Day #14 Osaka Castle and Osaka Kaiyukan (Aquarium)

We thought Auntie might be tired of castles by now but nope! She was just as eager to see Osaka's castle. We decided at the last minute to add the Osaka Kaiyukan (aquarium) to our itinerary for a little variety to our sight seeing.

Where were we now?
Oh yes, Himeji!

We got to the Himeji Station in ample time to catch our JR shinkansen bullet train to Osaka. We even had time to wander around the train station to look around at the displays. Art saw this model of the impressive Himeji castle that we visited yesterday.

After the short train ride to Osaka we walked to our next Toyoko Inn. We checked in and asked them to hold our bags for us while we traveled around the city.

We then went back to the Osaka train station and caught the Subway. The Subway did not provide assistance for the handicapped so we were on our own.

We did OK despite the fact that we needed to make two subway train transfers and learn how to buy the tickets from machines.

Mom was able to get in free because she was considered handicapped. Auntie could get in free because she was considered an "aide" to the handicapped.

When we first saw Osaka castle I have to admit we were a little bit underwhelmed. My mother kept saying it was the skyscrapers around that made the size deceptively smaller.

Sure enough, when we got up close we could see how beautiful and impressive Osaka castle was. I'm having a hard time telling the castles apart though. The moat was really huge and incredible, too.

And you know what else they had? Unh hunh! Gorgeous cherry blossoms again! We had to appreciate them since this would probably be our last viewing of them.

Someone asked if we timed our trip to coincide with the flowers blooming. Yes, we did. We thought it would be plum blossoms but they were pretty much at their last hurrah. Instead, it is the cherry blossoms' peak time of glory.

We decided to buy some lunch and eat it under the trees like everybody. Mom wanted the yakisoba (fried noodles). I'm going to be in trouble when I get my glucose level tested next week at the hospital. Yikes!

It really was nice though. We told mom she was lucky she always has a soft seat to sit on.

Lots of people were having their lunches, too. I have to say their lunches looked a lot better than our yakisoba. Next time, I'm choosing the lunch.

OK... sorry! I couldn't help myself. I took another few shots of the cherry blossoms while Art wasn't looking.

Mom opted not to go up the Osaka castle so this time Art stayed with her while Auntie and I went up to the top of the castle and looked at all the beautiful displays.

This was the view looking down. Art and mom are there somewhere.

The foundation of the castle had these huge stones. I can't imagine how they managed to cut and carry the stones here. Maybe they had some help from some Egyptians.

Would you believe it turned warm? Mom insisted she still needed her coat but I had to remove mine. I guess she wasn't generating any heat because she was just sitting.

The soft serve wasn't as good this time and expensive. 300 yen (over $3.00)!

We saw this couple having wedding photos taken among the cherry blossoms.

I love all the different manhole covers we've seen around Japan,

When we finally had our fill of Osaka castle, we decided we had enough time to take in the Osaka Kaiyukan (Aquarium) near the coast. It was around 2:00. We had to take another couple of subway trains to get there. Here's Auntie helping Art figure out the machine.

As I said, we had to navigate through the train platforms ourselves. Luckily Art knows trains since he went to work in Chicago everyday on buses, els and subways.

We arrived at the Aquarium. It's supposed to be one of the biggest in the world.

I liked the fact that it had areas at each window for children and the handicapped.

We managed to hit the aquarium at feeding time. It was great fun to see the animals getting their meals.

Oh shoot! Was this the whale shark? It was huge!

And these anchovies and sardines were silvery and tiny. They kept going round and round. I'm surprised they don't get dizzy.

We found a place that served okonomiyaki. It's sort of a Japanese pancake filled with meat or seafood and lots of cabbage and other vegetables.

There was too much to choose from.

A cook prepared our meal for us right at our table. I was beginning to think we should have ordered a small size like Mom and Auntie.

I'm sorry to say these okonomiyaki were not as good as the ones we had in Hiroshima two years ago. However, we did eat it all up. I think I'm going to be shocked when I get on the scale at home in just a few days.

It was still rush hour when we headed back to our hotel. However, people were very polite and we didn't have much of a problem. Mom always had her soft seat, of course.

Tomorrow will be the last day of our sight seeing. We'll be leaving for Narita airport on Wednesday and will be on our way back to Hawaii. I can hardly believe how quickly this trip went by. We have been awfully lucky... so far.

