Now that we got the hang of Japan subways, it was time to get lost 🙂
Lina bought some unlimited train passes that we needed to exchange in the basement of the LOUDEST store we’ve ever been in, in every sense of the word. The walls were white, the fluorescent lights were turned up to 11, every brand in the universe was on display, everything was on sale with bright RED kanji over large black kanji, and a woman seemed to be screaming something in Japanese over the loudspeaker every couple of minutes.
We asked for help three times before we found the right place and got the tickets. Department store buildings in Japan usually have an excellent selection of restaurants in a “Food Court” in the basement, but this was on the top floor at this mall. Lina was overwhelmed with the selection, including the multitude of Italian restaurants, and we decided to go with the classic Japanese omerice. It was very good and filled us up for the entire day.
We initially wanted to go to Osaka Castle, spent 30 minutes trying to find the station before finally practicing some Japanese on some poor passersby who explained that we were directly below the station. It was all for naught, because the unlimited pass didn’t work on that train line.
Lina decided that we should go to the Namba Jinja Shrine, so we hopped on the train and took a stroll through what appeared to be the richest stores in Osaka. All the fancy brands (Omega, Ferrari, Tesla, Canada Goose, etc) had their own buildings. When we started getting close to the shrine, Lina’s tourist senses started tingling because there weren’t enough white people around for what she wanted to see.
It turns out that the Namba Jinja Shrine is NOT the Namba Yasaka Jinja Shrine, so we walked back to the train and took a stroll through a much cooler area for the stereotypical Osaka photo opportunity.
Then we decided to try to go to the Osaka Castle again, but this time Google said we could actually get there with the passes we had. We walked back to the station, got on the train, got off the train when Google told us to, but couldn’t find the correct exit. So we ended up walking over a mile to the castle under a freeway in the heat. There was this cute display on the way, though.
We finally made it to the castle and it was very pretty.
We weren’t planning on going in, but there didn’t seem to be a line, so I started walking to the front. Turns out the line was hidden, but the admission fee was only $4, so we decided to stick it out. As we were waiting, people with a special pass kept bypassing the line, and then Lina said the Werstiuk in me took over and found out that the unlimited passes she bought would let us bypass the line and get a discount.
There were a LOT of steps over 7 floors of displays about the history of the castle. One floor was a lot of fun because they would project little plays onto dioramas. They didn’t allow photography until you got to the top:
Then we found out there was a direct train that would take us within a five minute walk to our apartment. We walked a short distance back to the closest station.
As we were walking to our train, we passed a stop for the train line we rode to get to the castle that would have saved us a mile of walking.
We walked 7.78 miles today according to my Garmin, so Lina decided to call it an early day. So we grabbed some snacks from 7-Eleven and Family Mart. 7-Eleven fried chicken is crispier, but the Famichici at Family Mart lives up to the hype.
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