Day 4 - Adventure through Japan "Osaka"

Once again the day began early, somewhere around 4:30 a.m., but this time I was prepared!  With clothes and a plan laid out from the night before, both myself and Matt headed out the door by 5:30 a.m.  Figured if we were going to be awake, may as well do something with that extra time.  With the meeting time set for 7:30 a.m. at the Starbucks in front of the stationin order to go to Osaka as a group, we had two hours to spend doing whatever we wanted, with the goal of getting some real relaxation in.  The weather for the day turned out to be much of the same, though the rain was getting a bit lighter.  The temperature still hovered around 40F as it had been since our arrival.

Part I - Early morning:  The streets were so quiet at this hour, luckily things like parks (most of them) are open 24 hours in Japan.  Being one of the few things to do before 9 or even 10 a.m. rolls around, it was surprising that even the train stations were nearly empty at this early hour.  After some debate on where to go and how to get there, we decide on the Imperial Garden and try to use the subway system once again.  The morning turned out to be very pleasent and productive with the subway system finally mastered, it was much easier to do with less crowding and traffic to worry about.  We did figure it out for good this time, making two transfers and ending up at the Garden within 25 minutes or so, which was much more fair then the amount of time spent walking the days before.  During the last few minutes on the subway we started to see businessmen and school kids flood in.  Some of the kids were probably around six years old, riding alone or with a few friends.  It was so far away from the States where something like that would have been crazy and dangerous.  They were so cute though, in their uniforms and all.  One little girl excitedly waved at us as we boarded, then she proceeded to try and explain a candy she saw to her friend by "writing" with her umbrella on the subways floor.  I could actually understand most of their conversation, probably because we're still in Elementary level Japanese...  the girl kept nudging her friend, trying to get her to pay attention "mitte, mitte!"

Part II - Imperial Garden:  The park grounds were very pretty and still quiet, with only a few people, most of which were using it as a short-cut to get to school or work.  There were ducks in the pond and a few interesting shrines scattered around.  Some of the cherry blossom trees were finally in bloom, just a taste of what they would be in the coming days.  Unfortunately with the travel time, we only had about an hour here, which passed by all too soon.  After taking some good pictures, we had to head back out and on to the subway once more.

Part III - Osaka Castle:  We change plans a bit and decide to meet everyone at the "Mister Donut" inside of Kyoto Station before heading to Osaka for the day.  The industrial sized walkie-talkies came into good use for the first time here.  We were hoping to get a slight taste of breakfast from home, ordering a few donuts.  Unfortunately, the donuts had a completely different taste, they weren't too bad, but not what I felt like eating.  The trip to Osaka was not very eventful, it was pretty much a straight shot to get to the station closest to the Castle.  So once again, after leaving the station, there is a castle in sight!  This one looking much different then before.  Though I was aware Osaka Castle had been re-built and that Himeji was one of only two original castles left I was further surprised at what Osaka had in store for us.  This time it is just a short 10 minute walk, however the rain starts falling harder as we progress. 

Once on the castle "grounds" we are greeted with a much different site, moreso then expected, as it is lined with shops and places to grab food/drinks.  The first thing that came to my mind was "they turned this into a tourist trap", it reminded me of your generalized tourist spot back home,  nothing like the day before spent at Himeji (where you had to go into the city just to find something to buy regarding the castle). Once inside the "castle" we are greated with nothing more then a modern museum, even inside it was lined with over-priced shops.  We don't stay for very long, as there wasn't much interesting to see other then the view from the top (which you could take an elevator to!), which wasn't even impressive between the bad weather and in comparison to the views we had already seen from Kyoto Tower and Himeji Castle.  Most of the information and exhibits inside were only in Japanese, which was also strange for a "tourist" area.  We stop by for a quick rest in the "tourist trap" shopping area once outside, picking up a few small souvenirs and more importantly, my first real Takoyaki (which Osaka is famous for).  It was soooo delicious, nothing less then what I expected of real Takoyaki!

