After almost a week of staying in traditional ryokans, we then moved on to Osaka and the ultra-modern Hilton Hotel. We got here via local train to Okayama, then shinkansen to Shin-Osaka. Alan Gibson had recommended we then catch a taxi to our digs. Having discovered that taxis struggle a bit with our luggage, we elected to just take a local train the one stop to Osaka Station. Then we discovered the real background to Alan's recommendation!
Osaka Station in the Kita or Umeda district of the city and is a huge ants' nest of underground passages going in all directions at multiple levels with insufficient helpful signage or maps (in any language). Even though our hotel was "next door" it was quite hard to find an underground route to it (although there is one, as we figured out later), and we gave up and came to the surface. Basically, Osaka Station looks like an unplanned mess which has evolved rather than designed. To give credit where it's due, a lot of work is going on around the station contributing to the problem and which will hopefully make it better when finished. There looks to be a massive reconstruction project getting going in adjacent goods yards.
Osaka Station, a huge unplanned rats nest of confusing passageways.
Amazing Sky Garden building in downtown Osaka.
View of Umeda and beyond from our hotel room.
Big ferris wheel in central Osaka.
Over our three nights in Osaka, we kept rehearsing our eventual route back to the station when we depart. We try to avoid steps wherever possible, and this is no mean feat in Osaka which is blighted by numerous half flights of stairs, some with escalators. So called "accessible ramps" do exist but are out of the way and hard to find, and are apparently an afterthought here.
Hilton Hotel is directly opposite Osaka Station.
Osaka itself is a huge city, the second largest in Japan, and the major city in the Kansai urban "triangle" of Kyoto, Nara and Osaka in the central part of the island of Honshu. We used our stay in Osaka to relax a bit and get our laundry done. Our sightseeing here was restricted to walking around Osaka Castle, the Dotombori area, and gazing at the view from the "Top of the World" bar at the Hilton over a cocktail.
It was raining quite heavily on the day of our JR and subway excursion to Dotombori (or Dotonbori, there seems to be some dispute on the anglicisation), yet this weird cafe, theatre and hotel strip running parallel to the Dotomborigawa Canal was seething with visitors wielding umbrellas. Many side lanes are covered arcades, so these were very crowded in the rainy weather - it's in one of these that we lunched at the tinyest ramen bar you can imagine where we got the last two seats, but at least did not have to wait for them.
Love Hotel in Dotombori.
Weird facade can make an ordinary hotel fascinating.
A very soggy day in Dotombori.
Great ramen lunch had in this tiny cafe in Dotombori.
Outlandish shopfronts charcterise the eccentric lane which is Dotombori.
Canal-side section of Shinsaibashi neighbourhood.
We easily made it to Osaka Castle (on a fine but overcast day) using the JR Osaka Loop Line to Osakajokoen station. This is one of Japan's most famous and popular castles, and is surrounded by huge parkland and two rings of moats. It is made very pretty by lots of gold leaf. The multi-storey castle is built atop huge stone ramparts, so it is very imposing.
JR Osaka Loop train arriving at Osakajokoen Station.
Osaka Castle has had a long and difficult history. It was constructed in the late 1500's by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a samurai and "great unifier", whose primary objective seems to have been to imitate but surpass another castle. In 1614 the castle's imposing defences protected it against an attack by 200,000 men. The present walls were built in 1620 in a reconstruction project. In 1665 the castle was burned down after a lightening strike. In 1868, the castle was severely damaged in uprisings of the Meiji Restoration, and not restored until 1928. WW2 bombing caused major damage in 1945, the site a target because of its use as an arsenal, and this damage was not fully repaired until 1997.
Some elements of a multiple time capsule buried 15m in front of the castle are not due to be opened for 5,000 years. We wonder if anyone will be here by then?
Threatening sky only serves to highlight the beauty and colours of Osaka Castle.
Gold leaf detail on Osaka Castle.
Early cherry blossoms have just bloomed.
Castle's grounds are overlooked by a modern Osaka Business Park.
This odd building next to Osaka Castle belonged to the military and then the police, but now is the province of souvenir shops and eateries.
For a small fee, you can don samurai gear and have a photo taken.
Osaka Castle seen across Hojoen Japanese Garden.
Inside the Aoya-mon gate at Osaka Castle.
We had a big pile of washing and wanted another coin laundry. Our own research on Google Maps revealed one that was straight-forward to get to in the suburb of Fukushima, about 1.5km away. We walked there, but then realised there was an easy subway option, so used that on the way home. We note that while almost everything in Japan seems to be tidy and efficient, coin laundries are the exception. All we have used so far, including Fukushima, are cramped, grubby and littered with "out of order" machines which should be removed. We saw on NHK TV a segment on the next generation of coin-laundries, bright breezy places complete with cafes - we can't wait to see one!
Tiny coin laundry in Fukushima.
The barista in U-En in Fukushima know how to make a macchiato!
Intersting decoration outside a sake bar in Fukushima.
Fukushima house has outdoor aquarium.
That said, we got everything done without fuss, and while waiting enjoyed a fascinating walk around this unpretentious suburban neighbourhood, including having good coffee at a pleasant back-packers hotel, U-En.
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