Osaka Castle and Dotonbori Street Food

It was a slow start this morning, not surprising really after last night: it was a heavy one. Unsurprisingly Intro plan a free morning after the night out. Once I had finally managed to drag myself out of bed I went down to the lobby to find Rachel about to head out to top up our pasmo cards at the local station. In need of fresh air and some cash, I join her for the walk. We head to the local seven eleven for my cash and then to the station to top up the cards. It is a nice walk and a nice chat, although I was feeling a little the worse for wear. It is interesting to learn about what it’s like to be a tour guide abroad; it seems like hard work, a lot of admin!

With all our passes topped up and me starting to feel human again, Rach and I head back to the hostel to meet up with the group to head out for today’s adventure. Some of the group have gone off on a hike but the majority of us load onto the metro and head to Osaka Castle. A famous landmark steeped in history, the castle is one of Japan's most famous and it played a major role in the unification of Japan during the sixteenth century. The group gets to the park that now surrounds the castle, it is a beautiful day with the sun shining down on all our hungover selves. The castle is five stories high and doesn’t have an elevator. Each floor has its own display like a museum with the very top being a viewing station over Osaka city. The group unanimously agrees we should go straight up to the top and work our way down. I rush up the stairs rather quickly, I am starting to feel like all the drinking and lack of exercise is getting to me and I have energy to burn, even with the hangover.

Once joined up top by the group, we work our way around the viewing station trying our best to get pictures without any other tourists in and guessing the use of many of the buildings we can see before reading about them. Once we have sufficient photos we start making our way down. I am with the Guernsey Gals for most of it, I quickly read about the history of the castle and its founder and regurgitate it back to them. Construction began in 1583 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who was a samurai and Daimyo. It was built for strategic purposes but also as a symbol of power and wealth, Toyotomi having risen from a poor peasant family, defeating many war lords to unify Japan. During his rule he wasn’t the most popular due to introducing land taxes and his invasions into the Korean Peninsula. The castle was besieged in the summer of 1615 with thousands of soldiers captured and tortured. It was rebuilt in the 1620’s after the Toyotomi clan and its loyal supporters had been defeated. However, in modern Japan Toyotomi is highly regarded as an example of one’s ability to rise from a peasant to ruler of Japan, as well as for his influences on Japans history. The castle looked pretty cool too.

Dotonburi Street

Osaka Castle

Street Food
(click on the top right hand icon)

Having eaten our all, we head back to the hostel. Yesterday Natalie very kindly did my laundry with hers saving me the trouble but the driers here can’t deal with a load as big as mine so all my clothes are still wet. So I spend the evening between throwing my clothes in the drier again and again and playing a rather intense game of UNO with Lucinda. Lucinda and I have discovered we are both rather competitive when it comes to UNO, taking it in turns to beat and thereby infuriate each other! I have to say, overall, I think she is winning, not that I will admit that to her face. Tired from last night I have a fairly early night, alcohol free, which I think my liver is thankful for, as I drift off having had another great day.

From the castle we all slowly started to make our way to the meet-up point, enjoying the last of the day’s sun. Once we had all reconvened we got back on the metro and made our way back to the busy city streets. Our destination was a food street along the Dotonbori river. This fabulous street is famous for having many many different restaurants and street cart vendors selling a wide range of delicacies. Me and a few of the others decide to take advantage of our proximity to Kobe and get some Kobe steak. Now I can’t afford a whole steak but luckily there was a local restaurant where you could order an almost tasting platter of four different cuts of Kobe steak on rice; kind of like Sushi – the meat cooked by a singing chef with a blow torch – it was amazing! Later though Sarah, Lucinda and I try a Wagyu skewer between us and we all agree it was better than the Kobe, the steak cubes melted in your mouth and tasted amazing. Later Rebecca and Natalie get octopus balls and are kind enough to let me try one. I do not like them the shredded dried fish flakes on top are entirely too much fish for me! Even though I have to chug water instantly to get the taste away, I still have a better experience than Rebecca has with her first bite. In her eagerness she scoops a ball into her mouth not realising the molten hot creamy inside needs time to cool, she instantly panics and struggles to find somewhere to spit it out, her mouth burning until she finally is able to get rid of it. It was an equally terrifying and hilarious thing to watch. As Lucinda, Sarah and I wander down the rest of the street I also try a pork and kimchi battered skewer and for dessert a sticky rice ball covered in a soy sauce glaze which is just a little too much for me and I am unable to finish all three balls.

Dotonburi Street Singing Chef
(click on the top right hand icon)

Views from the top of Osaka Castle

Molten hot octopus balls

Sticky Rice Balls with soy sauce glaze