Japan Day 9 - Osaka Castle

 26/03/2023

Osaka Station and Osaka Castle

Sibei 命苦, wake up early to do laundry.

Gotten these laundry pods from Donki.

This was the laundry room of the hotel, they had 3 washers and 3 dryers.

A pic of the room, and me looking like a bear.

Haiz...  the weather forecast.

Put my expensive umbrella to good use.

We spend a bit of time in Hep Five Mall.

They had this red whale hanging in the air.

Inside Osaka Station, there were so many eateries but were all so crowded with queues.  Chanced upon a random ramen restaurant, no queue, quickly moved in for brunch.

Bar seats for workers.

We had a table with back rest, thank goodness.

Our order with a big tub of spring onions.

Total 3100yen.

Endless shopping.

Very tempted to buy a kimono but had to give up the fantasy cos' there's almost no occassion to wear it back home.

The purpose of this photo is to show off this hoodie dress, it slim me down like magic although I looked like a ang mo nun lolxx...

Had orange juice, so sweet, and good for my butt.

I should had moved faster instead of dily daly, I didn't know I was running out of time to Osaka Castle.

Though no intention to purchase, it was fun looking at the bento sets selling in the supermarket.

Finally moved on to Kyobashi Station around 4pm while the kids went to some game arcades.

Solo "adventure" in the rain started from this exit.

Close up of the little lanterns with Osaka Castle written.

Just follow the sign boards along the way.

What trucks were these?

The sky was grey and got darker really fast, oh well faster than my feet.

There were a few food stalls which I managed not to get distracted.

I had no idea what notice was on the board.

Cherry blossoms, mostly in white, bursting in blooms.  The ancient wall behind was endless...

My umbrella and me lolxx...

Despite of the rain, it was beautiful, almost unreal.

The above was a normal photo ppl would capture.

These were my photos.

I had to keep my umbrella, gathered my long dress kiap with my legs while squatting down, hold the phone camera as close as possible to the water paddle...  in the rain lolxx...

Then I took forever to get up, haahaahaa...

Awwwwww... sakura + ancient wall, how beautiful...

I looked to the left and looked to the right, there's no other way but the stairs in front, kill me.

While climbing, I was already thinking if I had to come down from the same stairs to get back.

As I said earlier, the sky just became dark faster than my feet, didn't even see sunset.

There was a hotel abruptly located besides Osaka Castle.

This was it, Osaka Castle.  Didn't seem to be a popular spot here, almost nobody was around, maybe due to the rain.

I walked farther to see if I could get another angle, chanced upon a lonely telephone booth.

I bought a 350yen ticket without knowing what to expect.

I thought my money went to the drain when all I saw was a stretch of lanterns.

After the 100m stretch, saw the castle again, this time it was crowded.

It's so beautiful, no matter how and any how, you get insane gorgeous photos.

When the night got darker.

No rain could dampen the beauty.

Next, I followed the crowd (blindly) to the nearest station and I couldn't remember what station this was already.

Anyway I made it back to Osaka Station.

Had dinner inside the station in a quiet restaurant.

I ate slowly, it closed as soon as I stepped out around 9pm lolxx...

Bill for this big fish set was 1250yen, very reasonable.  My kids were already back to the hotel and were "Mummy mummy why you not back?!?" lolxx...

 

After dinner slowly crawl back to hotel.

All ferry wheels in the world aimed to spin money out of tourists, so we didn't went for any.

The next day was a day trip to Kyoto, we managed to do Arashiyama Bamboo Forest （竹林）and Kiyomizudera Temple (清水寺).  Thank you for reading, hope you will be back.