Wow, what a weekend. Our first train ride, our first time in Osaka, our first church service in Japan, our first real tourist-y experience--we had a bunch of fun. Miranda and I are getting to know each other a lot as we navigate these new environments together, and I enjoy being engaged to her more than all the sightseeing we can do.
But sightseeing we did, and it was fun. We woke up early Saturday morning, walked to the train station, bought our public transportation cards, and boarded the limited express to Temmabashi station. We wanted to take it slow, and that proved to be a good idea.
Our first stop was the easily accessed and very busy Osaka Castle. I thought a lot about the different layers of thought that went into the construction of this castle. First, there is the Japanese aesthetic, or "Wa" (see our earlier post) We saw gardens, perfectly trimmed trees, and an emphasis on peace.
Second, and we only found this out after entering the castle itself, there's the layer of castle underneath our feet. Osaka Castle was originally built by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the second of Japan's three great unifiers. Hideyoshi was the first military ruler of Japan after the warring states period, and when he died, he left his five-year-old son in charge. This proved to be a terrible idea, surprising everyone, I'm sure. Tokugawa Ieysu, a previous ally of Hideyoshi, tried to seize power away from Hideyoshi's son and war broke out again. Osaka castle was one of the last holdouts of Hideyoshi's son, and it was pretty well destroyed by Ieysu. After winning the war, Ieysu rebuilt Osaka castle, bigger and better than ever. And in a slightly different spot. It was cool to think that we were walking over not one, but really two different castle grounds, one on top of the other.
Third, there was the layer of influence from the Meiji period. We haven't yet covered this in depth in our history class, but we will soon. Suffice to say that Japan wanted to project a certain image to the world as it began opening its borders in the late 19th century (the beginning of the Meiji period). This image was powerful, beautiful, flawless, and advanced. Fittingly, the Osaka Castle was restored and has been modernized well through the years. Whereas some of the older European castles I have visited prioritized the old and weathered look, the caretakers of Osaka Castle have done a good job maintaining its majesty.
Osaka castle was amazing. We will definitely be coming back.
We spent the afternoon chatting and walking around the city, slowly making our way toward Dotonbori. Dotonbori is the most popular place in Osaka for street food and street shopping. It. Was. Massive. There were so many different food stalls, shops and vendors lining the surprisingly clean street. There were lots of little alleyways lined with hundreds more shops that split off from the main thoroughfare. There were multiple layers of shops and restaurants on some of the buildings.
We ate some candied strawberries and Takoyaki (fried octopus balls). We were exhausted, and it felt right to just do one or two things, keep it simple, and go home. I was tempted, however, and did buy some fancy Kit-Kats, and we got stuffed crepes at the train station on the way home.
The Takoyaki was good, but not the best. The octopus is just so chewy, plus it was really doughy and tasted like you were getting diabetes. Good, will definitely eat again.
Break me off a piece of THAT Kit-Kat bar!
A little aside from Miranda, I especially loved getting to see the unofficial mascot of Dotonbori, the Glico Man. The advertisement first appeared in Dotonbori in 1935 to promote Glico, the company responsible for Pocky. Dotonbori is a fantastic picture of the food and people of Osaka. Here's a quick video of what we saw. Being surrounded by swirling lights and crowds of people, seeing, hearing, smelling, and tasting Dotonbori was incredible. Back to Nick.
Well, that was just Saturday. Sunday, we had a great time visiting the Osaka International Church. We met some really cool people (Masami-san, Jelena, Barbara, Frederick, Shayron, and more). They were super nice and invited us to lunch afterwards. We went to an amazing Vietnamese place and had some wonderful conversations about life with them.
The church service was also really fun. We were a little late because we got lost trying to figure out the switch from the train to the metro (there are three Kyobashi stations in Osaka, one for the Keihan railway, one for the Japan railway, and one for the metro)! There was a good sermon that was a solid forty percent just reading scripture, and we sang some familiar songs afterwards. I knew one of them well and had heard another a few times before.
A great weekend; I'm excited for this next week!
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You both have such wonderful story-telling voices. And I like how you alternate speakers. Thanks for bringing us along for the ride.
I am very impressed with how clean the walkways and streets appear. Do you visit in off hours? Seems like very few people.
Introduce us to some of your new friends.