Day 7 - Osaka 大阪

Osaka Castle was our target for the day after our breakfast of noodles and strange breads from the supermarket under the hotel (everything in Japan seems to have something under it, it's a paradise for sun-fearing vampires and red heads). Here's a few shots of the castle from below.

Once inside we learned... um. Well, I can't speak for Dave but I learned very little actually. It seems there's some kind of mystery around the castle but I couldn't figure out what it was. They're working terribly hard to work it out though. The other thing I learned was that the main tower was only rebuilt in the 1930s from a picture of the original. My first thought was that I'd been cheated but on reflection it's still pretty impressive and quite a beautiful building. Good to get the punters in too. Once through the museumy stuff you can get to the top of the tower for a nice view of Osaka-ji park and beyond.

Then it was back down to ground level for Dave to take one last pic of the tower and another of an old lady chanting something. It was doubtless very spiritual and moving but to our untrained gaijin ears it just sounded like a mad old lady singing. Perhaps it was a bit of both.

A leisurely stroll around the castle park unearthed a few more sights worthy of a picture including what looked like a PE class running around the castle and trees in the shape of plums (rather foolishly I assumed 'Plum Grove' would be a grove of plum trees, not plum-shaped trees).

And that was that. Back to the station for Dave to take too many photos of a crossing and back to the hotel for beer and sake.

Hiroshima here we come.