Day #13 Himeji Castle

Art knew it was going to be a difficult day. Himeji Castle is due to be closed for renovation on April 15th for 5 or more years. Today was the 2nd to the last weekend to visit the castle. It was also a rare sunny day.

We had our free hearty breakfast at Toyoko Inn and walked to the Okayama Station as quickly as we could.


We caught the 8:05 train to Himeji.

We caught a taxi for a short ride to Himeji Castle passing hordes of people walking in the same direction we were going. Uh...oh!

We knew it was going to be crowded. Our taxi driver had warned us that people from all over Japan were coming to the castle.

And then we saw it!

Himeji castle is a World Cultural Heritage site and is representative of all the castles in Japan. This is one castle that was not destroyed in the war and has been preserved in its original form.

We thought we were early when we arrived at 9:30 or so, but was shocked by the line that appeared to have several thousand people waiting to buy tickets.

HOWEVER, when the staff people saw mom in her wheelchair they told us to enter another way and moved us to the front of the line. We were totally blown away. Is that kind or what?

They told us that there were a lot of steps but she could try them if she was able to walk a little. They stored her wheelchair that would not have been good on the cobbled road and loaned her a cane.

OK... I know I wasn't going to post more sakura (cherry blossom) photos but I couldn't help myself. The castle was even more striking with all the cherry blossom trees in bloom.

And that's when we saw that there was ANOTHER line to enter the castle. Once you entered this line, it was hard to get out. Mom said she would walk as much as she could.

This line seemed to go on forever, but the cherry blossoms in bloom everywhere made our walk and wait bearable.

The blossoms were truly at their peak! After those cold days at the beginning of the trip and seeing nothing but tiny cherry blossom buds at least a couple of weeks away from blooming, this was incredible!

And still the line continued.

We saw these triangle, square and circle holes in the castle fortification. The triangles were used for guns, the squares for bows and arrows. I've no idea what the circles were used for... throwing stones maybe?

When we got into the castle itself, we saw that there were a number of impossible steps. I sent auntie on with Art to see the castle interior while I waited with mom. We waited for almost 45 minutes because of the crush of people going up the castle. Poor Art and auntie said most of the time they were smashed up against people.

Here's a display of what they saw. These are samurai armors.

At the top, Art took this photo of the scene below. You can barely see the ring of cherry blossom trees.

Here we are waiting for Art and auntie to come down. This is where people had to remove their shoes to enter the castle. The original plan was for me to go up and get a quick look after they came down. After seeing that crush of people for 45 minutes, I decided to forgo it.

Mom's leg was aching a bit so we took the trip down slowly.

We kept looking back to admire the castle and blossoms. The castle's construction began in the 1300's.

Someone was dressed as a lord and people were having their photos taken with him.

When we got to the bottom, we saw that hundreds and thousands of people had come for hanami (flower gazing). It is a custom in Japan to bring your lunch and eat it under the cherry blossoms. It seemed like everybody in Japan was there.

This made me think of lunch.

It was really gorgeous!

It wasn't just me taking a thousand and one photos of cherry blossoms.

After a while seeing all those people crammed together got a bit tiring and we decided to leave a little earlier than planned.

Passing the castle moat, we realized the line stretched even farther than when we came. How would they all get in?

Good grief!
It was such a treasure of a day... SUNNY and WARM.... warm enough for us to have some sakura (cherry) soft serve ice cream. We thought of my brother and wished he was with us. He happens to LOVE soft serve.

When we got to the train station, this panda was giving out free tissue packs. They do this all over Japan as advertisement.

We are still not comfortable using the yen. We keep getting confused by the coins but it is more efficient than paper money.

Mom's knee was hurting so auntie went with us to choose a boxed dinner for her. You'd think I'd know my mother well enough to know what she'd like to have for dinner. Well, auntie knows her sister even better than me. That was a revelation!

It just amazes me to see auntie bouncing along everywhere we go. If there wasn't that tiny bit of gray in her hair you'd think she was 30 years younger than me! I suppose this all points to the benefit of exercise which auntie does every morning! Watching her has been an inspiration!

Tomorrow... Osaka castle... and probably MORE cherry blossoms. I told Art to stop me if he sees me pointing the camera at a flower. Let's see if it works!