Last Full Day: Osaka Castle, Where the Locals Go, Shopping, & Rooftops

I had every intention of hitting the gym this morning, but with nearly 10 miles of walking yesterday and a late bedtime my legs and feet were pretty sore this morning.  We made coffees, got ready, and made our way to breakfast.  It was quite the spread with 4 stations, including coffee bar and egg, Thai, and Japanese stations.  Then add the salad, fruit, pastries, yogurt, cheese, meats. I must admit after the last 3 days of non-buffet and the social norm of you finish what you get or offend the chef it was nice to portion my own food.  Again, this is a high rise hotel and definitely different clientele from our one in Tokyo.  It seemed to have a lot of tourists with children so the noise level was definitely higher.  Also this is the first place we have had paper napkins and no hashioki to rest our utensils on.  Andy says I have gotten spoiled.

After breakfast we were met by Sayuri-san, our guide we had in Kyoto.  It was so nice to see her smiling face.  We would take a minute to get going as she presented Andy with a gift.  A middle school textbook about Japan written in Japanese for him to practice his reading and also to learn from.  We also wanted very much to enjoy one of the hotels top floor bars this evening but struggled with the on-line reservation system.  It was only allowing us to book a reservation if we booked a high priced Vueve champagne experience.  Uhhh...no, so instead we talked to the front desk and we are all set.

We hopped in a taxi and were off to Osaka Castle, one of the city’s most recognizable landmarks and a complicated history. The original castle was begun in 1583 by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who envisioned an enormous fortress that would demonstrate his growing power as he worked to unify Japan. After his death, the Toyotomi family was defeated by Tokugawa forces during the Siege of Osaka in 1615, and much of the castle was destroyed as well as his son who was now a young shogun would take his own life. The Tokugawa shogunate later rebuilt it on an even grander scale. Today's castle in largly a replica after it burnt down due to a lightning strike and was rebuilt and was heavily damaged during the war and again rebuilt.

Before entering the main castle, we stopped at the small museum beside it, where we learned about archaeological excavations that uncovered portions of the stone walls and moat from Hideyoshi’s original castle buried beneath the later Tokugawa construction. It was fascinating to realize that the Osaka Castle we see today sits quite literally on layers of Japanese history.

Inside the castle, we took the elevator toward the top and had a panoramic views of Osaka and the castle grounds. From there, we slowly wound our way back down through the museum floors. Each level revealed another piece of the castle’s story, with beautiful displays of samurai armor, swords, battle scenes, historical artifacts and models. Near the top were especially fun animated displays that brought scenes from the castle’s history to life. Something that would make the museum particularly engaging for children.

One detail we found especially interesting was the castle's enormous stone walls. Different feudal lords were responsible for sections of the Tokugawa reconstruction and you can actually see their crests engraved in their sections. Some of the largest stones were transported astonishing distances, including from islands in the Seto Inland Sea, then moved and fitted together without modern machinery. Several are enormous enough that it is hard to imagine how they managed it in the 1600s.

Once we exited the grounds had gotten quite crowded due to the holiday and we intially thought we would get a coffee there, but instead jumped in a taxi and headed for Grand Green Osaka. Located right beside Osaka Station, this massive new development is transforming what was once a rail freight yard into a modern urban neighborhood built around Umekita Park, with huge lawns, gardens, water features, walking paths, restaurants amongst contemporary buildings. It was wonderful to see so many families enjoying the open green space right in the middle of one of Japan’s busiest cities.

For lunch, we headed into nearby Grand Front Osaka and up to the sixth-floor Umekita floor. Rather than everyone having to order from the same restaurant, we first found a table and noted its number. From there, we could wander among the different restaurants, each choose whatever sounded good, give them our table number when ordering, and then simply return to our seats. The food was brought directly to the table when it was ready. We were very pleased Sayuri-san over-stayed her time with us and we enjoyed glasses of wine and Andy a beer as well as some more amazing food. One dish had Andy and I laughing when it arrived and Sayuri-san had gone to the bathroom so we stared at it for a few minutes as it appeared to be alive.  It was okonomiyaki, a traditional Japanese pancake of cabbage, batter, and egg cooked in a small iron skilled and the movement was bonito, dancing from the heat.

After it was time to say goodbye and a heartfelt thank you to Sayuri-san ("Sally").  Over food is where we often learned so much about others here in Japan and that was so for this lunch.  In the end we both invited the other to visit, her to Califorina and us again to Japan, but as friends and not as guide and client. 

Now we were off on a serious mission....a knife and matcha salt.  After riding the red line back from Osaka station to Namba Station we made our way to Osaka Takashimaya, which is located at Namba station, but it has over 20 exits so we went to street level found the entrance and then back down to B1 basement food floor. OK, if you have ever been to the food court at Harrods in London, well this was the same except in Japan and I would say double the size.  I gave up quickly and asked for help and was sent half way across the store and still it would take Andy and I another 15 minutes to locate it.  Success and the last two packets as well as I was able to pay with money still left on my metro card.

Next up was our knife.  We would walk less than five minutes to Tojiro Knife Gallery along Sennichimae Doguyasuji, the city’s famous kitchenware street. Tojiro’s story began in 1953 in Tsubame, Niigata, an area renowned for metalworking, when the company manufactured agricultural equipment and blades. During the slower winter months, it began making stainless-steel fruit knives, eventually developing into the internationally known knife maker it is today.We quickly told the workers we wanted an everyday knife that was stainless steel and affordable.  They pointed us to a wall and a few that would suite our needs.  We picked one that would be less than $100, but wandered up the way to a few more stores just to double check our decision and quickly returned.

After pretty tired we wandered back to our hotel and rest a bit before going to our 6PM reservation at the hotel's 32nd floor bar called Smoke and Spin.  They have incredible views and a "Magic Hour" or Happy hour from 5-7PM, but you better make a reservation because with that view and sunset it was mostly filled with reservations.

Again, this hotel is so different from others.  Tonight we stopped to ask for a 1hr delay on our check-out and were denied.  This hotel has 500+ rooms, but we couldn't slip by 1 hour.  Oh well, we will have our bags held and grab a coffee while we wait on our car for the airport.  It's time to head home.  The trip has been amazing and yes, we have already discussed what is next.