nara.

Looking North towards Kyoto.

North West towards Osaka station where I walked from.

The views are quite nice from the observation deck, but the fences surrounding it put a bit of a damper on them. Even so, I loved the castle, especially the exhibition floors showing the battles and artifacts from history.

After spending about 1hr here I started to make my way over to Dotonburi for lunch, then two other observation towers.