Home
Back
Travel Reports by Robbu view profile of Robbu

previous post
list all posts
next post

Note: The opinions and views expressed in this user report are those of the individual author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of japan-guide.com.

November 13, 2013 - Osaka calling!

A long train ride was on the program of this day: With the shinkansen from Tokyo to Shin-Osaka, the next city of my road map.

During this train ride, you can get some pretty views of the Japanese sea side, rice fields along the track, and you'll drive by lots of towns and cities on your 500 kilometers journey through this part of Japan. Due to my curiosity, I even measured the speed of the Shinkansen, which topped 300km/h at its best! Riding a Shinkansen is really a unique experience, somehow completely different than a normal train at first, but you get used to the speed pretty quick, so it's nothing special anymore after some minutes. But it's always a great feeling to feel the acceleration after the train strats again after a stop at one of the stations among the way.

Shin-Osaka is only a Shinkansen station, and you have to change for the regular train lines, to get to Umeda station in central Osaka. From there, I took another train directly to the Osaka Castle.

Osaka Castle lies in a beautiful park, which was full of young students that day. The castle itself is quite impressive, it was built with the typical Japanese architecture and does not look like a castle we (Europeans) are used to. For a small fee you can enter the castle, which serves as a muesum of the history of Osaka. Beginning in the old times, the musuem also covers the period of the second world war and the part afterwards until now. On top, you enjoy a great overview of the city of Osaka, which probably is Japan's most important city after Tokyo.

After I finished my tour through the castle, I enjoyed the warm weather in the park, where I met a nice local man, who told me a lot about Osaka and the castle. He was quite curious what I was doing here and where I come from. Surprisingly, his English was nearly perfect and we had no problem communicating together. He even encouraged me to try eating fried octopus, which is kind of a speciality of the Osaka region. Of course I did, and I didn't regret it ;-)

I then went back to Central Osaka, where I took the subway to my hotel, which was in the Namba district, near the Dotonbori river. The streets around Dotonbori river are always crowded with people, and there are lots of shops, bars, restaurants and Pachinko casinos located. At night time, I landed in an Irish Pub, where I met a group of young Japanese men, who enjoyed thier beer after working a long day. The invited me to join the drinking, which I couldn't reject. After some heavy drinking, I headed back to my hotel, glad to know that I did not have to work the next day as the other guys....

on my way to Osaka castle

Osaka castle is surrounded by water, there are nice bridges to cross over

front view of the castle, lots of tourists and students around

the view from the top of the castle towards Osaka City

Osaka's Namba district at night

previous post
list all posts
next post

List of Posts:
2013/11/15 - Enjoying history in Kyoto
2013/11/14 - Hiking in Miyajima / Walking for peace in Hiroshima
2013/11/13 - Osaka calling!
2013/11/12 - Tour to Mount Fuji and beyond
2013/11/11 - A rainy day in beautiful Nikko
2013/11/10 - A sunny Sunday in Tokyo (Yoyogi, Harajuku, Odaiba)
2013/11/09 - Saturday walking through Tokyo / Shibuya Nightlife
2013/11/08 - My first day in Japan!
2013/11/07 - Set foot in Japan after a 28-hours journey