Going to bed the day before yesterday my plan was to get up have some breakfast and make my way to Osaka around lunchtime. At about 5am I was wide awake, I will put this down to my stay with Master Kim, and I checked my phone to see a message from David who I’d met in Shanghai saying that he was going to Osaka castle in the morning around 10am if I was in Osaka did I want to go too.
A quick check online showed that I could be in Osaka for 10am if I caught the 6:20am or 6:40am train from Tokyo main station, which was only a few stops from my Hostel so I checked myself out and jumped on the JR to Tokyo central bought a ticket for the Bullet train and was in Shin-Osaka station for around 9am. From there it took about 45mins to get my head around there local service and to get to the hostel to drop my bag of and let David know that it was good idea. Just after 10am we were exploring Osaka.
I realised it is this sort of flexibility I like in life. Being in a position and able to change and adapt plans to find the best solution for me as an individual.
As it happened we adapted again and did not make Osaka Castle until around 2pm because we explored most of Osaka on the way.
We stop in an Arcade called Maruhan the sound and visual was just mad walking in there. It truly was sensory overload.
From here we walked around and found the main shopping street called Ebisu Bashi Suji which goes on for 2 or 3km. It has lots of different shops and is worth exploring. I may try and go back one evening because apparently it has a completely different feel at night.
We then got Sushi, which I knew I would have to do at some point in Japan, and found three or four different vegetarian dishes I could eat, one was a picked Soya option which is, apparently, according to David, very Japanese and has to be tried at least once. I did try and will not be do so again.
From here we went to the main site in Osaka and saw the Castle which was pretty cool, but looks more like a palace than a castle to me.
After the castle we went to the Namba district which is extremely modern and exactly what I expected Tokyo would be like. Really modern buildings and fantastic public spaces with waterfalls and great views all mixed into a variety of techy shopping malls with a variety of fashion and design shops. I really liked this area and will definitely go back.
Then before heading back we both grabbed another Japanese delicacy called Omurice, which is an omlette filled with rice.
After this I was knackered after my early start and headed back to the hostel to check in, get settled and sleep.
