My last day with Mom and Donna was our most
relaxing of all the ones that we spent together. It was the only day that I
didn’t have anything set in place for us to do. It was a going to be a day for
Mom and Donna to choose what they wanted to see.
We ended up spending the last day in Osaka,
shopping and then visiting the castle. It ended up being quite a warm day and
so we were able to ditch our jackets and spend the Saturday in the sun.
After our late start in the morning I took
the ladies to the famous Shinsaibashi shopping street. It was great because it
was right next to our hotel. Even though we had a late start we were still
there before all the shops opened. So we walked south down from Shinsaibashi station
to the Dotonbori Canal where we got to see the Glico Candy running man sign. After snapping a few photos we turned around
and headed back up the store-lined street. We did stop into a couple of the
stores and I was able to add a few new clothing pieces to my wardrobe.
After our shopping excursion we grabbed a
bite to eat and then returned to the hotel to decide what we were going to see
next.
After a little bit of a rest we made our
way to Osaka Castle. We started at one end of the castle park grounds. In the
heat of the day children were out and playing in the fountains, some people
were enjoying ice cream but everyone was out enjoying the sun on a lazy
Saturday.
As we were walking I noticed a crowd of
people by a fence and I was intrigued as to what they were looking at. So I
made my way over and saw what was a field filled with plum, cherry and apricot
blossoms. It was beautiful even from a distance to see the sea of pinks and
white. We decided that we would see the inside of the castle first and then
take a stroll though the grove.
The castle was quite full. When I got to
the top to look out at the city I could hardly find a spot to look out. We
didn’t spend too much time inside the castle, just took a look out at the city
and then made our way back down the stairs, stopping every once and a while to
read up a little on the castle.
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| Osaka Castle from the grove. |
From the castle we made our way back down
to the plum tree grove. Seeing cherry blossoms is nothing new for me, as we
have a cherry tree in the back yard, but seeing so many together in one place
was quite beautiful. The garden was full of people milling about or taking
photos of the pink and white blossoms and some even were sitting under the
trees enjoying a bite to eat. The whole grove was quite astonishing, though I
can imagine it to be even more beautiful when the petals begin to drop and
gusts of wind blow them up like small bursts of snow. Cherry Blossom time is a
great time to be in Japan.
We had gotten our fill of blossom and then
decided that it was a good time for dinner. Heading back on the subway we made
out way down close to the Namba area. Here we had our last dinner together in
Japan and we decided on yakiniku. Yakiniku is Japanese or Korean style bbq,
where you cook the meat and veggies yourself. We got a huge platter of meat,
enough to satisfy our hunger. The restaurant we went to was somewhere on Sennichimae-dori between Nipponbashi and
Namba subway stations. The style of the restaurant was done to reflect Japan of
the 1930s and the atmosphere and food were delicious.
When we had eaten our fill we made the walk up
from Namba to our hotel. It was a nice way to enjoy seeing Osaka at night and
in one of the busiest areas of the city.
The next day was saying our goodbyes with Mom
and Donna heading back to Toronto and me back to Niihama. Overall it was a
great mini vacation and I had a wonderful time, sharing with my Mom some of the
parts of a country that I have truly come to love.
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