Osaka

We had a day at sea to recover, and then we docked in Osaka. The rain had stopped, but it was a HOT day, and our plan was all outside. Our first destination was Osaka Castle which is right in the middle of all the modern skyscrapers. 

It's also surrounded by a huge moat and park, so it took us 10-15 minutes walking through that and up the hill to even get to the castle.

There was a very smart business man selling 10 yen shaped waffles with chocolate in the middle along the way, so we got some to fuel the children up for the climb.

We also all got a kick out of the bird sculptures near the stand.

Even with the extra sugar, it was a long, hot walk up to the castle.

The line for tickets was also incredibly long. One of the advantages of going with a cruise tour is that our tickets were pre-purchased, but our tour guide still needed to pick them up and hand them out to us, so we tried to find shade while she was doing that.

Then, there was a line if you wanted to take the elevator to the top as opposed to going up all the stairs. The girls and I opted to wait in the line, while Jeff went in and up the stairs. He got some pictures of the dioramas on the various floors.

Then, he met us on the top when we finally got there.

You definitely get a good view of the city from the top.

We had been seriously delayed getting off the ship and through customs, so it was lunch time, and we were hungry and tired, but there was no lunch included in our tour. 

We decided to just go directly down the stairs instead of trying to wrestle with all the other people to look at the displays. We used the extra time that earned us to pick up some meat on a stick at one of the food trucks in the park around the castle. We also discovered a Japanese soda that comes in a unique bottle with a little ball in the neck that we assume is supposed to keep the carbonation from escaping. The girls enjoyed the flavor, but we never managed to master the art of popping it open without making a splash.

After our quick lunch, we hopped back on the bus and went to a Shinto shrine. Our guide explained that Shinto shrines are for happy occasions, like weddings, and Buddhist shrines are for sad occasions, like funerals. We all thought that was an interesting approach to religion. The bridge in the temple area was beautiful though.

There were a lot of trees, so we enjoyed walking around the temple complex. Our tour guide told us that the paint used originally was red, but then it faded to orange in the sun. Jeff kept insisting (to us) that there was no way the paint had originally been red. He came up with a typically elaborate story about a paint mix up, leading to everything inadvertently being painted orange and necessitating a cover story.

There was also an elaborate carriage, 

and assorted shrines.

My favorite was the cat one that people visit throughout their lives. You start by collecting the small cats.  Then, when you have a certain number of those, you trade them in for a medium cat. Collect enough of those, and you can trade them in for a bigger cat, etc. You display your cats in your business to show your dedication and investment.

After all the walking around outside, we were hot again and out of water. There was no place to refill our water bottles, and no water for sale in the drink machines, so we took a gamble on what looked to be peach soda. It turned out to be delicious and refreshing.

Needless to say, after out hot day and quick lunch, we were very happy to be back at our table in the dining room having a big dinner and enjoying the air conditioning.

If we ever go back to Osaka, we would probably spend more time checking out things like the ferris wheel near the dock and Universal Studios with Harry Potter World.