Hi all,
Today was HOT. I think it was the hottest day we’ve had so far, as it was sunny and 32 degrees and there was no breeze. This was ironic as Rob told me this morning was the coldest morning of the year in Melbourne, waking to a balmy -1 degrees. What a contrast!
We set off for Osaka Castle when it opened at 9am (already 31 degrees), which was a good move
as the queue was very long when we came out. The gardens surrounding
the castle were nice and very extensive. The moat was huge too!
Osaka Castle was built in 1583 by the request of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
He intended for the castle to become the centre of Japan under his
family’s rule, and for Osaka to become the capital. Interestingly, he
was born poor and worked his way up in society to eventually become a
ruler. He and his family lived in the castle until it was attacked in
the 1615 Summer War of Osaka by the Tokugawa army (who had 155,000
troops vs 55,000 Hideyoshi troops). The new inhabitants reconstructed
the castle they had destroyed. In 1959 an in depth study was done of the
castle and surrounds, and carved markings on the stones that built the
castle and moat shed more light on its history.
Today, Osaka Castle is the major tourist attraction people visit in
Osaka and it is a museum. Unfortunately for me, the lifts were all
closed for maintenance. But thankfully you ascended the eight levels one
at a time and looked at exhibitions in between. We first watched a
movie that told us about the Hideyoshi family, as well as the grounds.
The largest stone block here has a face with a surface area of of 60 square metres (we saw it
as we left) and sleds were used to carry the stone in in the 1500s which
would have been hard work as this largest stone weighed 108 tonnes.
The various exhibits showed us replicas of the gold artwork on the
outside of the castle, as well as guns from the time and folding screens
that depicted historical scenes. The folding screen of the Summer War
of 1615 was particularly interesting as it was like a story and very
detailed. It reminded me of the Bayeux Tapestry in France. The views from the top level were also nice as it was a fairly clear day today. We saw the German couple from our walking tour yesterday here too!
Afterwards, we answered a survey for some cute local kids doing an
English project. Then we enjoyed some food and a cold drink at a bakery
cafe in the gardens. If it wasn’t so hot it would’ve been nice to hire a
bike and ride around.
We got back on the train, and when we changed at Osaka Station I went to
the ticketing office and asked for a pregnancy badge for the train. A
kind lady that sat next to me this morning was due a week after me and
had one on her bag, so we thought it could be a good idea to make getting
seats easier. Its Japanese translates to “there’s a baby in my tummy”
which is cute.
When changing trains we accidentally got on the wrong train to the
museum we were visiting next, but the transport network is so extensive
here that we found our way anyway. Wouldn’t happen at home - you'd probably end up getting an Uber!
Our next stop was something quirky Mum had found online, the Cup Noodle Museum. Nissin Cup Noodles were the invention of a Taiwanese born man called Momofuku Ando, who was born in 1910 and died in 2007. Whilst queuing for ramen noodles soon after World War II, he started to think about how portable noodles could be a good way for people to gain sustenance and eat on the go. He brainstormed and tried some different methods, and in 1958 his cup noodles officially hit supermarket shelves. They went international in the 1970s and the rest is history. You've likely seen the brand at home and maybe even had some, we had. Ando lived and died in the Ikeda area of Osaka, and this is where the museum is located.
The quirky part of the museum is the ability to design your own personal set of cup noodles that are then packaged up and able to be taken home. We bought our cups from the vending machine for 500 yen ($4.50ish), then used the textas available to design our cups. Next, we queued up and the workers at the museum helped us to place the noodles in our cup, and choose our flavouring and our four ingredients (e.g. I chose the original flavour and then garlic chips, green onion, cheese and minced pork). Our cups were then packaged in plastic and sent through a machine to be shrink wrapped. You would be absolutely horrified at all the packaging on everything here, it's really disheartening and makes me wonder why we are bothering with our paper straws at home. I had pictured Japan as being progressive in this way, but every single item you buy is packaged up (usually with multiple layers) and then sticky taped. Most snacks we have bought have a lot of individual wrapping as well. All very wasteful!
Nevertheless, the activity was fun and I'm excited to share my noodles with Rob once I'm home to warm us up on a cold day at some point. We caught the train back to Osaka Station and ended up in a train station shopping centre. Mum and Dad bought some sushi at the huge food hall there (which was once again packaged up in three layers.......!) which I'm told was delicious. We had a rest for an hour or so in the air conditioned apartment and then headed out again.
We had dinner at a restaurant the walking tour guide had recommended, which was an Izakaya bar. This is kind of like a Japanese tapas bar. It was very cheap, all the dishes were less than $3 Australian. Mum and Dad had lots of different meat skewers, and I particularly enjoyed the grilled avocado and corn, and some grilled rice cakes. We finished up our day by then catching the metro down to an area called Shinsekai. It's a neighbourhood that began in 1912 and used to have a Luna Park that closed in the mid 1920s. It's famous for the Tsutenkatu Tower, which was rebuilt in 1956 after the original was destroyed by fire. The area still had a carnival vibe despite Luna Park being long gone. There were arcades, shooting galleries, and even a 60m long slide wrapping around the bottom three floors of the tower. The area became a bit slummy after WWII, but today is full of neon lights and restaurants. We enjoyed walking around but agreed we were glad to not be staying in that area, before catching the JR line back to our accommodation. Weirdly, a couple and their son from Hong Kong that sat next to us at dinner in a totally different area, then walked past us in the street in Shinsekai. All of us couldn't believe it!
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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