Part VI - Umeda Sky Building:  We abandon the idea to walk the castle grounds further and to visit "Osaka Peace" due to the overwhelming bad weather.  The rain is coming down the hardest we've seen so far and we're still exhuasted from the walk we had in Himeji.  After a few subway transfers we make it over to Umeda Sky, which was about 15 minutes from the nearest train station on foot.  Luckily a lot of the walking could be done in an underground pathway, which helped shield us from the horrible weather.  Once inside it looked a lot like a normal business building, but it was also very quiet, which was surprising.  We do eventually locate an elevator that takes us to the 40th floor (I believe), which had a few restuarants.  Though a lot were closed (only open for dinner), we do manage to locate a Chinese restuarant right before they close for that time between lunch and dinner.  I somehow don't think they were too happy to have us, but at least they had an English menu so we made do with what we had and just ate as quickly as possible.  Unfortunately our view was pretty bad due to the overwhelming rain and clouds.  Lunch was alright, I had some sort of crab fried rice, once again the prices were lower then I had thought they would be for such a place.  Once we got back out in the restuarant area we are able to locate the counter in order to purchase a ticket to the top floor.  There were two escalators that brought you close to the top floor, with a seating area in between the two.  It was a cute setup as they had little "love seats" for you to sit in and enjoy the view for however long you wish.  Another nice place to visit should you live there or want to go on a date.  After relaxing for a bit and taking a few interesting pictures, we move on to the elevator that will bring us to the top.  By this time the weather had managed to get even worse then before!  Taking the quickest stroll around (it was not covered and the winds were probably 35mph) we decide to head back down.  The most entertaining part of being up at the top was watching everyone else take their "stroll".  Brandon's was by far the funniest with him briskly walking from one area to the other, holding his camera up to snap a quick picture and moving on to the next.  We hit up the shop located a few floors down from the top to pick up a few more souvenirs and a medallion (we were starting a collection by this point) and decide to part ways.  Leaving Brandon and Jason in Osaka to go to the Aquarium and elsewhere, we decide to go back to Kyoto to catch Kinkaju-ji during their special "light-up" evening opening for the cherry blossoms (or so we thought).

Part V - Some shopping:  We decide to try and do a little shopping before going to the "light-up" event at the Temple, since it was still around 4 p.m. and that did not start until 6:30 p.m.  We decide to take the easy way out and walk around the, mainly underground, malls that were contained within Kyoto Station.  Going up and down, through and out what turned out to be 3 or 4 malls along with department stores contained within the station, we didn't find much to buy.  I did come across your "average" clothing kind of place, picking up a Dragonball shirt I thought was kinda cool and some crazy Japanese-style leggings.  Also came across a book store where I found a few manga that were on my list.  At the end of one of the malls, we did come across a pretty awesome man made "waterfall" that would display pictures and messages with falling water, which was pretty awesome.  We also passed by a "kaiten-zushi" place, putting it on our list of places to return to, we finally headed out and back to the apartment for a quick rest before heading out for the evening.

Part VI - Never happened:  So we rather forget how the rest of the night went, so I'll just summarize it up.  We apparently got bad information on when the light-up was happening.  The week-long event ended a few days beforehand.  After taking a taxi out there, pacing around a bit only to find closed things, attempting to walk to a subway station, giving up and getting a taxi back, we end up with a really horrible wasted night.  Finally back at the apartment it is nearing 10 p.m., so we call it a night.

Prices: 

• ¥640 - subway fares for morning commute.
• ¥1,000 - hot chocolate and donuts .
• ¥600 - admission, per person, to Osaka Castle.
• ¥3,000 - misc. souvenirs.
• ¥1,200 - lunch, per person.
• ¥700 - admission, per person, to the top of Umeda.
• ¥3,000 - T-shirt, leggings, two books.
• ¥5,000 - Total taxi fare, getting to Kinkaju-ji and back (it was a long ride).

 Lessons learned: 

• Learn how to ride the subway early, it will help you!
• Early mornings are most pleasant.
• Parks are the only thing open before 7 a.m., "breakfast" places open at 7 a.m., most other things not until 10 a.m.
• Just because it says "castle", do research if that's what you're expecting.
• The top of a very very tall building is not the place to be in 40F, raining weather.  It will surely add wind to the mix.
• When looking for shopping, ask someone (more on this later).
• Take a train near your destination, taxi from there if needed.
• If going to a special event, double-check your sources to be sure it is still happening first.