DAY 9. Osaka

After a relatively  early morning wake up I started to explore Osaka ,, which is a designated city in the Kansai region of Japan. Today I did not join to any tour, I wanted to hang alone.

It is the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and the largest component of the Keihanshin Metropolitan Area, the second largest metropolitan area in Japan and among the largest in the world with nearly 19 million inhabitants. Situated at the mouth of the Yodo River on Osaka Bay, Osaka is Japan's second largest city by the daytime population after the Tokyo 23 wards, and serves as a major economic hub.

The situation is much worther that than in Tokyo regarding orientation, because here also nobody speaks english and al the signs are japanese! Tourists are welcome J.

My first stop was at Shinsekai. This place is Osaka’s “new world”, a district that was developed before the war and then neglected in the decades afterwards. At the district's center stands Tsutenkaku Tower, the nostalgia evoking symbol of Shinsekai. This area was quite quite in the morning.

My second brief stop was at Tenmangu shrine. It was founded in the 10th century, is one of the most important of hundreds of shrines across Japan that are devoted to the Shinto deity of scholarship, Sugawara Michizane. Osaka Tenmangu Shrine has been destroyed by fire a number of times during its history, and its current main hall (honden) and main gate date back to 1845.

After this I went to one of the nicest and one of Japan's oldest temples to Shitennoji. It is a very pieceful area. It was founded in 593 by Prince Shotoku, who supported the introduction of Buddhism into Japan. Although the temple's buildings burned down several times throughout the centuries, they were always carefully reconstructed to reflect the original 6th century design. The outer temple grounds are free to enter, but admission to the inner precinct, the Gokuraku-jodo Garden and the treasure house is paid. In the pebble covered courtyard of the inner precinct stand a five-storied pagoda that can be entered and ascended and the Main Hall (Kondo) in which Prince Shotoku is enshrined as a statue of Kannon.A short walk away, the Gokuraku-jodo Garden was designed based on descriptions of the Western Paradise of the Amida Buddha. Marvellous! I did plenty of pictures here…. OK, everywhere J

Last, but obviously not least I left the “biggest snack” to the end. This is the Osaka castle.

It is a pleasant walk from the Subway station, but these days the most pleasant walk I can imagine there. My mouth was continually open  when I saw the cherry blossoms here. Plenty of different trees, different flowers, even different colours on one tree. It was breathtaking.

The construction of Osaka Castle started in 1583 on the former site of the Ishiyama Honganji Temple, which had been destroyed by Oda Nobunaga thirteen years earlier. Toyotomi Hideyoshi intended the castle to become the center of a new, unified Japan under Toyotomi rule. It was the largest castle at the time.  

This was my last stop in Osaka, but before I went back to the station I stopped at three street food vendors in the garden to have some lunch. I choosed the most favourite local specialities, two of them based on octopus. The sweets was also delicious.
It took 3 hours by Hikari Shinkansen to get back to Tokyo.  After came the nightmare to find the hotel, it was again a new one, 6^th in Japan during my short stay, because my original Tokyo hotel was fully booked, I booked another by my 1^st Tokyo hotel. In this area all the signs are japanese, NOBODY speaks any languages, it took me an hour walking in a 50 meters circle to find the hotel. That is a fact, japanese people are very polite and helpful, BUT and there is always a but they cannot help, because on the one hand they do not understand what I want, on the other hand not able to answer only in japanese.
Finally I was so lucky to find the accomodation, where the hotel staff also was unable to communicate any foreign languages. I’m the silly, why do not I speak japanese……..