SUNDAY14TH MAY - MOTHER'S DAY IN OSAKA

It's been a little cool these last few days but we are back to 27 degree weather as we head a little further south. This is the view from our Osaka hotel window on the 23^rd floor, right next to and virtually part of the station.

 

As we approached Osaka in the train yesterday afternoon, we passed an enormous statue perched on top of a hill. The photo doesn't show the scale but it was perhaps a 100 metres high. We have no idea what its significance is.

Our first activity this morning was to visit the Osaka castle. It is virtually a museum to Japanese shogun history but the building and grounds are pretty interesting. The current castle is the third on site, the first two having been destroyed and rebuilt as a result of disputes between warring factions hundreds of years ago. The current castle was built in 1951.

It has distinctive rock walls as part of its defences with very large rocks put in place centuries ago with only the assistance of very primitive technology.

The contrast between the ancient and the modern is striking.

 

From the castle, we went to the shopping area of Osaka. It didn't sound very attractive in prospect but incredible to observe with a very nice little river running through the middle of it.

 

Finally, we visited the Umeda Sky Building, an award winning building designed and built in the 1990's. It has a unique roof top structure promoted as floating garden but there is nothing horticultural up there. The viewing platform is 170 metres high, about half the height of Skytree in Tokyo but the views of Osaka are extensive as you would expect.

The Osaka Castle is clearly visible.

As was a solitary water skier on the river. It doesn't appear that much recreational boating activity takes place here.

This afternoon, we got back on the bullet train (Shinkansen) heading for Hiroshima where we are spending tonight and tomorrow night. We will be doing some sightseeing here tomorrow. No doubt it will be a sobering experience.

 

This evening, we did our usual trick of finding somewhere to have a beer and a wine, then went looking for somewhere pleasant for dinner. Once again, we found a very Japanese restaurant with a translated English menu and enjoyed pork, vegetables, salad, rice and miso soup. We are getting pretty competent with the chopsticks being the only utensils offered.