After Kyoto it was a short train ride to Osaka. We met up with Akira again here and did a bit of sightseeing. Akira had to go back the next day so the second night we were on our own again.
Osaka Castle was where the Shogun stayed when he was in Osaka. Originally this
was a castle of the Toyotomi clan and this is where a decisive battle
was fought that sealed the Tokugawa claim to the Shogunate and the end of the
Toyotomi. Again, I will direct you to
here for the historical details.
There was no photography allowed inside the castle but it was set up much more
like a museum than Nijo Castle in Kyoto. They had some of the old katanas on
display and it was amazing at how good of shape they were in, even after being
in battle and at least 400 years of time. Included among the katanas was the
one that, legend has it, was used to behead the younger Toyotomi after he
committed Seppuku. Legend also has it that it took the guy three chops to get
his head off. I guess not all samurai were adept at chopping heads off! (Unlike
ninjas, of course, who make a living by chopping heads off.) Here you see part
of the grounds of Osaka castle and one of those trees down there is where
Hideyori Toyotomi killed himself after being shamed in defeat by Ieyasu
Tokugawa.
It was too early in the year for the cherry blossoms (sakura) to be out but I
caught some plum blossoms (ume) just starting to come out.
After that we hit Dotombori in downtown Osaka. We ate the local specialty,
Takoyaki (octopus balls) which is just chunks of boiled octopus surrounded in a
batter and cooked on a special grill. I liked it as long as the batter was
cooked long enough, otherwise it was a little runny.
The rest of that night was spent drinking and talking, not much to take
pictures of. Though, at one point Akira was ordering food at random for us and
one of the things he ordered was fried gristle on a stick. How there isn't an
epidemic of coronaries in Japan I do not know.
Skip to the next night (We spent most of the next day at Akira's friend's
house) and Bill and I are on our own again and at the bar. We found a cozy
little bar called 'The Cellar' I and got the staff to pose for this picture
before they got too busy.
They reciprocated with this picture of us before we got too drunk. Then we
proceeded to get too drunk.
That night I met many people in the bar and had many conversations. I left with
some e-mail addresses in my pocket and we wondered the streets of Osaka because
we missed the train back to Tokyo. I did manage to get a nap in the luggage
locker room of the train station and then we went back to Tokyo...
[home]